Customer Reviews

Mastering Digital Printing (Miscellaneous)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anyone who has ventured seriously into creating digital art sooner or later stumbles into the uncharted sea of printing. Once an artist has finally created his or her masterpiece on the computer, they must contend with a vast array of new printing technologies, image management software (sometimes called RIP), and different ink types and substrates to produce their final print. Until now that process has remained a complete mystery to all but a few. But at last Harald Johnson has come forward with his new book Mastering Digital Printing to explain the process from the basics to the complex.
Perhaps what I like most about the book is that is not just a technical manual, but really goes a long way into addressing head on some of the issues that are raging in the art world today regarding digital artwork. Things like what the difference is between a digital reproduction and digital original, and what a Giclee print is. These topics really shed some light onto some controversial and often overlooked issues.
On the technical side he does a very deft job of delicately explaining complex terms such as printer resolution, dpi, and lpi so that even a beginner can start to get an adequate grasp of the subject. This is a book aimed at artists, not propeller heads. And while his coverage of the different printing technologies may be a bit more information than most artists want, it is never the less important when one is considering [purchasing]a print based on those technologies. He also does an outstanding job of explaining scanning and what artists really need to know about sending out work to be scanned, or scanning it themselves.
Finally he addresses two important issues for the professional artist, permanence and substrates. While some of this does go into the deep end, it provides necessary and often overlooked information that seems to be cropping up more and more at art shows and galleries.
All in all, this book is a compendium of information for serious digital artists. If all you want to do is produce snap-shots from your inkjet printer, this book is probably not for you. But if you are a professional or serious amateur artist wants to obtain the highest quality translation from the virtual representation of their art work to the physical one, this book is a must.

A Virtual Milestone
Harald Johnson's new book, Mastering Digital Printing: The Photographer's and Artist's Guide to High-Quality Digital Output (Muska & Lipman, December 2002) seems to me something of a milestone, not only for its prodigious content, but for its very concept. For Johnson has not only written the Bible of digital printing for fine-art printmakers and photographers, but he has also solved the abiding problem of people who write books on technical subjects: currency. Technology changes fast and books on technological subjects go stale just as rapidly. So Johnson has provided his readers/practitioners with the added support of both a website (http://www.dpandi.com) and a lively online discussion group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital-fineart) which he created a couple of years ago and conscientiously moderates.

Into the Fourth Dimension
These online resources constantly lever the power and actuality of the book, providing instant access to current information on the ever-changing state of the art. More than a simple book, what Johnson has created is a "metabook" which extends its domain into the fourth dimension: time. This is a prodigious achievement for one man working on his own, one for which Johnson-the Prometheus of digital printing-is to be admired and congratulated.

Have I made the book sound stuffy? Far from it! Mastering Digital Printing is written in a personal conversational style which is more like a chat with a friendly expert than a technical manual. It is wide ranging both in breadth and depth, of interest both to beginners and experts. Perhaps the most exciting thing about this new DP compendium is the guidance it offers photographers and fine-art printmakers-and there are legions of them-who are fascinated by the possibilities of digital imaging and printing but until now have not known how to get started. Johnson's book now provides them with a clear roadmap, and is destined to make many converts to digital.

My reaction after a first look at Mastering Digital Printing was, "This would make a fantastic textbook on the subject," and less than a week later I see on the Digital-Fineart discussion group that someone is already offering courses based on Johnson's book. They are the first, but they will not be the last!

In the Beginning
The book opens with a brief summary of DP's fascinating history, which extends back to the digital printing paleolithic: the year 1989. Johnson says: "... things didn't really take off until the paths of six people-a rock star and his best friend, an art publicist, a sales rep, a computer wizard and a silkscreen printer-unexpectedly intersected..." From these humble rock `n roll beginnings a little over a decade ago digital printing has already brought about a worldwide revolution in image making, and Harald Johnson very cogently explains how and why.

The Who, What, Where, When, Why
People who like to know the underlying reasons for things will love Mastering Digital Printing. Each of its eleven chapters starts out with a brief theoretical discussion of the matter at hand, then moves into specifics, in a nice marriage of theory and practice. If you get in over your head-the chapter on "Understanding and Managing Color" left me dazed and reeling-you will be pleased to find that the second part of most of the chapters contains eminently practical how-to information, complete with product comparisons and insider procedural recommendations. These how-to details cover the complete DP process, from the choice of appropriate digital technologies for the job at hand, equipment and materials, to image creation and actual printing, whether you do it yourself or send it out to a professional print service. There are also illuminating side trips into color management, the choice of inkjet printers and print permanence. On this subject Johnson has come up with a delightful non-scientific yardstick, the Granny Standard: Will your digital print conserve its quality long enough for your grandchildren to see it properly?

Digital Ninjas?
Some of the books technical details sound like cult reading. According to Johnson the colors which you perceive on your computer monitor are influenced by the light reflected by your clothing. So, if you're doing critical color work, it is best not to wear a red or yellow shirt, which will inevitably skew your color perception. In fact, for real purists, the best indumentary is all-black. One imagines armies of black suited and hooded digital Ninjas sitting in darkened rooms in front of finely-calibrated monitors all over the world. Frightening concept!

The Frosting on the Cake
Midst the at times intense technical talk, Johnson does not forget to show his readers the proof of the pudding, a section which he calls the "Gallery Showcase" which includes digital prints by and brief commentaries on the work of eighteen leading contemporary American digital artists and photographers, a collection of work which fairly represents most of the DP techniques and tendencies current today. All that remains to complement this formidable text/reference/do-it-yourself metabook is a rich appendix listing all available resources, including URL's and e-mail addresses, and there it is.

This handsome volume badly disappointed me. I think the proper rating for the book is about one and a half stars, but I gave it two out of generosity.

If you don't have a printer and are looking to buy one, it gives a pretty good round-up of the choices, technologies, and papers. The problem with this kind of thing, of course, is that it is necessarily dated--so it can't really serve as a buyer's guide.

If you already have a printer--I have an Epson 4800--and a source of digital images, you won't find much information here about how to make great prints. The only section on the actual print making process shows the dialogs for one printer, probably the author's. Totally unhelpful unless you have that printer (and you've probably already figured out how those dialogs work if you have that printer).

The section on RIP software is way overview, and doesn't provide any decent guidance on how to proceed with it.

I'm not given to writing negative reviews, and I don't often return books (as I am with this one), but in the face of all the positive feedback for this book I feel compelled to provide my opinion. As I said, if you are looking to buy a printer, this might help you understand the basic technology issues (although the models have changed since the book was written). Otherwise, the only use I see for it is as a "gee whiz" coffee table book for would-be digital printers rather than a serious reference manual.

I've scanned through most of the past Amazon reviews of this book and I find it surprising at how different my opinion is. I have in fact read the whole book cover to cover and I own a $1000 digital camera and a $200 inkjet printer and I have as a hobbyist done a tremedous amount of printing using this type of middle class printing. So I thought a book on the subject would help fill in some holes in my knowledge. In a nutshell my problem with this book is that it is without a doubt not meant for someone like me using this "middle class" tools. I found the book incredibly elitist, the only thing I really learned was I must buy more & better equipment to be a real artist - what I have isn't good enough apparently. For example apparently you need at least 8 megapixels to print an 8x10? My other main issue is that after having read the entire book, when I go to print an image nothing has changed at all - I still do everything exactly the same simply because none of the information in the book applied to me unless I buy thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands dollars worth of additional gear - and in general there was no info on how to use this gear specifically either - just you should have it. I've read an enormous amount of technical books over the years and on average most are great in that they strive to empower the reader with the skills and knowledge to achieve better things - but this book seems to achieve the reverse - unempowering the reader with lists and graphs and photos of things you can't ever possibly obtain. It's quite unique.

So honestly if you're a regular human being who has a camera and printer then this book is really not intended for you. The book's title and back cover do indicate otherwise, there's a photo of a consumer digital camera and nice write up that sounds like it'll apply to you in the same way a fortune cookie is vague. The experience level is also listed at beginner to expert in an attempt to net as many potential buyers as possible.

Who would this book be good for? Perhaps if you are working or beginning to work in a professional print shop that has many professional fine artist clients - this would be a good buy. Or if you're rich and can buy anything you feel like, this would serve as a good catalog. The other advantage if you're rich is you get to be a "real" artist. There were a few parts I did like, one section of 5 pages had a really good overview of the steps to take in color managing your system - if you have the gear of couse, but nonetheless it was useful to know. Unfortunately many chapters just feel entirely useless, the author seems obessed with print permanence which is how long prints will last, he goes on and on about it, always avoiding specifics and generalizing and stressing the importance of performing your own permanence tests and although it is useful on one level it could of been 4 pages not 35. At one point he suggests if you don't have time to perform your own tests you can contract out your permanence testing - does this sound like you? If so I recommend this book to you.

With a title including the word "mastering" I expected a little more than a basic overview of the subject. The first part of the book is a history lesson talking about Graham Nash being the first one to do high-end digital printing for the art world. It includes numerous plugs for Nash's Nash Editions printing company as well as other related companies. The second park talks about the various equipment available for digital printing, both high end, and at home. Again, a great history lesson (most equipment is outdated already) but you can learn more by window-shopping at a local electronics store. With a title like Mastering Digital Printing, I expected more info on color calibration, setting up images for output, etc., and less of a history lesson. If they re-titled the book to actually reflect the contents, and cut the price in half, this would be a great book at an acceptable price.

This book is getting mighty long in the tooth. It addresses inkjet printers from long before they became so good and useful. The approach to CMS, or color management systems, is superficial, and does not even address tools available when the book was written. It completely skips color spaces and the understanding of light and color.
However, it does give a broad beginning approach to understanding color printing. If you are just beginning to learn, this book is a good introduction covering many of the topics you will need an introduction to. Once past the introductory phase of learning, this book is of little value, being to basic in its handling of subjects to really be useful.

I wish I had owned a book like this when I started doing digital drawings ten years ago, but the next best thing is to have it now. It is a engaged and loving explication of the many aspects of digital printmaking, starting with the basic building blocks of a digital image, the bits, bytes, and pixels, and finishing up with curating and shipping the final prints out the door.

Along the way it explains the different digital printing methods (with great diagrams to illustrate how things like inkjets actually work), the pieces of hardware you'll need, how to capture and handle your source material (including scanning, digital cameras, digital drawing programs, and image editing), color space and the pros and cons of calibration, permanence, how to do your own printing from machines to inks and papers, and how to deal with an outside printing service if you decide not to print your work yourself. Especially if you're in the latter category, this book is an invaluable guide to an understanding of what's going on technically that will help you to make aesthetic decisions that translate onto paper more successfully and to better communicate with your print atelier. Lastly, the very useful appendices are a gold-mine in-and-of themselves - print service providers all over the USA, suppliers, online groups and sites, books, galleries, print exchanges and more.

From the introduction on, the sense of excitement about the blossoming digital revolution is contagious. Fine art printmaking has not had a major new medium since silkscreen, and Harald Johnson does an excellent job of fitting digital prints into the history of printmaking in general. The book finishes up with a gallery showcase that gives an inspiring overview of the kinds of imagery that are being made digitally these days - ranging stylistically from realism to abstraction to manipulated photographs and from methods that rival traditional media to creations that could only be computer art.

Everything's here. Whether you want to produce your own prints from real or virtual artworks and photos, or are wondering how to find and enable someone else to produce your prints for you, "Mastering Digital Printing" is THE book to buy to clarify all issues and help get you started.

And if you're already involved in digital printmaking, this is the book to keep close at hand for its bits, pages, and chapters of information that will help you enhance your images, tweak your workflow, make choices about tools and consumables, and add historical interest to conversations with your patrons.

How-To Heaven. From digital input of your images to signing, framing, and displaying your prints and shipping to buyers or exhibitions, the help is all here. Copious, user-friendly instructions with clear illustrations walk you through each step of the way...and further: "Mastering Digital Printing" points you to author Harald Johnson's digital-fineart discussion group at yahoo.com and his website at dpandi.com where digital resources continue to evolve as the new technology evolves. One fine book!

After struggling with digital prints, I bought and read this book, based primarily on recommendations here on Amazon. It's terrific! I actually took half a day off from work to finish reading the book. (Only fair, I had blown all my lunch hour already.)

Some reviewers have commented on the Epson emphasis of this book; well, they are right. Epson rules the art printing market, and justifiably so. Attention to print quality, advanced technology and archival permanence have earned Epson the attention. However, no other manufacturers are omitted. The vast bulk of material applies to all printers; if anything the two or three Epson charts only demostrate the diversity of possible technologies.

As it turns out I abandoned HP several years ago for Epson after some poor support form HP and some correspondingly great reviews of Epson printers. I have a C82, pigment based, printer that I purchased for the kid's homework, and produces wonderful photographic prints. This book has really helped me get the most out of this printer.

And... I now know which printer will be my next photoprinter. As the price of this book is less than 5% of the cost of this printer, and contributed enormously to making an informed decision, it was well worth it!

The author's web site also has a PDF of Chapter 9, if you want a taste of the book: http://www.dpandi.com.

My wife and I have just signed a contract to display our photography in a new gallery in Taos, New Mexico, that specializes in photography. I have been reading, Mastering Digital Photography, Second Edition, for a few weeks now, and have learned a great deal about printing. In some cases, it has reinforced what we were doing, and in others, the information has changed the way we do business with our printing. The net result is that this book has given us some of the knowledge we needed to present our work in a truly professional way, and has probably contributed to the success of our bid for our place in this gallery.

-- -- Don & Bonnie Fink, outdoor and wildlife photographers, Cichon Fine Art Gallery, Taos, NM, April 2005