Kodak pictorial media are designed to produce photo-quality images in specific
Kodak and OEM printers.
Technologies used include silver halide, thermal dye transfer, and inkjet
materials (see below). Each imaging method offers unique benefits to the
customer in terms of appearance, durability, color reproduction, resolution,
cost, productivity, digital enhancements, and workflow.
At Kodak R&D, discoveries in one imaging technology often transfer to the
other technologies. This yields deeper scientific and technical solutions - as
well as more opportunities for R&D career development.
Silver Halide Color Paper
Kodak is exploring new silver
halide imaging frontiers within the domains of solid-state and organic
chemistry. We also are developing new digital-writing capabilities for
silver-halide crystals — and we have demonstrated writing speeds of up to
10,000 prints per hour on digital wholesale printers. In addition, Kodak's
superior image science is being used to render high-quality digital images on
silver halide media.
The two principal elements of color paper are:
- Light-receptive silver-halide crystals
- Image-dye-forming organic compounds.
Light (which exposes the media) is captured in the very sensitive crystal as
a latent image. Then, exposed crystals catalyze the oxidation of developers -
which in turn couple with dye precursors to form the image dyes.
Kodak also is developing novel support media, which impart new optical
viewing characteristics as well as new levels of pictorial durability.
Our new Duralife
Color Paper will remain stable for 200 years in albums, and for up to 125
years in home display situations. It also resists tearing and curling.
Resistive-Head Thermal Imaging
This technology may not be a household word, but it is widely used by
consumers in the US and Japan - often in theme parks, mall photography, or
kiosks (where its rapid-dry process is well suited for distributed use).
Increasingly, this technology is also used as output media for digital cameras.
Thermal printing yields high-quality images. Maximum print density can exceed
what is typically available in a chemically processed photographic paper (and
since there is no chemical process, there is no chemical stain to contribute to
minimum density). This offers a greater dynamic range of density than
conventional silver halide photography.
Here's how it works: Kodak thermal printers construct an image by
printing sequential patches of yellow, magenta, and cyan dyes in registration on
a thermal receiver (a special paper like a photographic print, or a
transparency). Often a clear protective laminate is applied to the receiver in
the printer to protect the image from fingerprints, plasticizers in photo
albums, and liquid spills. This laminate greatly improves the durability of
thermal prints.
A thin plastic ribbon is coated with patches of cyan, magenta, and yellow
dyes dissolved in polymers. Then, in a printer, a computer-controlled thermal
head applies heat to the back of the ribbon. Individual areas of the ribbon are
heated by a high-resolution printhead, in proportion to how much dye is required
in the photographic image. Dyes are transferred by the process of hot diffusion
from the ribbon to the thermal receiver.
This process is entirely digital, so image information can be enhanced
by sophisticated algorithms. This allows correction of image flaws such as
"red eye," and it makes manipulation such as size correction, zooming
and cropping, adding text or borders easily. It also can restore faded prints by
making a color-corrected copy of the original image.
Inkjet Imaging
Inkjet printhead technology has advanced tremendously since the 1980s. Today,
both thermal and piezoelectric inkjet printheads can create remarkably small ink
drops (< 10 pL) that can be placed with extreme accuracy. This allows color
inkjet printers to create high-quality images.
Understanding and manipulating the complex array of interactions among ink
components, colorants, printhead materials and firing methods, and media is a
challenging and rewarding technical opportunity.
Kodak is particularly active in creating photo-quality media for both home
and large-format printers. Our expertise in polymer science and coating
technology has yielded products that dry rapidly, look and feel like a
photograph, and have good durability.
We're also using new dye chemistry to produce inks that push the edges
of color reproduction and brilliance while setting new standards for
fade-resistance.
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