Kodak Media for the Printing Industry

Kodak designs and manufactures a wide range of media for the Printing Industry. This diverse and widely distributed industry is generally ranked as being about fourth in worldwide GDP. It makes books, newspapers, advertising literature, catalogues, packaging (includes toothpaste tubes, drinks cans), wallpaper, fabrics, bank notes - the list is endless. Such a diverse industry requires a variety of media, which are used in the process of creating the final text and images. The industry was one of the first to exploit the potential of digital technology; the first digital scanners were in use in 1970. And it has evolved with the availability of successive generations of technology. Most of the media we sell, and all the media we work on in R&D enable the industry's digital workflow.

We conduct R&D on silver halide based films, which are laser raster imaged. From the imaged film multiple printing plates can be produced. Past R&D successes include the Kodak Recording 2000 family; the first so called "hard-dot" films in the industry. Also DryView Recording Film; the first dry thermally processable recording film for the industry. The design of these products is led respectively from our Harrow, England and Oakdale, Minnesota laboratories.

The adoption of digital technology in the industry has resulted in the requirement for digital color proofing. This enables the user to predict how images will look when they are printed on-press before the substantial investment in getting the images on the press has been made. The Kodak Approval color proofing system provides a means of creating high-quality halftone images, which simulate press performance. This was the first and is now the most established digital halftone proofing system. We manufacture and design a range of dye and pigment coated films from which these images are created by laser thermal transfer. The R&D for this system is conducted in Rochester,NY.