Advances in Technology of KODAK NEXPRESS Digital Production Color Presses

The stochastic screen has traditionally been used to preserve images with fine features as well as to reduce printing Moiré of images that contain input periodic structures. However, the stochastic screen also has experienced more difficulty in maintaining color stability in long press runs. Kodak, using its multilevel printing architecture, has created a new stochastic screening technology, with long-run color stability comparable to that of traditional screens. The new screening process has a unique AM and FM structure consisting of variable dot size, dot shape, dot density, and dot positions. The structure simulates the receptive field structure of the human retina to achieve the desired image smoothness. Kodak's high information capacity, multilevel printing technology in conjunction with nonlinear LED exposure, can further be expanded to production printing with even finer contone-screen printing. This paper will discuss the advances of these technologies.