laser-lovers@uw-beaver (07/31/85)
From: Robert McKay <RIM@SU-AI.arpa>
The recent correspondence jolted my good intentions to send the mail list
info on our enquiries into the Tegra machine. We first learnt of it from
the Seybold Report on Publishing Systems, and were interested enough to send
off for some samples. When they arrived, they were compared with typesetter
output, and we were pretty impressed, but with reservations:
1) the output is much greyer than a phototypesetter
2) deletions are a bit of ap problem
3) the low vertical resolution is visible if you look closely
4) we had some reservations about the fonts
(for comparison with a rather commoner machine, the greyness and deletions
were roughly comparable with what we get out of our LBP-10, which is better
than usual because it's in a controlled environment and only touched by
trained operators).
Well this was interesting, but the main purpose of typesetter output is
to serve as ap printing master, not to be admired for itself. So we availerd
ourselves of help from the group who typeset the various Australian scientific
jounrals, with whom we have good connections. We got an offset master made
and printed off some samples. First some provisos: the guy who made the
master is a true craftsman, and invested considerable effort to get a clean
plate from the somewhat grey original. The paper and ink used were those
mnormally used for the journals - i.e. a highly glossy paper and stiff ink
to hold high resolution halftones - guaranteed to pick out any faults in the
oritinal.
The result? Well the original deletions were swamped by those introduced
by the offset process - and looking through other work since, this seems to
be true of all but the very best bookwork nowadays. Since the Tegra printer
isn't aimesd at the highest quality market, deletions probably aren't a problem.
Similarly, the barely visible jaggies had pretty well completely disappeared
in the printed samples. The worst problem was with the fonts, which had
started to break up in the fine strokes. This may have been partly the result
of the printing process, which would have accentuated the tendency, and partly
the result of the photographic processing required ot get a sharp image from
the greyish originals, but the consensus of our experts was that the main
problem lay with the fonts. Given an offset shop to set up to produce only
from the Tegra originals, it was felt that it would probably be possible to
tune the photographic/printing processing to produce acceptable copies; but
most people will have to miex Tegra output with phototypeset output, and in
that case, slightlyu fatter fonts to compensate for the greyness are needed
Bob McKay
Disclaimer - I don't have any financial connections with anyone involved in
the industry: by now that's getting to be a minority position on this list!
Caveat: the font samples we got are pretty old by now; Tegra may well have
done a fair amount of tuning since then/.