The staccato printing process offers more accuracy than traditional printing while increasing color vibrancy and allowing for extremely high definition in large print projects.
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]taccato is a Kodak brand software that uses FM screening technology. Staccato (FM) printing produces high resolution, high definition prints by refining the traditional AM screen printing process. AM screen-printing uses small dots of color to create an image your eye can translate into variations of color and shape.
The AM screen, uses variation in dot size to create lighter or darker colors—the larger the dot, the darker the color. This presents resolution problems when a picture is blown up for larger prints. Space around the smaller dots becomes visible, creating a pixelated, pointillism effect.
Staccato printing smooths out the picture and lets your customers view your campaign without being distracted by low quality pictures. High definition draws the eye and soothes it by offering a complete picture that your brain does not have to work to interpret.
High definition also suggests luxury and trustworthiness, which you always want associated with your brand. The more complete and expensive your advertisement or branding suite looks, the more likely people are to pay attention.
How the Staccato Printing Process Works
FM Staccato printing uses a stochastic screen. The stochastic screen uses randomized micro-dots to create color. Darker colors have a higher concentration of micro-dots, tightly packed together, to eliminate whitespace. Lighter colors have more loosely clustered microdots, allowing more space to be perceived, which our eyes interpret as lighter saturation.
Because the dots are so much smaller, and the pattern of spaces is randomized—as opposed to the regular, orderly layout of AM screening—the picture prints in much finer detail. Staccato prints retain this quality of detail even when blown up several times larger. Because the dots are randomly distributed—distracting the eye from imperfection—staccato printing creates a photo-realistic quality.
The creative options are limitless when there are no size limitations on quality. You can create print advertising campaigns that look so glossy and real that people cannot help but reach out and try to touch them! The more real a face looks, the longer a reader’s eye will linger on it, and those extra seconds can turn a browser into a conversion.
The Benefits of Staccato Printing
Better Registration
In traditional printing, ink is laid down in a fixed pattern called a rosette. Press registration is what keeps the rosette correctly shaped and positioned. A very small level of misregistration can lower the quality of your entire print. In other words, good registration quality equals good image quality.
Since the dots used in staccato printing are randomized, there is no pattern—or rosette—that can be interrupted. This means that minor flaws are far less noticeable and have less impact on your print.
High Definition Printing
The larger saturation of dots used during the staccato printing process creates a more stable image, with less blurring, fewer jumps in color tone, and fewer limitations of gray levels.
Staccato printing also results in super-fine dots with less area between them to reflect light. Less light filtered through the ink means you have a much larger color gamut to choose from in every tonal range because the eye sees less competition between the color and the background.
Cost Efficiency
The staccato printing process uses fewer copies to test the register and, therefore, increases efficiency while reducing waste. Efficiency, in turn, creates savings that can then be passed onto you—the customer.
Staccato printing is the best option available for projects that require high definition printing. Posters featuring people’s faces, luxury advertising, and graphic design portfolios are just a few examples of projects that would benefit from the staccato printing process.
For your projects that require high definition printing in Arkansas, contact Arkansas Graphics, Inc. at 501-263-2649 to speak with one of our account managers about the FM staccato printing process.
[cta url=”/free-digital-printing-download/” img=”/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/digital-printing-500CTA.png” alt=”free digital printing information”]
Secure File Upload