TrapperJohn
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A lot of that comes down to the number of base colors and size of the halftone matrix.
If one assumes a 16x16 matrix (pretty typical for 4 color halftoning) to make up one pel (printable element), then 1200dipi actually becomes around 80ppi. With six color, what most of the high end printers use, the matrix can shrink to around 10x10, up to 120ppi.
Factor in the media used to print - ink reflects color far better than fused toner, which is why color lasers tend to be a bit lame - toner can't be controlled as precisely, and it doesn't reflect light as precisely as ink. Plus the color of the base media that the ink is deposited on.
If you move to a continuous tone printing method, like dye sublimation, then there is no matrix. Color is achieved by blending dyes on a single dot, rather than blending individual dots of a fixed color. Typical dye sub is around 250ppi, but then one has to factor in how to blend the dyes to get the correct color, very much like a color film print. Howeve,r dye sub tends to be very expensive as it wastes a lot of media, and as of today, only one factory actually produces dye sub media. Xerox recently brought out a wax color printing method that uses blocks of color wax, a more efficient approach.
Looming over all of this is the rise of the electronic display, which emits light rather than reflecting ambient light as all prints do. It's why slides always looked better than prints. Resolution can be laughably low, because color control is so much more precise when the device can originate the light, rather than reflect ambient light. Today, photographs are typically displayed on an electronic device: usually web display, and lately large high def televisions, and the increasingly inexpensive electronic photo frames. The future is definitely headed away from traditional reflective display of photos.
It's ironic that, as technology allows for much greater pixel density on the sensor, display technology is obsoleting the need for those extra pixels, by making emissive displays more affordable.
If one assumes a 16x16 matrix (pretty typical for 4 color halftoning) to make up one pel (printable element), then 1200dipi actually becomes around 80ppi. With six color, what most of the high end printers use, the matrix can shrink to around 10x10, up to 120ppi.
Factor in the media used to print - ink reflects color far better than fused toner, which is why color lasers tend to be a bit lame - toner can't be controlled as precisely, and it doesn't reflect light as precisely as ink. Plus the color of the base media that the ink is deposited on.
If you move to a continuous tone printing method, like dye sublimation, then there is no matrix. Color is achieved by blending dyes on a single dot, rather than blending individual dots of a fixed color. Typical dye sub is around 250ppi, but then one has to factor in how to blend the dyes to get the correct color, very much like a color film print. Howeve,r dye sub tends to be very expensive as it wastes a lot of media, and as of today, only one factory actually produces dye sub media. Xerox recently brought out a wax color printing method that uses blocks of color wax, a more efficient approach.
Looming over all of this is the rise of the electronic display, which emits light rather than reflecting ambient light as all prints do. It's why slides always looked better than prints. Resolution can be laughably low, because color control is so much more precise when the device can originate the light, rather than reflect ambient light. Today, photographs are typically displayed on an electronic device: usually web display, and lately large high def televisions, and the increasingly inexpensive electronic photo frames. The future is definitely headed away from traditional reflective display of photos.
It's ironic that, as technology allows for much greater pixel density on the sensor, display technology is obsoleting the need for those extra pixels, by making emissive displays more affordable.
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