Nanography. Bigger (better?) than you think.

[samueljohnchia]

From the man that brought you the Indigo press, Ben Landa and his team put together quite a theatrical performance to introduce what he touted as the 'future' of digital printing in Drupa 2012. The Landa Nano printers. Many comparisons to inkjet printing was made, with astonishing graphic animations.

What are your thoughts on this new process, and is it feasible for it to be ported over to the relatively small printers that we use for making fine art prints?

I think that the ability for the ink to bond at a particle level to the surface and texture of any substrate will allow for outstanding visual quality. The incredible fidelity of the dot formation with clean edges is another winner. It is possible that the appearance of an inked surface will be purer because of reduced light dispersion from larger and more irregular color pigment particles. Lots of 'clean' and 'green' speak were mentioned as well. Shipping dehydrated ink would save on shipping, and the consumer will be able to control and provide his own water supply, whist the printer hydrates the ink automatically. The ink cartridges would be as recyclable as plastic soda bottles.

A potential shortcoming I note is that the special 'transfer' blanket that requires heating, which consumes energy and necessitates a warm up period, especially so for low volume users. The current crop of inkjet printers in the fine art category do not require this. Landa also mentions that there are several quality issues to fix before the printers hit the market at the end of 2013. An interesting thought is that 3 other printing companies (including Heidelberg) are backing this new technology, with potentially almost every other major manufacturer of commercial printers to follow.

See the entire presentation by Landa here on youtube.

[Ken Doo]

The comments about "Tony Stark" were right on mark for this "presentation."  I could have done without the theatrics, but it is impressive to see the introduction of new printing technologies.

[Varka]

All I saw throughout that presentation was $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Very impressive, but something tells me that price is most certainly NOT going to be a significant factor for most of the people who buy into that equipment.

I doubt that this will see much scale-down into consumer grade hardware any time soon; it's very cool, but only in the way a 4 million dollar printing press can be - and that is, to the person who is writing the cheque.

None of the truly interesting innovations - onsite rehydration of ink, collapsible, disposable bottles, or the wireless magnification loupe - will make it into smaller products mainly due to the potential for the customer to stuff it up - and due to the economies of scale very few people will be willing to buy into producing a product like that which will more than likely be used by (compared to pro printing presses) the untrained 'joe public'.

The actual nanography inks, though - they might make the leap - but only if the company licenses the patents far more widely than I expect them to and far faster at that.

Just my $0.02.

[samueljohnchia]

I do not feel that onsite re-hydration of the ink and collapsible ink bottles are that important to fine art printers like me. I could do without that. But I would love to have a more precise and contained, and also a smaller ink dot on paper. The visual comparisons between inkjet and the new nano method is very glorifying for Landa of course. That is what I am interested in. The incredible strength of the inked surface is also a wonderful thing, for all of us who have issues with the too fragile surfaces of inkjet prints. I would like the almost zero gloss differential on glossy or bayta papers. It's amazing how they can grind the pigments to a nano size with great consistency. I am hopeful that at least some of the innovative thinking will eventually filter down to the fine art industry.