Development of a New Method for the Accurate Tonal and Chromatic Reproduction of Paintings with the Application of Raster Technology

摘要

The increased demand for copies of artefacts such as paintings has led to the development of specific processes for the accurate reproduction of these artefacts. Today it is common that many artefacts are printed with different printing processes for commercial use by museums, art organizations and galleries. Silk screen and offset printing are mostly used in order to reproduce the artefacts copies. Offset is good for accurate colour printing especially for books and catalogues. Silk screen printing is widely used for artefacts that are going to be used as reproductions (copies) for decoration or presentation purposes at houses, galleries, and art collections. The main reason for the application of the screen printing process is that screen inks properties allow very high level of resistance under weather and strong lighting conditions. However, both offset and screen printing processes have certain limitations that affect the realization of the accurate color reproduction. Offset printing can give a good reproduction of the original tonal gradation and accuracy of the colors (by the use of raster), but its printing inks are not efficient for artefacts that must be used for presentation and decoration. In screen printing, resistant and stable inks are applied but there is a problem that is difficult to be solved: The creation of moire which is caused by the combination of the raster used on film and the mesh which is used in the silk screen printing frames (the printing plates of screen printing). Within this field, the main research objective was to try to find a way that could make possible the reproduction of the original artefact with the most accurate smooth gradation and color, by combining both the quality of tone raster reproduction with the stable screen printing process. In this paper we will present an alternative technical process, based on the development of the traditional techniques and combined with the new technological processes especially in prepress field for the accurate reproduction of artefacts that can be used as copies of the originals for decoration and presentation purposes.