Printer and film

from my experience, not a lazer printer, but a dry film which has a special coating printed by inkjet with Illustrator making highest opacity

I have an arab crown folio I would like to find out how old it is there is a number at the end of the connecting rod cut into the steel .The number is 3033 .Could this indicate the year of manufacture of the machine .Also anybody know whether arab platens were used for printing on the illfated Titanic .

Thank you jonathanleclipse. I appreciate you sharing what works best for you. Is there as particular ink jet that works better than others and have you found a particular brand of “dry film” better than others?

I can purchase film from a local service but would prefer to install a setup like you describe (as long as the results are high quality).

THanks again.

Xcel, the ‘inkjet film’ you’re going to be able to make won’t even touch the local service, provided you mean imagesetter film.

Not even close, not by a longshot. The d-max might be enough for polymer, but the details will not be as crisp. The edges will show more sawtoothing, because your computer doesn’t likely have an excellent RIP driving the inkjet’s printhead, and for a variety of other reasons you’ll lose detail.

Keep doing what you’re doing if you want quality plates, or invest in an imagesetter (but you likely don’t want one around, lots of chemistry and annoying aspects to that.).

Thanks HavenPress.

You are correct. I do not want to install imagesetter equipment and film processing equipment (I had those in my shop years ago). We are now a digital shop, still running some offset work, trying to build a letterpress high-end stationery business. We are shopping for a good letterpress. I assume we will design the art, send pdf to film service, make a photopolymer plate on our plate burner, then print.

Thanks for the help and comments.

previously I have posted about Grafolac film, using a Canon ipf750, from Illustrator also a digital image transfer film that has been suggested to me.I also may use a RIP with this set up.
There will be other brands in the USA.

Thank you. I am not sure yet if I will try to produce “dry” film or “wet”… I just don’t want to go back to the days when I bought “and wasted” so much chemistry in our film processor. We just don’t use enough film to put in film processing equipment. Thanks all for your comments and suggestions. Every bit of advice helps.

Also looking for a good condition windmill and/or a hand fed platen press that will print well.

Thanks again.