Colour Copies: Colour Technology in Print Reproductions
“Our present destabilization of originality through mass simulations has roots in the visualization and depiction practices of the Victorians.”
Julie F. Codell, 1991
Codell chronicles the impact that art reproductions have had on art production, the viewing of art, and the school of Art History. She describes a characteristic of the Victorian public that drove in them a desire to bring art pieces closer to themselves in the form of reproductions that they could possess. She notes that these works were often low quality and failed to capture the context and spirit of the originals. Codell argues that art in reproduction is stripped of its spirit and meaning but print technology has developed rapidly since the 19th century and art is more widely and vividly available to the public now than ever before. These works are seen by art historians to be decontextualised by printmakers but in a modernising world artists interacted with the act of reproduction with intentionality; art in the 20th and 21st centuries is produced within the context of a culture of mass production and rapid image reproduction.
The movable-type press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg and was later mechanised in the Industrial Revolution. The introduction of lithography by Alois Senefelder in 1796 made it much easier for images to be transferred and reproduced. The advancements in photography and then photomechanical printing plates transformed modern printing. Photomechanical prints do not fade like photographic prints since they are not photosensitive and can be identified by distinctive patterns under magnification.
Today art is viewed every day on social media sites, in streamed television and film, and on billboard screens. Computer monitors, television screens, and mobile devices are based on the trichromatic, RGB additive colour model (Red Green and Blue colour spectra). Each colour value ranges from 0 to 255 to produce a limited range of bright colours. This range is perfect for digital screens but gives an unreliable reproduction of colours in print. This colour model is the filter through which art is received on-large today.
An earlier trichromatic model was invented for printing by Christoph Le Blon, author of “Coloritto, or, The Harmony of Colouring in Painting” (1725). His model was based on the primary colours of blue, red, and yellow, but he would occasionally add black or another colour to improve the results. The work of Sir William Wiveleslie Abney was instrumental in advancing the accuracy of this process when he measured the colour, hues, and luminosity of various ink pigments. Later, Raithby Lawrence & Co. introduced photochromotypy which was used for trade publications as it was hailed for its “absolute” reproductions. Trichromatic printing was, then, rapidly abandoned from 1910 onwards as process engravers like A.C. Austin of New York, strongly advocated for black to be added permanently as a fourth colour in printing process models.
The dominant model of CMYK is a subtractive colour model used for printing processes whereby varying amounts of each colour (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black or “key”) can be removed from a white background to produce new hues. When all the colours are removed white is produced, but if all colours are present then black is produced. The colour values range from 0 to 100 for each ink. This model is ideal for ensuring accurate colour reproduction for printed materials, but it is important to convert RGB colours to CMYK when printing digital content to avoid any unexpected shifts in colour.
ICC profiles are sets of data that describe the properties of colour spaces, and the gamut (range of colours) that a monitor can display. Setting a document’s profile to Adobe RGB (1998) when working with an image file in Adobe Photoshop, can preserve a higher gamut in your file. Digital printing enhancements and the utilisation of ICC profiles allow for more precise colour translation and flexible calibration when printing digital image files. These considerations are integral to the work of digital artists and designers in the modern age to ensure their works are viewed as intended.
The CIE 1931 xy chromaticity diagram showing the primaries of the Adobe RGB (1998) colour space. The Illuminant D65 white point is shown in the centre
Image Credit: By BenRG - This file was derived from: CIE1931xy blank.svg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7889711
The first commercial photocopier was patented in 1959 by Xerox. This machine was built based on the developments of Chester Carlson in collaboration with Otto Kornei, a young German physicist. Together in 1938, they made the first xerographic copy on a piece of wax paper. The 914 photocopier was a rapid success for its user-friendly design and its low operating costs. This copier made it possible for art and images to be reproduced in non-commercial settings thus enabling the boom in subcultural zine production, a prolific material cultural phenomenon of the 1960s onwards.
In 1969, the first laser printer was designed by Gary Starkweather at Xerox’s research facility. This printer uses a laser to charge areas on a copier drum selectively according to an image. The charged areas then attract toner particles which are then printed onto paper using heat and pressure. The process is repeated for each ink individuality (CMYK) to produce a full spectrum of colours. In this way, an image is reproduced. Laser printers are superb for the production of high-quality prints with sharp text and vibrant colours. They are also generally more cost-effective than inkjet printers and have lower costs per page and a higher page yield. Expanded gamut printing introduces additional inks such as orange, green, and violet to widen the colour gamut from traditional CMYK printing. With this method, printers can reduce the colour shift without the standard need for spot colours which requires printers to specifically formulate inks to match digital files. This reduces costs, labour, and waste, resulting in a more cost-effective, streamlined approach to printing in the pursuit of accurate colour reproductions.
The Matsushita Corporation developed colour printing and colour monitors in 1976 based on statistical techniques. This process involved the scanning of a colour print to determine the intensity of the spectral components of light on a given area of the print. A macroscopic colour separator generates a set of electrical signals each representing the average spectral intensities per unit area of the print and a data processor then calculates a set of mean spectral intensities. This innovation developed a mechanised approach to the earlier work of Sir William Wiveleslie Abney in measuring the intensity and luminosity of pigments. This statistical approach to colour measuring, combined with ICC profiles, works to minimise diversions from the intentionality of an artist's work even whilst destabilising its originality as described by Codell. Technological developments seek to reproduce works to higher and higher degrees of accuracy, to bring art closer to the public in a full and vibrant spectrum of colour.
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