PIA/GATF offers new digital test form for process control

PIA/GATF has announced a new addition to its family of test forms: the Technology Watch Resometer. This ‘resolution meter’ fills the need for a practical reference tool to measure quality and resolution of digitally printed images.  

The Resometer  is an EPS computer file that runs on any device that can read EPS or PDF files – digital presses, proofers, imagesetters, CTP systems, copiers, and the RIPs associated with them, to name a few.

The file assesses the RIP and the image output device, providing a way to measure the actual image quality by evaluating resolution along the entire imaging chain. Evaluation is done on a number of levels, including contrast resolution, addressability, quality of small type and fine lines, smoothness of gradients, directional tone value changes, and differences in RIPing of vector and bitmap images. It then uses a combination of PostScript code and logarithmic curves to automatically update its targets and gives the viewer a deeper look into the output device’s capabilities of producing quality print.

Not only does the Resometer measure the performance of the RIP with the printing device it is driving, but it also helps printers select RIPs to drive output devices and allows them to determine if the output from the printing device matches the resolution settings on the RIP. In addition, it measures how a given paper will influence resolution, as well as toner and ink levels.  With all of this new information at their fingertips, the press operator and the prepress operator will have a digital fingerprint of their output devices.