Reprography
Today, reprography plays a very
important role in the transmission of knowledge within library resources and
services. The reprography service at library helps to preserve rare and special
material and collections from being stolen or mishandled and therefore,
maintain availability of the resources.
Copies of the materials in the archives
and special collections of the library are provided as a services to expedite
research and lesson the wear-and-tear of documents. They are made solely for
the personal use of the individual requesting them. Copies may not be
transferred to another individual or organization, deposited at another
institution or reduplicated without prior permission of the library.
Reprography is commonly used in catalogs and archives, as well as in the
architectural, engineering and construction industries. In addition to
addressing the large-format reproduction needs of their customers,
reprographers frequently sell reprographic equipment and consumable supplies.
Other business services such as mounting and lamination, quick coping,
microfilming, scanning and facility management may also be provided.
Origin of Reprography
As the time passed, instead on
clay, papyrus material, parchment sheets etc coping on paper commenced.
Throughout 20th century, the photo coping in the name of Xerography
remained one of the most sought after techniques by the industries and
researches for documentation purposes especially in libraries and universities.
Fax machines, digital printing etc were offshoots of Xerographic process in
last years. All these processes come under the art of reprographic process. At one
stage time, the process of Xerox, the new invention in 1980s were part of
reprographic process and intended mainly for education institutions, research
institutes, commercial and Governmental work. Prior to this, sometime during
15-16th centuries, some people practiced the art of coping in a
different style.
Definition
According to Wikipedia: Reprography
is the reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means, such as
photography or Xerography.
According to IFRRO: Reprography
is from of reproduction, i.e. the duplication of work.
According to The Free Dictionary: The process of reproducing, reprinting or coping graphic material
especially by mechanical, photographic or electronic means.
Types
There are two types of reprographic
techniques:
1.Photography
Technique:
In
photo graphic technique a powerful light is passed through the original
document and develop an image into a readable copy.
For
examples:
Contact print An example of a cotact print from small format film
strips intended for image review. A contact print is a photographic image produced from
film; sometimes from a film negative and sometimes from a film positive. In a
darkroom an exposed and developed piece of photographic film is placed emulsion
side down, in contact with a piece of photographic paper, light is briefly
shone through the negative and then the paper is developed to reveal the final
print.The defining characteristic of a contact print is that
the resulting print is the same size as the original, rather than having been
projected through an enlarger.
Digital single-lens reflex camera
The photographer can see the subject before taking an
image by the mirror. When taking an image the mirror will swing up and light
will go to the sensor instead.
Ø Camera lens
Ø Reflex mirror
Ø Focal-plane shutter
Ø Image sensor
Ø Matte focusing screen
Ø Condenser lens
Ø Pentaprism/pentamirror
Ø Viewfinder eyepiece
A
digital single-lens reflex camera (also called a digital SLR or DSLR) is a
digital camera combining the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex
camera with a digital imaging sensor, as opposed to photographic film. The
reflex design scheme is the primary difference between a DSLR and other digital
cameras. In the reflex design, light travels through the lens, then to a mirror
that alternates to send the image to either the viewfinder or the image sensor.
The alternative would be to have a viewfinder with its own lens, hence the term
“single lens” for this design. By using only one lens, the viewfinder of a DSLR
presents an image that will not perceptibly differ from what is captured by the
camera’s sensor.
DSLRs
largely replaced film-based SLRs during the 2000s, and despite the rising
popularity of mirrorless system cameras in the early 2010s, DSLRs remained the
most common type of interchangeable lens camera in use as of 2014.
Thermo-Fax
Thermo-Fax is 3M’s trademarked name for a photocopying
technology which was introduced in 1950. It was a form of thermographic
printing and an example of dry silver process. It was a significant advance as
no chemicals were required, other than those contained in the copy paper
itself. A thin sheet of heat sensitive copy paper was placed on the original
document to be copied, and exposed to infrared energy. Wherever the image on
the original paper contained carbon, the image absorbed the infrared energy
when heated. The heated image then transferred the heat to heat sensitive paper
producing a blanked copy image of the original.
Xerography
Carlson’s innovation combined electrostatic printing
with photography, unlike the dry electrostatic printing process invented by
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in 1978. Carlson’s original process was cumbersome,
requiring several manual processing steps with flat plates .It was almost 18
years before a fully automated process was developed, the key breakthrough
being use of a cylindrical drum coated with selenium instead of a flat plate.
This resulted in the first commercial automatic copier, the Xerox 914, being
released by Haloid/Xerox in 1960. Before this year, Carlson had proposed his
ideas to more than a dozen companies, but none were interested. Xerography is
now used in most photocopying machines and laser and LED printers.
Diazo Process
For a discussion of copiers using the diazo process,
see whiteprint. For the software, see diaxo(software).
Diazo refers to a type of organic compound called
diazo compound that had two linked nitrogen atoms (azo) as a terminal
functional group. The general formula is R2C=N2. The
simplest example of a diazo compound is diazomethane. The electronic structure
of diazo compounds involves a positive charge on the central nitrogen and
negative charge distributed between the terminal nitrogen and the carbon.
2. Non photographic techniques:
Herecopiesof
the document should be prepared manually or mechanically. Manual reproduction
includes manual transcription (writing), type writing etc. whereas mechanical
reproduction includes offset printing, stencil duplication etc.
For
examples:
ü A typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine
for writing in characters similar to those produced by printer’s movable type
by means of keyboard-operated types striking a ribbon to transfer ink or carbon
impressions of type elements similar to the sorts used in movable type letter
press printing.
ü Steps in organizing reprographic services:
v Provide adequate space for reprographic laboratory.
v Ensure availability of necessary reprographic devices
and materials.
v Arrange all reprographic devices in proper places.
v Appoint trained specialist as technicians in various
services.
v Ensure timely maintenance of all devices.
ü Factors on which reprography depends:
There are different equipment of reprography that are
used to produce duplicates from the original documents. One may get several
duplicate print copies through the computer printers, offset printing machines,
electronic scanning etcetera within a stipulated time-period. But there are
certain factors on within reprography depends like the number of documents to
be printed, time taken to perform the reprography, the quality of output
required and the cost involved in the whole reprographic process. Of course, a
prudent entrepreneur has to consider these factors before he/she opts for a
particular methods of reprography or settles down for a particular type of
reprographic equipment.
Reprographic Equipment
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offices. He/she may employ professionally trained reprographers to serve the purpose of the office. To give you a better understanding on the subject I would discuss here some of the important reprographic equipment and their basic functions which are as given below:
a. Offset lithography machine:
The machine has the capacity to perform printing in
the bulk volumes. During the process of printing the images get transferred
from the mental plates of the machine to the roller and finally into the print
medium. The images thus generated is of high quality. The offset printing
process is used today for performing small and big column printing.
b. Letterpress printing duplicates:
In the letterpress printing duplicate there is a hard
printing surface. With the help of ink, and this hard printing surface it
carriers out the work of printing. This is still very much in demand and is
popular for suitable printing jobs irrespective of the fact that lithography is
dominating the printing process arena.
c. Stencil duplicator machine:
As the name suggests it simply works by letting the
ink pass by stencil onto a paper. It is also put-upon offices for the printing
purposes. Normally, this machine or equipment is used where low volume of
printing is required. It is also known as mimeograph machine. Besides, the
automatic stencil duplicator is also available that can be operated either
manually or electrically. These are sophisticated to adjust the working speed
with the follow of ink accordingly. It also has an intelligent temperature
controller.
d. Gelatine duplicator machine:
It is copying or duplicating system that is very low
in cost. Especially those offices and business firms cannot afford to buy a
high cost duplicator due to shortage of fund could rely or bet on this. It
excludes the requirement of electricity and installation of typewriters or any
other expensive equipment. The advantages of this is that is that it is very
simple to use and a lot cheaper than other duplicating machines. The downside
is that it works very slowly but then one also needs to consider the fact that
it is sophisticated to give an output of 50 copies each time it is made to
work. Moreover, it is also very durable and could serve the purpose of a firm
for a long time.
e. Electrostatic copier machine:
The
electrostatic copier works when an image is placed on the grass plate. There
are a serious of mirrors inside on the drums that are photo-conductive in
nature. When light falls on the image it gets reflected through the mirrors.
Thus through a methodical way it produces photocopy of images.
Maintenance of reprographic equipments
The regular and timely maintenance holds crucial to
any machinery for a prolonged life and quality output. Regular minor
maintenance could be done by the reprographer or the person who uses the
machine. If major problems occur one should take the help of the service
personnel of the company from where the product is purchased. Generally, when
the digital or electrical reprographic equipment in the office goes out of
order they display some code on the scream. Each code denotes a particular type
of error. The service person or a technician is technically savvy or equipped
to understand these problems and rectify these errors. Hence, should always
contact the service center in cases of major failure in these machines.
Reprography and legality
Through reprography helps to produce copies of
documents, pictures, drawing etcetera but one should also be aware of the legal
aspect of it. Certain reproductions are not allowed by the law or the
government of a country and one should abide the same. For instance,
reproduction of identity cards, driving licenses, passports without the prior
permissions are illegal under the law. Hence, before doing any such thing one
should be aware of the legal aspects that concern these.
Copyright and
Reprography:
Copyright is an exclusive legal concept, enacted by
most governments, giving the creator of an original work or assignee exclusive
rights to print, publish, perform, film, or recorded it, usually for a limited
time. The first copyright act of India was the Indian Copy Right Act of 1914.
The current copyright act enacted as the Indian Copy Right Act of 1957.
According to this act the period of copy right is the life time of the author
and fifty years after his death.
Advantages of Reprography
ü Automatic adjustment for optimum print quality.
ü Unlike blue prints, bond hardcopies will not fade.
ü Print-On-Demand−Save money by ordering only as many
prints as are needed now. We can, upon request, archive your file for easy
reprints.
ü Files can be e-mailed to us, which saves you time and
money.
ü Scale accuracy of 0.005 or ½ of 1%. (Regular
xerographic technology only has a 2% accuracy)
ü Save money with half size prints. Single-step reduced
11x17 or 8.5x11 prints can be ordered for distribution.
ü Save on material costs−you can print your originals on
bond paper, as opposed to costly vellum.
Disadvantages of Reprography
The economic impact of reprography has not received
proper attention in previous work.
ü Reproduction of a copyrighted work appears to be a
clear infringement of copyright law and is through to reduce compensation to
the copyright,
ü Holder due to the substitution effect.
ü It is not clear, however, that the copyright holder’s
compensation is reduced just because the user of reprography pays no explicit
copyright royalty.
ü If the library acquires a reprography machine it will
become less journal in the library since copies can be made without tying up a
journal for extended periods of time.
Conclusion
Rapid developments in reprographic technology could
give rise to an unacceptable level of counterfeiting activity by making
high-quality reprographic systems widely available. Once currency redesign is
undertaken to foil advanced reprographics, it is prudent to incorporate more
than a single new deterrent−preferably deterrents based on different physical
principles. The probability is small that new technological developments will
appear that can negate simultaneously the effect of different types of
deterrents.
Reference:
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