Digital Processes

Photo offset lithography. Steve Cannistra. Orion Nebula from Sky and Telescope magazine, May 2004. 2004. 10 1/16 x 6 9/16" (25.6 x 16.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Richard Benson © Steve Cannistra. The photograph was made by a gifted amateur using digital technology and a small telescope.

The digital revolution, which first showed its colors in the 1980s, has swept traditional photography away far faster than anyone expected. My book The Printed Picture and this site deal with printing, and so ignore the great transformation of cameras from analog to digital devices. But whether used to take pictures or to print them, the old chemical processes are near death and digital media rule the photographic world. Those who don’t believe this are almost always over sixty years of age. This section deals—briefly—with some of the new printing systems.