Review:Muska & Lipman Publishing: Mastering Digital Printing

[G. Couch]

Anyone looking for an excellent (and up to date) reference manual for digital printing...look no further ! I just got this book a few days ago and figured I would post a review since so many people have been starving for a book like this. Anyone else read it?

[Doug Nelson]

I haven't read it, but you have no idea how happy I am that someone is finally using this feature

[jeaniesa]

Greg, I'm so glad to hear you like this book. I just received it two days ago myself, but I've been too busy to open it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.

Jeanie

[KevinBE]

Greg, I bought the book and I really like it. This will help me get a better insight into my digital printing. The background information on the history of digital printing is just amazing. Thanks for doing the review.

[G. Couch]

Thanks for the response.

Wow, thanks for flattering review. Couple of comments back:

(1) <...For example, the section on the history of digital printing is rather myopic as it deal almost exclusively with the history of Nash Editions. While they were certainly pioneers in the field and deserve a huge amount of respect, it would have been nice to see the author research some of the other artists and printers who helped bring about digital printing as a viable art form....>

They (and the others I mention) are *the* ones, IMO. Who else should be included?

(2) <...Dorothy Simpson Krause, Bonny Lhotka and Karin Schminke is probably not worth much in my opinion. Thankfully, Johnson devotes several pages to their work and gives excellent examples of how they produce their prints. The only problem was that I wanted to see more and profiles of more artists! This one section of the book could probably be expanded into it's own book...and hopefully someone will do just that in the near future! >

Yessir. It's called "Secrets of Award-Winning Digital Artists," Wiley, 2002, by Jeremy Sutton and Daryl Wise.

The above quote is from this thread

Harald, I must have missed that book...(too many good books and not enough time!) What I really would like to see though, is something like the book Digital Atelier is planning for next year- A text that really concentrates on one artist or small group and delves deeply into digital printmaking from the perspective of an artist. There are enough books on the technical aspect of things...I want to see books like the "Artists on Art" series - something that delves into aesthetics and theory as much as technique. Maybe there are already a few out there?

On the history side of things...I was being a bit picky. The timeline in your book was great and the book is not meant as a history of digital art. Nash Editions certainly put digital printmaking on the map, but IMO, what we call digital art today is a convergence of a great many things (which you touched on in the book). The real driving force behind much of the current technology was not artists and photographers, but the advertising industry. (Billboard makers, sign makers, etc...) Their demand for durable, pigment based inksets really drove the technology...and still does to a degree. (see Encad/Kodaks new printer for outdoor prints, that uses infrared light to "cure" the ink, making it extremely durable)

Also, artists have been using basic digital technology for years...Xerox transfers being a good example...or using early laser printers to create images that were later burned into screens for screenprinting.

I guess I just see the history of digital printing as a slow convergence of several areas - Printers like Nash Editions, artists in the academic world, industrial technology, scientists at MIT and PARC... You made that very clear in the book but only went into any real detail with Nash Editions and the early IRIS. But, like I said, the book is not meant to be an all encompassing history of Digital Imaging, and I was just being picky...I had to find
something to be picky about!

[Harald]

Greg: <Harald, I must have missed that book...(too many good books and not enough time!) What I really would like to see though, is something like the book Digital Atelier is planning for next year- A text that really concentrates on one artist or small group and delves deeply into digital printmaking from the perspective of an artist. There are enough books on the technical aspect of things...I want to see books like the "Artists on Art" series - something that delves into aesthetics and theory as much as technique. Maybe there are already a few out there?>

Sounds like you ought to write it!

<On the history side of things...I was being a bit picky. The timeline in your book was great and the book is not meant as a history of digital art. [...] I guess I just see the history of digital printing as a slow convergence of several areas - Printers like Nash Editions, artists in the academic world, industrial technology, scientists at MIT and PARC... You made that very clear in the book but only went into any real detail with Nash Editions and the early IRIS.>

Well, you're certainly not wrong, but like you say, it's not a history book. I wanted a good, specific account (and I'm the first one to accurately put it down in print) to give the subject a foundation. Also, the heading for this history section is, "The Birth of Digital Fine-Art Printing," which I believe it is.

<But, like I said, the book is not meant to be an all encompassing history of Digital Imaging, and I was just being picky...I had to find something to be picky about! >

I do the same thing when presented with something good ;-)

Harald Johnson
author, "Mastering Digital Printing"
DP&I.com ( http://www.dpandi.com )