The progress and future prospect of silver halide photography are analyzed by comparing the structure and efficiency of image formation of color films with those of CCDs in digital still cameras for amateur consumers. It is predicted that the efficiency of image formation by a color film, which is based on the efficiencies of absorption of incident photons and conversion of absorbed photons into latent image centers by silver halide grains, will be increased by several times in the future. It is also predicted that the superiority of color films over digital still cameras in terms of image quality and cost will remain in the future, because the efficiency of image formation by CCD is based on the efficiencies of absorption of incident photons and conversion of absorbed photons into photoelectrons, both of which are very high and have therefore little room for improvement. The characteristics of photographic systems with color films were also analyzed in comparison with those of digital imaging systems with CCDs.

The molecular mechanism of Novolak-diazoquinone resists depends on the diffusion of base into the resin matrix. In this context the novolak film may be viewed as a percolation field where the percolation sites are the phenolic OH groups of the resin. The rate of percolation depends on the density (concentration) of percolation sites and on their steric accessibility. When diazonaphthoquinone inhibitors are introduced into the system they cause the formation of hydrogen-bonded strings of phenolic OH groups. The polarized hydroxyls are less available to the advancing base, that lowers the site connectivity of the field, and with it the dissolution rate. On exposure, the photolysis of the diazoquinones is followed by a very fast and very exothermic reaction, the Wolff rearrangement. The heat liberated in this thermal process produces an intense temperature spike, in excess of 200°C at the location of the inhibitor. At the high temperature the phenolic strings are severed from their anchor. The disconnected OH groups are no longer polarized by the inhibitor, and the inhibition effect is suspended. The dissolution rate of the exposed resist returns to that of novolak, except for a slight increase in dissolution rate caused by the presence of newly formed indenecarboxylic acid that contributes some additional percolation sites to the exposed film.

This article reviews recent studies that have revealed much new information about tructure and morphology of the interface formed between silver halide and silver carboxylate phases during fabrication of thermally developable photographic materials (TDPM). This information has proved relevant not only to understanding how latent images may form in TDPM, but has also revealed that morphological features of the interface may govern the course of the development reaction as well.

Near-field optical microscopy as a prime example of a subdiffraction imaging technique is described, and various modes of its operation are discussed. These include amplitude, phase and polarization, as well as fluorescence and photoluminescence imaging and spectroscopy. Representative examples are given to indicate the performance. The application of the technique to microscopic studies of silver halide is presented in some detail. The potential of the technique in various applications is critically assessed, and future prospects are discussed.

The fundamental properties of light result in images being an important part of peoples' lives. One of the reasons for their importance is that images are information rich; in the digital world this means large file sizes. These same properties of light allow optical disks to store information at high density. The characteristics of optical disk systems are well matched to those of digital images, particularly when high-quality digital images needed to be shared between, or distributed to, a number of individuals. Advances in many areas, from materials to electronics to coding theory, as well as high-volume production, has provided this capability to the average personal computer user.

This paper provides a brief review of the various paths undertaken in the development of ink-jet printing. Highlights of recent progress and trends in this technology are discussed. The technologies embedded in the latest ink-jet products from current industry leaders in both thermal and piezoelectric drop-on-demand ink-jet methods are also described. Finally, this article presents a list of the potential ink-jet technology applications that have emerged in the past few years.

For nearly all of this century the graphic arts industry has been using silver halide based mages in all stages of production up to the final burning of the lithographic plate. Now the industry appears on the verge of a tectonic paradigm shift to media that dwell under the names “direct to plate,” “computer to plate,” “direct to press,” and “computer to press.” Although the new media come in many species, most all of them have two things in common: they don't use silver halide and they do employ a laser thermal procedure. The term “laser thermal” implies that the basic mechanism of the process is thermal and that the heat is derived from a laser beam. As the market develops, we find that diode lasers are the overwhelming choice for heat sources and, in fact, may be the key enabler of the new products.

James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated the first color photograph in a lecture to the Royal Society of Great Britain in 1861. He used the demonstration to illustrate Thomas Young's idea that human vision uses three kinds of light sensors. This demonstration led to a great variety of color photographic systems using both additive and subtractive color. Today, we have image-capture devices that are photographic, video, still, and scanning. We have hardcopy printers that are electrophotographic, ink jet, thermal and holographic, as well as displays that use cathode ray tubes, liquid-crystal and other light emission color devices. The major effort today is to get control of all these technologies so that the user can, without effort, move a color digital image from one technology to another without changing the appearance of the image. The strategy of choice is to use colorimetry to calibrate each device. If all prints and displays sent the same colorimetric values from every pixel, then the images, regardless of the display, would appear identical. The problem with matching prints and displays is that they have very different color gamuts. A more satisfactory solution is needed. In my view, the future emphasis of color research will be in models of human vision. The purpose of these models will shift from calculating color matches to calculating color sensations. All the technologies listed above work one pixel at a time. The response at every pixel is dependent on the input at that pixel, regardless of whether the imaging system is chemical, photonic, or electrical. Humans are different. The color they see at a pixel is controlled by that pixel and all the other pixels in the field of view. Human color vision uses a spatial calculation involving the whole image. Except for human vision, all other color systems have the same output from a single input. In other words, if an input pixel has a value of 128, and the image processing changes that value to 155, then all pixels with 128 in will have 155 out. Human vision is unique among color imaging systems because a single input value (128) will generate a range of output values (0, or 55, or 128, or 255), depending on the values of other pixels in the image. Despite the remarkable progress in our ability to control the placement of dyes and pigments on paper, we must now return to the study of Maxwell's interest—color theory—for the next advancements in color systems. In the future, we will see more models that compute the color appearance from spatial information and write color sensations on media, rather than attempting to write the quanta catch of visual receptors.

Two kinds of models were derived that predicted spectral reflectance factor of colors formed using an ink-jet printer. One was the spectral Murray–Davies–Yule–Nielsen model in which n-value was assumed to vary as a function of wavelength. The other was based on the Omatsu model in which the path length of light scattering was assumed to vary as a function of wavelength. Model parameters were optimized using a test target of 57 samples consisting of cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, blue, and black colors varying between white and the maximum ink amount. Average accuracy of an independent data set sampling the printer's color gamut was 4.2 and 3.9 ΔE_ab^*, for the Murray–Davies–Yule–Nielsen and the Omatsu models, respectively. The difference in performance was not significant. The Yule–Nielsen model was selected to build device profiles because of its simplicity in comparison to the Omatsu model. A desktop scanner was colorimetrically characterized using a multiple-linear-regression model to build a concatenated device profile in which digital counts of a scanned photographic reflection print were the input and those of the printer were the output. Because the printer model was analytically noninvertable, the Newton-Raphson and the Simplex iterative methods were evaluated as candidate optimization methods to build 33 × 33 × 33 color look-up tables. These tables were evaluated by comparing a photographic reflection IT8.7/2 target with its printed reproduction. The Simplex method yielded superior results, particularly for colors near the edge or outside of the printer's color gamut. The average ΔE_ab^* error from a profile based on the Simplex method was 5.9 including colors outside of the printer's color gamut.