Rafael Hanuman

By around 2006, there was almost no photolitho anymore.

But there was digital image processing like never before; special monitors, etc...

And why was so much attention given to image processing and finalizing digital image files?

The reason is that, before, many errors were corrected on the photolitho itself, during the development process, or by hand, by the development supervisor.

Fixing a photolitho by hand was my test to join Cromograf in the State of Santa Catarina, a pioneering company in acquiring a cylinder scanner, a huge machine.

I had left a photolitho company in the city of Jaraguá do Sul, went to Blumenau, and the recording supervisor was the oldest employee in the field, and he called me to test me in front of the company.

He wanted to see if I really knew what I was doing or if I was just a type of person who got things printed carelessly and then created huge problems for engravers and printers. His name was Mr. Victor.




So, since then, errors are no longer fixed directly on the photolitho.

Not because it’s impossible to run a blade over metal matrices, but because professionals don’t know how to do it.

And there’s no one to teach it either. Those who understood photolitho weren’t the type of professional who would make mistakes 20 years later... And a gap was created.

During my improvement at SENAI, a specialized school focused on printing in São Paulo, for example, the newest machines are from the 1980s.

Therefore, there are no teachers, and no infrastructure for technology development. The rest I’ll let you deduce.

But back to digital image processing, it is an absolutely essential activity.

It’s interesting. Those who are not interested in the topic can already be discarded from the list of companies capable of competing in the printing market.

Because photographers are also getting worse. Back in 2006, I had to solve photo sessions where all the lighting was on the wrong side.

What does that mean? You’ve probably already guessed. Yes, photos where the face and the main clothing parts were in shadow. It’s incredible that no one realized such mistakes.

Photography direction was what was missing. And where there is no photography direction, there must be talent in the person doing the image processing.