Method and apparatus for recording digital images on photosensitive material

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for exposing photosensitive material to form high quality continuous tone and/or color images thereon. The preferred apparatus includes an imaging head comprised of square pixel image generators, e.g., fiber optic tubes mounted to form a rectangular array. The pixel image generators are inclined at an angle of 45 degrees to the scan direction. As the print head scans, each fiber optic tube can expose a pixel image onto the photosensitive material. The exposure levels of the pixel images are preferably specified in a digital file representing an image to be printed. As a result of being inclined at 45 degrees, the pixel images exposed onto the photosensitive material are diamond shaped. Each pixel image overlaps its neighbor by substantially 50% of the center to center distance between pixel images. The pattern resulting from the overlapping of the pixel images generates geometrically interpolated pixel areas with each such area being about 25% of the original pixel image area. The image generators comprise groups of green, blue, and red light sources. Narrow pass spectral filters are preferably mounted between the light sources and the photosensitive material.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.