Photo printing: We've never had it so good
Talk about the digital revolution in photography generally refers to cameras with image sensors instead of film.
For over a century, and until the last few years, silver halide (AgX) photographic printing stood alone. It was the only alternative. Not any more. On the output side there have been technological changes equal to those created by pixels on the capture side. It's just that there has been a lag while printer manufacturers got their act together and photo retailers invested in new equipment.
In the meantime, the quality of ‘soft’ display – from smartphone screens particularly, but HD TVs and tablets as well – raced ahead of that from a conventional photographic print in both resolution and colour gamut. And yet the photo industry has been scratching its collective head these past few years wondering why young people don't print their pictures any more!
The good news is that there are now alternative printing technologies which can do justice to the wider colour gamut image sensors can capture – and that film and silver halide photographic paper couldn't.
