Some of what you have so kindly written is beyond me. I will try to explain as best I can what Salto does.

They use a very old image setter. They can go up to one-meter wide.

They do not use PhotoShop. They use a Barco system. Or at least it used to be called Barco. The name may have changed in the last couple of years. To update the software a couple of years ago cost them 75,000 Euros. I don't know how they do it, as they have no money. I couldn't say if Barco was now LAB.

The separations involve only one skeleton black, I believe.

I do not know which Kodak film they use. It would be some kind of copy film.

Besides the platinum printing they do, they also make carbon prints and tri-color carbro. The least of what they do now is print books. They told me that in the future they will print only our books and any they do themselves. This is because they do not make any money on books. And it takes a lot of work--four films for each form. They have tried computer to plate, but find it cannot give the highest quality. And each of the four films must be made at the same time. Once we had to change a word in the text--black film only--and they told me that had to re-do all four films, because to get the highest quality they all had to be made at the same time. I think that is a humidity and registration issue.

They are developing an ink-jet printer that will have 32 inks.

The Louvre made a digital capture of the Mona Lisa in 23 layers. Salto has been asked to print it. They also helped develop the $400,000 camera that made the capture.

There is someone who is making very high end digital capture of paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and selling digital prints of the paintings for in the five figures. He told me he had the ultimate capture system. A few years ago I introduced this fellow to Salto and he said, "I thought I had the ultimate capture system. Theirs is better."

Many thanks for your kind offer to see how your films will work on Lodima paper. We can talk about this.

Michael A. Smith