Unit 30 D1

Unit 30 D1

Vinyl cutters are used for cutting writing and pictures out and sticking them onto vans and lorries. The images used have to be of a high resolution because they are going to be expanded on a large scale in order to be wrapped onto a large vehicle. A few years ago a van would have a simple piece of text cut out and placed onto the van, however now very large images can be crapped round the entire van for example the sky vans. The printed images are weatherproof, durable and will last the entire lifetime of the van. This has affected the creation of graphics because it has made things much more easily, and also increasing the amount of possibilities. You can now do more things with the new, modern techniques.

Laser cutters can be intricately achieved up to 1246mm x 710mm. A few years ago, if you wanted to print of an image or text onto a shop window you couldn't, they would be hand painted onto the shop window to attract customers. Now, text and images can be easily cut with laser cutters and stuck onto windows, they are waterproof and durable. When printed the images would have to be of high resolution so that they would still appear clear and detailed when expanded. Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high power laser through optics. The laser optics and computer numerical control are used to direct the material of the laser beam generated. In general, cutting through material requires the artwork to be in a vector format, like Adobe Illustrator or AutoCAD DXF, because paths in the artwork are used in the laser cutter software to define laser cut paths.Laser cutters were firstly being used for industrial manufacturing applications, however as time has moved along, they are now used in schools, small business’ and by hobbyists. They came around in 1965 and were used to drill holes in diamond dies. In 1967, the British developed a laser cutter for cutting metals. In the 1970’s this technology was used to cut titanium for aerospace applications. Now, they are used for a long list of things, mainly flat sheet material, structural and piping metals.

Inkjet printing was once a complex process. You would have to print onto a roll of paper and then stick that onto a board. You would then have to add an adhesive on the back of the roll of paper and stick it onto the back of the board and then laminate the board to make it waterproof so that the colours wouldn't run. You can now print out onto anything up to 50mm thick, for example wood, doors, walls etc. The designs are automatically weatherproof and durable therefore there is no need to laminate the image. The bitmap images can be printed directly onto the materials instead of going through the long process that existed years ago. An inkjet printer is any printer that places extremely small droplets of ink onto paper to create an overall image. The dots are extremely small usually between 50 and 60 microns in diameter, making the images much more detailed. The dots are positioned very precisely, with resolutions of up to 1440x720 dots per inch. The dots can have different colors combined together to create photo-quality images. This has affected the creation of graphics because it now means that the actual images created are to a much higher resolution improving the overall quality of the finished design. Graphics can be sold for more money if they are to a higher quality, therefore affecting the amount of money to be made in graphics designing. RIP software would be required to make printing easier and more efficient. It is designed to handle many files, file types and file sizes.

Laser printers can be used for duplex printing, which didn’t exist 6 of 7 years ago., It allows a user to print on both sides of the paper at once instead of printing on one side, and putting the paper back into the printer to print onto the other side. By the click of a button, you can tell the laser printer to print out on both sides of the paper, in colour and to staple the sheets of paper together. You can also tell the printer to make the sheets of paper into a book. This is very time saving. It very rapidly produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back & forth over an image. This has affected graphics creation because 6 or 7 years ago when it wasn’t possible to print both sided, designs could have been ruined by printing the second page on top of the first. The creation of graphics is a much less time consuming process in the current era, because everything can be done by the click of a button. This also makes things much easier and less stressful for the creator of the graphics images.

3D printing is very new and modern and is used to print a physical object from a digital file. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is created. To print off a solid 3D object, you have create a virtual design on a computer. The virtual design is made using a computer aided design file using a 3D modelling programme. It can also be achieved by scanning an existing object (using a 3D scanner). In preparation for 3D printing, the digital file slices the final model into hundreds and thousands of layers. When prepared, the file is uploaded to the 3D  printer which creates the object layer by layer. In 2012 the only method of 3D printing was the layering technique, however now you can also use melting or softening material to produce layers. Another method available is selective laser sintering.

Now, as the years go by, additive methods are moving further into the production end of manufacturing. 3D printers are predicted to only keep growing in the future, they can print out in colour and multiple materials and will continue to improve. In order to 3D print your model, you'll most likely need to export your 3D model as a .stl file so that a 3D printer can read it. This is affecting the creation of graphics because it now means that graphics designers can create a 3D design to touch, or even use. Graphics designers can now manufacture a physical object by the use of a 3D printer, and can also create a graphics design in 3D format. This type of technology increasing the possibilities for graphics designers.