Quote Originally Posted by John Brady View Post
Hi Bruce, thanks for the detailed explanation, your answer is what I had feared.
It's not all that bad. A continuous tone imagesetter negative seems to cost about the same as drum scanning a similar negative. Maybe less; I'm comparing back and forth between NA and Europe.

A European company called TheWetPrint.com seems to offer what you want. Scroll down the webpage to the final illustration. Page though that to see the image structure various methods can deliver. This will at least show you the difference between QTR and Piezography. Not at the image level, but at far greater magnification so you can see how the image is created. This might help you decide which system to use should you decide to go the contact printing route.

This page also shows you what a continuous tone imagesetter negative looks like and what it can do. This will almost certainly do what you want -- I would be very surprised if this product couldn't handle a 4x enlargement with relative ease. The only problem is, you can't do it in your room, and it's more expensive than an inkjet print so you'll only want to do this with images you really like.

But the bottom line is, you can make enlarged silver prints this way.

You might want to run this past Bob Carnie -- he has been a LFP.info regular who has a wealth of experience and knowledge in all kinds of alternate processes like this. If Bob doesn't know, he can probably point you in the right direction at least.

Ah, yes, another alternative might be an LVT film recorder output. PrePress Express will sell you an 8x10 on Ilford FP4+. This too should be take low to medium level enlargement well.