Lifetouch Portrait Studios, Inc.

Michael Breckenridge

Gerald A Jensen

John Lawson

Todd Kuester

E John Adolphi

Patrick J Galloway

In a high speed package printer that produces photographs of varying size from film negatives, different cropping apertures are used with different lenses for different prints. In order to provide a large combination of different cropping apertures with different lenses the lenses and cropping apertures are separately selected for each print. The high speed package printer includes a light source, a diffusion plate, a plurality of cropping apertures on an aperture member which can be moved to select which aperture will block light from the diffusion plate. The light from the cropping aperture then passes through a negative for projection by a lens onto photographic paper for printing pictures. Separate means for moving the aperture member and for selecting which lens will receive light from a negative after it is provide a selection of all combinations of lenses and cropping apertures such that the photographs produced can have different sizes and shapes.

High speed package printer

An apparatus and method relating to the print quality of a high speed package printer that produces photographs of varying size from film negatives. The high speed package printer includes a diffusion plate and a diffusion plate cleaner, and a film cleaner to remove dust and unwanted particles from the diffusion plate and film, thereby increasing the quality of prints from the printer. The apparatus increases print quality by having a plate that diffuses light from a light source shining on the photographic paper, and by automatically cleaning the diffusion plate with a brush during the time between exposures and while the photographic paper and photographic film are advancing. The apparatus also increases print quality with a film cleaning arrangement that includes applying an electrostatic charge to the film, brushing the surface of the film, vacuuming the surface of the film and using sticky rollers to remove any dust or other particles during the advancement of the film to the light source and during the time between exposures.

Apparatus and method for improving print quality of high speed package printer

An improved high speed package printer for producing a plurality of high quality photographs of varying size, shape, and style based on one or a plurality of different film negatives. The improved package printer of the present invention accomplishes the goal of increased throughput and speed through the use of an automatic paper-loading feature, ultrasonic proximity sensors for dynamically measuring paper-slack loops, off-center printing for eliminating the need to advance the paper for punching after each exposure, a rotational prism for creating 10'.times.13' photographs without physically rotating the film, a 13-UP lens deck including 12 wallet lenses and a single 5'.times.7' retro-focus lens for creating 12 wallet-sized photographs and one 5'.times.7' photograph from a single exposure, an automatic diffusion plate cleaner for eliminating the system down time associated with manual diffusion plate cleaning, an improved filtering arrangement for equalizing the amount of energy emitted from each lamp within a photographic lamphouse, and bi-directional film movement for producing a single composite containing a plurality of different images or poses. The high speed package printer of the present invention also boasts an improved film cleaning arrangement for increasing the quality of the prints, as well as penumbra masking for producing photographs having sharply delineated borders.

Growing community of inventors

Minneapolis, MN, United States of America

Michael Breckenridge