JPH0120416B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to a process control strip (hereinafter simply referred to as "strip") for managing the development of a printing photosensitive material (particularly a printing photosensitive material for bright room use), and particularly for controlling and adjusting the developer. The photographic properties of printing sensitive materials are greatly influenced by exposure conditions and processing conditions. The present invention particularly focuses on the management of developer, which affects the gradation of halftone photographs, the quality of halftone dots, etc.
It concerns a new strip useful for adjustment. In general, various types of photosensitive materials are used to complete printed matter, and contact printing photosensitive materials are used for reversing negatives and positives, combining characters and halftone images, or combining multiple halftone images. It is used for purposes such as the synthesis of However, because printed matter goes through a complex process until it is completed, strict quality control is required at each intermediate step. For this reason, for example, a developer called a lith developer for developing ultra-high contrast printing materials tends to fluctuate in activity, which is controlled and adjusted using a strip. Regarding this strip, please refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 54-82235, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 150141-1971,
It is disclosed in publications such as No.-24933 and Utility Model Publication No. 52-1301. In other words, a latent image is created by exposing a conventional printing light-sensitive material (i.e. darkroom printing light-sensitive material) to light from a light source that changes the amount of light stepwise or continuously, and a stepwise halftone dot pattern is created by closely contacting this with the same light source. Alternatively, a so-called gray light wedge characteristic curve obtained from a portion exposed with varying amounts of light shows fog, fog, etc.
Sensitivity, gamma, etc.; halftone characteristic curves of halftone images obtained from areas exposed with different halftone patterns; halftone gradation and sensitivity as halftone images; halftone dot sharpness, halftone density from patterns; This method has the advantage that many related screen characteristics, such as screen dot shape, can be grasped at the same time. To form a halftone dot pattern when manufacturing the conventional strip as described above, a means for converting the amount of exposure into a halftone dot area, such as a glass screen or a contact screen (hereinafter simply referred to as "screen"), is used on the printing sensitive material. It was being yelled at. By the way, printing sensitive materials for bright rooms that can be used in bright rooms have recently come to be used in place of conventional printing sensitive materials for dark rooms because of the advantages of improved work efficiency as printing sensitive materials. In other words, compared to conventional printing sensitive materials, the spectral sensitivity range is shorter (e.g.
350-450nm) and the photographic sensitivity to visible light is
It has an extremely low ASA equivalent of 10 ^-4 , and is a printing sensitive material that is developed by exposing it to ultraviolet light using a mercury lamp or the like. However, strips made with conventional printing photosensitive materials, that is, darkroom photosensitive materials, cannot be used in a bright room, and even if they are used in a dark room, it is not possible to fully understand the characteristics of the developer. Nakatsuta. Furthermore, even if strips were similarly made using bright room photosensitive materials instead of conventional printing photosensitive materials, it was difficult to form satisfactory halftone dot patterns due to the long exposure time required and the quality of the resulting halftone dots being quite poor. I couldn't do it. For this reason, there is currently no satisfactory strip that can be used to manage the developer in a bright room. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a strip for development of printing sensitive materials (for example, in a bright room). Through intensive research by the present inventors, the emulsion side of the printing photosensitive material and the halftone dot side of a screen having a screen frequency of 300 lines/inch or more were printed on a printing photosensitive material for bright room use at 70%
It has been found that satisfactory process control strips can be obtained by providing a latent image by exposing at intervals of .about.200 microns. In the present invention, the printed photosensitive material specifically refers to a lithium photosensitive material, a photosensitive material from which an image with a gamma (gradation) of 10 or more can be obtained by development, and the like. Furthermore, in the present invention, the term "for use in a bright room" refers to a fluorescent lamp that blocks ultraviolet rays, an incandescent lamp, or a yellow fluorescent lamp used as illumination in a work room. The present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 shows one example of the exposure method of the present invention.
The silver halide emulsion side of the unexposed light-sensitive material is placed on the opposite side of the unexposed light-sensitive material using a screen consisting of a halftone dot pattern larger than a line inch, and the silver halide emulsion side is exposed (back film exposure). (The support side of the screen is exposed to light). In addition, the same effect can be obtained by placing a transparent film between the halftone dot surface of 1 and 2. The transparent film used at this time may be a plastic film made of polyethylene terephthalate cellulose acetate, etc., but it may also be made of glass or a translucent film (for example, pine with a high degree of haze). (film, ground glass, etc.). The thickness of these things is 70~
Preferably, the thickness is 200 μm. The screen used in the present invention mainly consists of a halftone dot surface (for example, a surface having a halftone dot pattern made of silver) and a support. As this support, a transparent support (for example, a plastic film made of polyethylene terephthalate, cellulose acetate, etc., a glass plate, etc.) is generally used, and the thickness thereof is preferably 70 to 200 μm. FIG. 2 shows one example of 1 in FIG. The screen line number of this halftone dot pattern was 100 lines or more, and by setting the number of screen lines to 100 lines or more, it was possible to grasp fluctuations in the developer. In particular, the finer the number of lines is, the more preferable it is, and 300 lines is more preferable than 100 lines, and 500 lines is more preferable than 300 lines because the halftone dot area changes more sensitively to changes in the developer. Further, the number of lines is preferably 1000 or less. Although the dot area ratio of the strip at this time is not particularly selected, the finish of the film printed using this screen is
It is preferably 40% or more, more preferably around 80% or more, and when these are used, the dot area ratio changes largely with respect to fluctuations in the developer, which is preferable for managing the developer. In order to expose without contact in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, the halftone dot surface of the screen and the emulsion surface of the printing sensitive material are not brought into direct contact but are exposed through the support of the screen. . Another method is to insert a spacer such as a transparent film or a matte film with a high degree of haze between the halftone dot surface of the screen and the emulsion surface of the printing photosensitive material for exposure. "Also arranged thin line screen" (used when exposing the strips of the present invention)
may be rectangular, circular, or even shaped like a character. The halftone dot shape constituting the screen used in the present invention is selected from among contact screen shapes used in ordinary printing, such as dots, wedges, and lines, and is a screen with a coarse line count. The halftone dot shapes of the screen with a fine line count may be the same or different. The screen used in the present invention is an original transmission film made by contact printing a contact screen, and it can be further produced by contact printing or reduction photography, or by using a dot generator type color separation scanner. It can be made by a method such as exposing each dot to light using a method such as exposing the dot to light. A latent image is usually formed on the strip of the present invention by exposure to ultraviolet light. It is preferable to use a mercury lamp (for example, an ultra-high pressure mercury lamp) as a light source and carry out exposure at 1 to 3 KW for 1 to 5 seconds. In the strip of the present invention, halftone dots obtained through development preferably have an optical density of 4.0 or higher. In addition to the halftone dot pattern, the control strip of the present invention has a so-called gray light wedge latent image (not halftone dots), so that characteristics such as fog, sensitivity, and gamma can be simultaneously measured from the characteristic curve. can be grasped. Further, the present invention will be explained by examples, but the present invention is not limited to the examples only. Example 1 "Dot generator type color separation scanner DC-350 (manufactured and sold by Dr. Ingenier Rudolf Herr of Germany) was applied on Fuji Scanner Film LS500 (a film manufactured and sold by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.). Exposure using Fujiris liquid developer HS (scanner)
-1 (developing solution manufactured and sold by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.) at a solution temperature of 27°C for 1 minute and 40 seconds to obtain a diamond-shaped dot area ratio of 50%.
Created an original screen with 500 lines. Next, in order to make a strip similar to the one shown in Figure 2, first cut out 500 pieces of GRAPIKA (cut mask film manufactured and sold by Daicel Corporation), which is a cut mask film for framing.
A cut mask was prepared for pasting the line screen at each position. Next, in order to create a 500-line screen, we used a DS Akishiro printer D605 (a printer manufactured and sold by Dainippon Screen (KK)), and used the original screen mentioned above to create a screen with a dot area ratio of 40.
The printer's exposure count was adjusted so that the exposure was % (Position A). Furthermore, the exposure count of the printer was adjusted so that the dot area ratio of the 500 lines exposed to the adjacent position B was 45%. In this way, 500-line screens with dot area ratios of 50%, 55%, and 60% were printed in close contact (positions
d, ho). This contact-baked film was developed under the same developing conditions as described above, and was pasted onto each cut mask (FIG. 2, A to H) with the emulsion side facing the mask side to form a screen. Printing sensitive material for bright rooms KUV-100 (Fuji Photo Film)
A strip was prepared by printing on a transparent support (thickness: 100 μm, manufactured by Co., Ltd.) using the above screen and back exposure as shown in FIG. This strip was developed using the following developer. Automatic developer: FG-24 Pacolor (manufactured by Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.) Development temperature and time: 27°C, 100 seconds The following developers A, B, and C were used, respectively. Developer-A

[Table] Developer-B A developer in which developer-A was air oxidized to have a free sulfite ion [SO ^-- ₃ ] of 3.0g/. Developer-C: A developer in which developer-A is air oxidized to have a free sulfite ion [SO ^-- ₃ ] of 1.0 g/. When we measured the halftone dot area of the patch corresponding to part C in Figure 2 on the strips developed with developing solutions -A, -B, and -C, we obtained the results shown in Figure 3. It was done. As shown in Figure 3, there is an almost direct relationship between the degree of air oxidation of the developer, that is, the amount of [SO ^-- ₃ ], and the blackened area of the area (C), that is, the dot area ratio. The degree of air oxidation of the developer can be estimated from the dot area ratio.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 shows an exposure method showing an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a plan view of a strip, and Figure 3 shows the concentration of sulfite ions in the developer (horizontal axis) and the dot area ratio (%) on the strip (vertical axis). This is a graph showing the relationship between the two axes. 1... Screen, 2... Printing sensitive material (strip), 3... Halftone dot axis, 4... Transparent support or matte film with a high degree of haze, 5... Emulsion surface, 6... Transparent support.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. On the printing photosensitive material for bright room, the emulsion side of the printing photosensitive material and
A process control strip characterized in that a latent image is formed by exposing the halftone dot surface of a screen having a screen line count of 300 lines/inch or more at a distance of 70 to 200 microns.