[ Matthew's inquiry about printing history and contemporary
 [ technology is a good introduction to a discussion of the methods
 [ available to make replacement labels and tune cards, etc.,
 [ for musical boxes, music books and music rolls. -- Robbie

How Do Desktop Printers Convert Color Images To Printed Images
Using Ink Cartridges

I have been watching the amazing performance of my Olympus digital
camera, my computer, and my HP color printer, which all work as a
team to transfer a color JPEG file, stored on my camera, to as many
full-color paper copies as I require.

The system does that efficiently and flawlessly at lightning speed!
But I can't begin to imagine the discoveries and inventions that have
made it possible to electronically control the complex process involved.

First, how does my digital camera analyze the image being photographed,
determine the tone of each of the array of colors in it, and record
all the data in electronic form on a removable data disc or stick?
It does all this with one click of the camera's shutter button.

Then how -- when I insert the removable data disc or stick into my
computer/color-printer system -- does the system use those electronic
data to tell the printer-cartridge carrier, (which begins moving
rapidly back and forth above the sheet of paper being printed on)
where exactly to deposit ink on the paper in the correct position
required and in the correct color combination to duplicate the
original image photographed by my Olympus camera?

The ingenious printer system does all this fast and flawlessly,
using ink in four separate cartridges: black, yellow, cyan, and
magenta. By proper blending of those colors, the finished paper
picture produces a fair copy of the original Olympus-captured
electronic image.

The unimaginable bank of electronic data required to effect this
miraculous result must have taken zillions of tiny developmental
inputs over the recent few decades since the invention of computer
electronics to get us to where we are without film or photographic
processing.

I would love to know more about how computer color photography and
printing came to be. But I suppose I never will.

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York