In recent years, in the field of graphic arts, for the labor-saving, rationalization, and improvement of working conditions, a technology has been required to switch the conventional dark-room film-making, i.e., the so-called contact printing process, over to a day-light film making and, with those purposes, many improvements have been made on photographic light-sensitive materials and the equipments such as printers.
The photographic light-sensitive materials, which may be handled in day light room, include those photosensitive to light emitted from a light-source richly emitting UV rays, such as a ultra-high pressure mercury lamp, a metal halide light source, a xenon lamp, and a halogen lamp. These silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials can be handled under a normal fluorescent lamp as bright as 100 to 300 lux or a fluorescent lamp for exclusive use from which emits a small quantity of UV rays.
While these photographic light-sensitive materials have such advantages as mentioned above, they have such disadvantages as are liable to produce the so-called pin-hole trouble in blackened images got after they are developed.
The term, pin-hole, herein means a phenomenon that a white spot having a size of about 30 .mu.m or smaller is produced in a blackened image. As the spot is in the circuler or amorphous shape and it looks as if it were made by piercing with a pin, so it has been named so.
From a film for contacting with a minute halftone dot image, any image reproduction fidelity cannot be got, if the film itself has abnormal images such as pin-holes in blackened areas. Therefore, the resulting pin-holes must be made cope with an opaque-treatment such as a spotting or image retouching work, so that the operation efficiency has been remarkably lowered.
From the view point of the above-described circumstances, there have been strong demands for a day-light processing film in which pin-holes can hardly be produced.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds