Easy Digital Negatives is a free program and procedure designed to make corrections of incorrect shades on transparent digital negatives. The method is mainly used for printing photographs with old and alternative photographic processes.
One or more EDN tools can be used to create a transparent digital negative.
EDN Basic and EDN Expert make basic corrections that, in most cases, print a very good negative. The most modest user will most often use the EDN Basic program because it produces a reasonably accurate correction of the negative. The result is only a few clicks away. And this correction far exceeds the quality of the so-called standard curves found in many books or websites. EDN Expert is designed for demanding users. It allows the use of spectrophotometers and displays a much larger number of different data and files with corrected data.
EDN ColorBlocker is used to create images using photographic techniques that have a limited dynamic range of tones. With the help of colored negatives, we significantly increase the number of printer’s colors that can be used to print the negative1. The program calculates the most suitable color for printing negatives and the color that most blocks UV light.
The Fine Tuning EDN program is the final step in producing a negative. It is aimed at “overly precise” users who want to put every tone in the correct position and create a “great” negative2.
Advantages of EDN
- Easy Digital Negatives (EDN) is a scripting program that works on most modern Internet browsers. As a result, it works on all devices (PC, tablet, smartphone;…) that have a web browser with the ability to execute javascript commands.
- EDN works on all operating systems (macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, …).
- You do not need a specific printer type to use EDN since it works on all printers. You can use all the brands and models of printers, even the cheapest.
- You can use any transparent film to make digital negatives. You can even make paper negatives.
- You can print transparencies with any color. No particular color is needed.
- You can use any camera, any scanner, or different spectrophotometers to measure the results.
- Easy Digital Negatives does not require any additional programs such as Excel, Numbers, Access, etc.
- A raster image processor (RIP) is unnecessary.
- The script Easy Digital Negatives is one of the most comfortable and accurate digital negatives programs available. You don’t need a Ph.D. to work, and you don’t need to know the basics of programming or a degree in computer or mathematics.
- No credit card is required to run the program. The program Easy Digital Negatives is free.
Requirements
There are no specific requirements for EDN. All you need is a computer. Any operating system with a web browser, any device that can print an image. Any transparent film or even paper, and of course a photo editing program.
- Of course, this does not apply to print with printers that have a large number of “black” colors installed.
- Despite the different claims, perfect negatives do not exist, since they cannot be accurately measured. For example, if the same point is measured several times with a professional spectrophotometer, the result will never be the same. Moving the spectrophotometer and measuring values on a new, white art paper will result in a 1% standard deviation. This is due to the uneven, organic structure of the paper. When measuring the same shade of color or emulsion, which was manually applied to paper, there is already a 2% deviation. The complete negative, therefore, does NOT exist.