Reference articles on history, science, culture and more
Encyclopedia

Printer point

In photography, a printer point is a unit of relative exposure, in printing a negative, equal to a 1/12 of a stop or 0.025 Log(base 10) unit (one-fortieth of a decade) of exposure ratio.

This numbering scheme is used in photographic printing and photographic filters. Printer points were also used to specify color timing for photochemical film processing, particularly for motion pictures shot on film.

Increasing or decreasing the light by twelve points increases or decreases the exposure by a factor of two. Such adjustments are used for darkness and color adjustment in photographic enlargers, for example. A one-stop change in the exposure of a negative may require only an adjustment of about 6 to 8 printer points in printing, depending on the gamma of the film.

Watch videos about Printer pointExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Printer point, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.