unevenness

Definition: Unwanted variation in processing activity, density, lighting or other desired effect. Unevennes is in the eye of the device One of the hidden traps in imaging is the subtle and usually irritating ways in which unevenness makes its presence felt -- mostly late in the day. The usual problem is that something which looks perfectly smooth and even in one device or mode, becomes uneven in another. For example the slide on the light-box looks fine until you scan it or the image on screen looks fine until you print it or your ink-jet print looks great until the image is printed in a book. And the point is, you then look back at the first version and, whadyouno? you can now see the unevenness. Moral: see it before it kicks you.

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