A minilab is a small photographic developing and printing system or machine, as opposed to large centralized photo developing labs. Many retail stores use film or digital minilabs to provide on-site photo finishing services.
With the increase in popularity of digital photography, the demand for film development has decreased. This means that the larger labs capable of processing 30,000-40,000 films a day are going out of business, and more retailers are installing minilabs.
Photographic printing is the process of producing a final image on paper for viewing, using chemically sensitized paper. The paper is exposed to a photographic negative, a positive transparency (or slide), or a digital image file projected using an enlarger or digital exposure unit such as a LightJet or Minilab printer. Alternatively, the negative or transparency may be placed atop the paper and directly exposed, creating a contact print. Digital photographs are commonly printed on plain paper, for example by a color printer, but this is not considered "photographic printing".
Following exposure, the paper is processed to reveal and make permanent the latent image.
LightJet is a brand of hardware used for photographic printing of digital images to photographic paper and film. LightJet printers are no longer manufactured but are however remanufactured and resold; and their lasers are still manufactured; and there are all parts at service company in Israel.LightJet produces significantly higher-quality results than most common inkjet printers available today. However, performing the task is not as convenient or easy as with inkjet. LightJet requires a developing machine with chemical materials and densitometry equipmentLightJet is a trademark of Océ Display Graphics Systems, a division of Océ N.V. (the company that acquired Cymbolic Sciences, Inc.) In 2010 Océ was acquired by Canon of Japan. The term "LightJet" is often used to generically describe a digitally made chromogenic print. Competing manufactures of equipment include ZBE Chromira and Durst Lambda. They may be used in Minilabs.