Alberto Jolyt Cárdenas

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Termofilm

Video → thermal-printer tickets → scans → video. Also known as TicketFramer.

Epson TM-T20II thermal printer printing a 1-bit ticket

Built for my short film Ascuas: the scenes of inner desire are printed as thermal tickets, scanned and reassembled into video.

The process:

  • A video clip becomes a run of tickets: each frame is dithered to 1-bit, 576 px wide at 203 dpi.
  • An Epson TM-T20II thermal printer prints them; the tickets are cut and laid out on A4 sheets.
  • The sheets are scanned at 600 dpi in grayscale, with no auto-adjustments.
  • Identity markers on every ticket let the scans reassemble in order, back into video.
Four printed Termofilm tickets on a scanner bed, with identity markers and frame codes
Printed tickets on the scanner bed, with identity markers
Dithering test strip on thermal paper: native Floyd–Steinberg, then clustered dot 8 and 6 with a tone curve, over a test portrait
Dithering test strip: native Floyd–Steinberg vs clustered dot 8 and 6 with tone curve
Termofilm calibration sheet, 576 px at 203 dpi: marker sizes, dithering levels, a black bar and a ruler to check the print head
The calibration sheet the tool prints to measure the real print head.

Building something like this? The CV has the rest.

Download CV rampi63@gmail.com