Once the curve is generated, what's left is turning each image you want to print into a printable digital negative. That's what the Negative module does. You import an image (JPEG, HEIC, PNG, WebP, AVIF — RAW isn't implemented yet), you pick your target process, you adjust the layout options, and the app applies the corrective curve from the current calibration before generating the print-ready file.
The module isn't a black box. Every one of the options has a precise effect we can document — why a black background rather than white, what the registration marks are for, when to turn on dithering, when to flip horizontally, which resolution to choose. These choices change what you see on the final print. One page per option, except when two options complement each other (size and orientation, for example, are handled together).
Special case: CMYK four-color. Vision Picturale's color Aquaprint breaks the image down into four layers — Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black — each printed separately on a transparency and then exposed in turn on the same paper. Calibration Flow generates the four negatives in a single operation, with aligned registration marks. The Negative module includes a dedicated page for this four-color process, which deserves its own vocabulary.
#What you'll find here
- Export options — the inventory of options (size, DPI, orientation, background, frame, registration, dither, mirror), what they do, how they interact.
- Dither — when to turn on screening. Auto mode by default (AM halftone rotated 54°, 60-110 LPI range depending on DPI), Floyd-Steinberg available as an alternative for very fine transitions.
- Registration marks — aligning multiple layers (CMYK, multi-color gum bichromate). Small CMY mini-Venns — not plain crosses — positioned around the image, telling you at a glance whether your transparencies are correctly stacked.
- CMYK four-color — the color Aquaprint workflow: decomposition, print order, transparency handling, registration.
- Frame and background — choosing a thin or thick frame, a black or white background. Not trivial: this is what defines the final outline of the print.
- Mirror and orientation — when to flip horizontally (contact processes where the emulsion faces the negative), how to switch from landscape to portrait without distorting.
#Getting started
You're making your first black-and-white negative for cyanotype. You only need five default options. Read Export options in 10 minutes, ignore CMYK and registration marks for now.
You're diving into CMYK four-color Aquaprint. Read in order: CMYK four-color, then Registration marks. Budget 25 minutes — the color workflow has its own logic you need to grasp before printing four transparencies.
You work by contact (direct-emulsion process). Mirror and orientation — the horizontal-flip rule applies to every contact process where the paper's emulsion faces the negative's image.
You're getting banding or moiré on your prints. Dither — check that auto mode is on (AM halftone by default) or switch to Floyd-Steinberg: both fix the printer artifacts that render flat grays badly, but their visual grain differs.