If you want to design your own slides on a computer, I don't think you would get great images from a standard printer. Most printers have a resolution of about 300 dots per inch which would result in some grainy slides.
The usual way to make slides is to use a film recorder, which use's a special camera to shoot off a high resolution CRT. It can be quite expensive to use this method but the results are very good.
There is a company local to me that provides this service: www.multiprintimaging.co.uk/
You just have to provide the artwork as a computer file.
One of our projectionists makes colour slides on his computer, and some black & white on a photo copier by sandwiching two gels together for black. The slide lantern is of the older type and takes size 4” x 3” slides.
A very large ‘Welcome To The Regal Cinema ~ Cranleigh’ is projected onto the curtains only, 15 seconds before the beginning of the programme with the Carlton adverts.
Other slides are to caption the Trailers with, ‘From Friday’ , ‘Friday Week’ , ‘Coming Soon’ , all including the certificate ratings. There is a ‘Coffee’ & ‘Ice Cream’ slide that is superimposed onto the black area of the sales trailer which only promotes soft drinks and popcorn.
On selected big releases we also project an image of the film mostly taken from the poster design, onto the curtains for 20 seconds before the censor certificate opens, and with an overture giving a roadshow type of presentation. Recent presentation slides have been for, Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings, and - Monsters, Inc.
Although slides are manually loaded, they are pulse timed on & off by Cinemation type automation.
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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 585-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 585-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion