How to create high quality, low cost prints.
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The Best Way to Preserve Your Digital Pictures
What happens to your digital photos after you've taken them? Chances are they get uploaded into a computer and then largely forgotten. Maybe you'll email a few copies to friends and relatives and perhaps make a few prints of the better shots. But, for most people, digital photographs remain largely in their original form. And that's very risky!
Sure, you may create extra copies and store them on CDs, DVDs or external hard drives. But none of these systems is foolproof and it's all too easy to lose your pictures when something goes wrong. Disks are easily damaged; drives can crash or stored data may be corrupted. Once digital files have been lost, they can be impossible to retrieve. Printed pictures, on the other hand, can be seen, touched and enjoyed today, tomorrow - and even by future generations. And you can make as many copies as you need - easily and cost-effectively.
Printing your digital photos is by far the best way to safeguard them against disk failures and drive crashes. It's also the best way to preserve today's memories for your children and grandchildren and the easiest way to share them with your nearest and dearest.
Although it may be fun to view images on a screen (and it's certainly cheap and convenient) nothing beats a print you can hold in your hand - and no screen image has the emotional impact of a printed enlargement. Almost any inkjet printer you buy today will accept both A4 and snapshot-sized (15 x 10 cm) paper and most can produce prints that match the quality of the best photolab prints - usually within a minute or less.
Printing at home is also much more convenient. You can print a photo any time you want instead of having to rely on store-based printing. This is important for people who live in rural areas and outer suburbs that may be many kilometers from the nearest camera store or printing outlet.
Many photo enthusiasts are drawn to home-based printing because it provides by far the cheapest way to produce poster-sized enlargements. With the latest high-quality A3+ printers, they can produce better prints than we have ever been able to obtain from traditional printing processes and have total control over the printing process.
Printing at home provides five major benefits:
1. Richer, deeper colours with more subtle tonal transitions.
2. Significantly greater print longevity.
3. Greater control over printing parameters.
4. Easier printer operation.
5. Cheaper materials cost for prints of A5 size and larger.
And that's not just for colour prints; with many photo inkjets, black-and-white printing is also possible with outstanding image quality. And it doesn't matter whether you start with a colour or monochrome image. Furthermore, you can introduce subtle tones to monochrome prints, thereby turning digital photographs into works of art you'll want to frame and display.
For these reasons, we think more people should print their digital photos. Currently, almost 20% of Australians own some kind of photo printer. Most are multi-function models that include a scanner/copier. This versatility is great for families and casual photographers. Some are dedicated snapshot printers, while a few play the role of 'digital darkroom' for photo enthusiasts.
We're targeting this fifth edition of our popular Printing Digital Photos pocket guide at digital photographers who want to explore home-based printing and those who want to fine-tune their printing expertise. We've also included some tips that will help you to save money and advice on how to get the best results from your home printer.
As in previous editions, we begin with a chapter on choosing the most appropriate printer for your requirements. Other chapters cover ink and paper selection, setting up images for printing and using printer drivers. For serious enthusiasts we have included chapters on ICC profiles, colour management, proofing and printing raw files. We've also added a chapter on monochrome printing that includes advice on scanning old photos.
Like the other pocket guides in the Photo Review series, Printing Digital Photos is a companion publication to Photo Review Australia magazine, which is published quarterly, carries inspirational portfolios and features on shooting and editing as well as brief reviews of the latest imaging products. Comprehensive reviews of the latest printers and cameras are regularly posted on the Photo Review website (www.photoreview.com.au/reviews), which will also keep you advised about new products, often ahead of their local release. There's a wealth of additional information online about many aspects of digital photography for both novice and expert digital photographers.
If you're in the market for a printer, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the huge range of different types and models in the stores. To find the right model you must sift through the options on show, and find the right type of printer for your requirements. The tips in the box on this page will help you make a wise choice. ... [more]The printing heads in inkjet printers are precision-engineered to perform a specific function: placing thousands of tiny ink droplets accurately on a sheet of paper to create a photo print. Ink is a critical component in the system. Each printer manufacturer formulates inks to meet the needs of the print heads in printers in their range. In some cases there is a different set of inks for each individual printer; in others, one ink set can be used with several models in the range. ... [more]Choosing the correct paper is vital if you want high-quality, durable prints of digital photos. The paper must have exactly the right level of absorbency to accept the ink but be able to prevent the ink from spreading. General-purpose office papers are usually too absorbent and can't reproduce either the fine detail or vibrant colours that characterise good photo prints. Most digital camera users know you must use photo quality paper if you want prints that look and feel like traditional photo prints.
... [more]If you're printing directly from a camera or memory card, you simply select the images for printing, set the output size and hit the Print button. No more effort is required. A few printers provide basic adjustments for brightness and colour settings (making sepia or B&W prints) and some include cropping and resizing and/or red-eye correction. But generally, if you want any more control of the printing process you must connect the printer to a computer and work through a software application. ... [more]Printer drivers are software applications that enable the computer to communicate the data to be printed into a form that can be used by the printer. Each printer has its own specific driver, which is supplied on the software disk and automatically loaded into the computer when you run the disk as part of setting up the printer. Drivers are usually specific to the computer's operating system and your computer will automatically recognise and upload the appropriate driver when the software disk is inserted. ... [more]At the heart of all colour management is a system of ICC profiles. These data sets contain information that characterises a colour input or output device in accordance with standards set up by the International Colour Consortium (ICC). Each ICC profile describes the colour attributes of a particular device by defining the most saturated colours the device can produce in a standard colour space. ... [more]In an ideal world, you would be able to point your digital camera at a subject, take the photo and then make prints that either match reality or improve upon it. But, in the real world, your camera must communicate with your computer which, in turn has to 'talk' with your printer. In this process, colour information is passed along a chain and re-interpreted by each device. This chain is known as a 'workflow'. ... [more]If you are forced to print with an uncalibrated monitor and rely on a non-colour-managed workflow, you can waste a lot of ink and paper. However, there's an easy way to minimise the amount of paper you use to check the image will print correctly: make test strips. Here's how to go about it. ... [more] |