Using Printer Drivers and Editing Software

All printers come with software for producing prints. This bundled software usually reflects the price and functionality of the printer and always includes the printer driver and an editing application. An online instruction manual is sometimes provided. The functionality of the software usually reflects the price and complexity of the printer, with entry-level printers providing very simple editors, while printers designed for serious amateur and professional photographers come with more sophisticated products like Adobe’s Photoshop Elements.

Some software packages include an organiser that allows photographers to catalogue and view new images automatically as they are loaded into a computer. These applications will identify images when the camera or card reader is connected to the PC and many will automatically create a new folder into which the images can be downloaded. In most cases, this folder is tagged with the date of the download.

Printer Drivers

The most important application in the software bundle is the printer driver, which allows the printer to interact with your computer. This is normally installed from the supplied software disk before the printer is connected to a computer. Most printers come with drivers for both Windows and Macintosh PCs and manufacturers usually supply drivers for the most recent OS versions. Drivers can also be downloaded from printer manufacturers’ websites (which is handy when you mislay the software disk).

As well as allowing printer and PC to interact, printer drivers contain ‘profiles’ (or descriptions) of each type of paper that can be used with that printer. Commonly known as ‘canned’ profiles, they set the printer’s operating parameters to match the requirements of the selected paper, giving the user the best possible chance of making colour-accurate photo prints – provided the computer has been set up correctly (see Setting up a Colour Managed Workflow for details). With a colour managed set-up, in most cases selecting the correct paper profile will ensure the print matches the image displayed on the computer monitor. Without these profiles, users would have to make a series of test prints and progressively fine-tune the computer settings until the colours and tonal range in the print were correct. This can waste a lot of paper.

Because the profiles in each printer driver specify only the papers that carry the printer manufacturer’s brand, photographers who wish to use third-party papers are forced to guess which paper setting in the driver is the best match for the paper they plan to use. Some third-party manufacturers will give advice on what to set in the driver for their paper. However, a little ‘tweaking’ – and production of test strips, as outlined below – may still be required to produce good-looking prints.

Manufacturers of fine art papers (see Printing for Display) can usually provide downloadable profiles that allow their products to be used with specific printers so they perform as well as the printer manufacturer’s papers. Visit the paper manufacturer’s website for a list of printers that are supported. Be wary of using papers that come without profiles as it may take time to determine their printing characteristics. And be especially wary of papers that are branded as ‘suitable for all inkjets’.

How to Use a Printer Driver

Selecting ‘Print’ when you have a digital photo open in an image editor normally takes you to the printer driver. However, many image editors interact seamlessly with the driver software to make printing more straightforward and users may be unaware when they switch between applications. Printing a digital photograph usually involves most of the following steps – although they may not necessarily be the order in which we have presented them here.

1. Check that the correct printer has been selected.

2. Check the paper size and orientation, using the Page Layout control to adjust settings, if required.

3. Fit your image onto your paper, using the Output Size settings. Select Border-free or Borderless to print the picture to the edges of the paper. Select Fit on Page to fit the image to the paper. This may allow a small margin on two sides or all around the image. To produce a larger margin, use the Custom Size setting and key in either the image dimensions you require or the percentage of the paper you wish it to cover.

4. Selecting ‘Print’ will take you to the printer interface. Then click on ‘Properties’ to access the paper and printing settings.

5. Match the paper type to the paper you are using.

6. Select Print With Preview. This displays how the final print will look and allows you to check that the image is correctly positioned and sized. Note, the image is usually displayed at low resolution so it may look grainy and its colours and brightness levels may not match the final print because it is not colour managed.

Some printers offer a range of additional settings, including greyscale, sepia or neutral/warm/cool grey options for monochrome prints, hue, saturation and brightness adjustments and ‘Photo Enhance’ settings that optimise the printer for different image types. The latter include settings for smoothing skin tones, boosting the greens and blues in landscape shots, sharpening controls and monochrome printing settings (B&W and/or sepia).

Users of recent versions of Adobe Photoshop can access two options by selecting Print with Preview from the drop-down File menu. Choosing ‘Output’ lets you set the background colour, border width, image bleed and halftone screen and provides a graphic control (rather like the Curves control outlined in Producing Colour-Accurate Prints) for over-riding the printer’s default settings. Settings are also provided for calibration and registration bars, crop marks, labels and image presentation. Choosing ‘Colour Management’ lets you set the conditions for colour handling, the printer profile and the rendering intent. Most of these controls can be used with the default settings. More information on their use is provided in Producing Colour-Accurate Prints.

Other Software

Some printers come with software for creating projects such as calendars, greeting cards and other items. Others allow images to be stitched together to produce panoramas. Take careful note of the bundled software because it may present a point of difference that helps you to decide which of two printers represents the best value for your money. If the bundled software suite contains many applications that will be useful, the printer should be better value than a similarly-featured model with less attractive software.

Applications you can expect in the software bundle include file browsers, organisers and layout programs that allow you to print several images on a sheet of paper.

Image browsers make it easy to locate files, while layout programs for printing several images on a sheet of paper are convenient and cost-saving.

Bundled image editors tend to be simple to use, which makes them ideal for families with school-aged children and novice digital photographers. Functions like cropping, rotation, resizing, captioning and red-eye removal are commonly provided and some applications include a layout function.

Owners of some recently-released Epson printers can take advantage of a bundled software application, Epson Darkroom Print, which allows photographers to make a sample print showing variations in a key parameter, such as brightness (density), saturation, contrast or sharpness. Users can vary one or two parameters, producing either a ‘test strip’ or ‘ring-around’ style of output, each of which allows different settings to be compared.

Photographers who shoot raw files may also welcome applications that print them directly, although the range of adjustments provided is usually less than you get with a dedicated editing application that supports raw file conversion. It is usually better to convert raw files and edit them in an application like Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements before making prints. However, the ability to print raw files directly can be convenient for photographers who are on location without a computer.

Some examples of the functions provided in Epson Darkroom Print, the layout and editing application supplied with Epson photo inkjet printers. From top: metadata display; levelling and trimming; test print sampling and (above) Epson Easy RAW Print.

Using Advanced Driver Settings

Some more sophisticated printers include a range of ‘Advanced’ settings that give photographers more control over the printing process. To use them effectively, it’s important to understand how they work.

When making photo prints, to ensure the very best photo quality:

• Uncheck high speed.
• Match the Gamma setting to your computer’s operating system and the output quality required.
• Adjust the Colour setting to suit your requirements, selecting ‘Vivid’ for bright, colourful prints and ‘Natural’ for normal colour saturation levels.
• If you’re printing from Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, follow the instructions set out in Producing Colour-Accurate Prints and set the Colour Management to ICM then check No Colour Adjustment.
• For B&W prints, use any special settings the printer provides, such as PhotoEnhace neutral/warm/cool grey or sepia in the Epson Photo printers settings or the Advanced B&W Photo setting on Epson’s R2400 printer.

Two examples of advanced controls for monochrome printing showing the range of adjustments photographers can call upon when producing monochrome prints.

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