Digital Photo Printing Tips

As much fun as it is to display photos on a website or send pictures via e-mail, photo prints remain the most popular way to share images. And the benefits of home printing are numerous. With a digital darkroom at your command, you can forego the waiting and produce prints immediately.

Not to mention that printing your own photos is a real blast! Read on for sure-fire techniques for getting the best prints from your photo files.

start with a good print

You can't blame your printer when your source image is not capable of photo-realistic results. An image that merely looks good onscreen is not enough. Here's what to look for in a good print:

Use a photo with a resolution of at least 240 dpi (dots per inch). Starting with anything less may give photos a pixilated look. As always, the higher the resolution, the finer the image quality.

Save the image in the right format. Even if your image has high resolution, you'll still need to save it in the correct format - TIFF or JPEG, with low resolution.  Generally speaking, more compression equals less quality. File formats that use compression techniques are okay only if the amount of compression used is not too great.

Clear up and crop your image whenever necessary. Use a good image-editing program (e.g., PhotoShop or PaintShop Pro) to get rid of annoying dust marks and specks on your photos. (The printer will pick them up even if they're very small.) You can also use the sharpening filter in your image-processing program to enhance the edges in your print.

With a wide variety of options on the market, choosing a printer is tough.

Here you'll find basic information on what to look for, followed by tips on maximizing your printing power for the best possible results.

What dpi do I look for? You'll want a printer with at least four colours. And you'll want at least 600-dpi resolution for consumer-level photo output.

Beyond dpi. Dpi isn't everything. HP's enhanced Colour-Layering Technology (PhotoREt I-III) takes the process one step further. It provides a wide range of smoother, more realistic colours for true-to-life images. The key is in the layering of ink drops, which together create a total image, resulting in as many as 17 levels of intensity per primary colour.

Do I need a photo printer? You don't have to have a "photo" printer to achieve photo-quality prints. You can buy a good inkjet printer that, when using specially coated paper, delivers quality that looks almost as good as a photo finisher. If you need a general printer for both photo and business use, this may be the way to go.

But if your business relies on superior photos, or you want to devote a printer solely to photographic purposes, check out what photo printers offer. Often they have special features (like photo paper trays) and offer higher print resolution. Another useful feature to be on the lookout for is optical media sensing - which means no longer wasting expensive paper when you forget to change print settings.

use the right paper
Once you have a quality image that you want to print, the next step is to choose the right paper. Different paper produces different results in terms of colour reproduction because ink reacts differently with different paper types. You'll get the best results if you use paper specifically designed for your printer. (Be sure to test a variety of paper types before buying large quantities.)

Once you've found photo paper that works well for you, experiment with specialty papers like canvas, watercolour, and metallic. Try a floral shot on watercolour paper, for example. Or for a fine-art print, consider a rarer surface such as canvas paper.

Here's what to look for in photo paper:

Whiteness. For photo or picture printing, keep in mind that whiter papers produce sharper, more vibrant colours. Ink is translucent. Light passes through it and bounces off the paper, then passes back through the ink. The paper colour, therefore, affects the colour you see when you print.

Weight. We're talking more about thickness than actual weight here. Some projects - like calendars - require a heavier paper stock. But if it's too thick, it could jam up your printer. Some papers are so thin that if you tried printing on both sides, the ink comes through. Again, you'll want to experiment here and find what works best.

Surface. For printouts with crisp lines and intense, high-quality colours, the surface of the paper is key.

Glossy paper produces vibrant colour but is susceptible to fingerprints. So matte paper might be a better choice for prints that will be handled often.

Be careful with extremely smooth, shiny, or coated papers not specifically designed for your printer. They can cause jams and even repel ink.

use your printer correctly

Driver settings. Use the most current version of the printer driver available for your printer. Then be sure to set your preferences to the highest print quality. Try all the options the printer driver offers you - sometimes you can find variables like advanced colour settings that will improve your prints.

Resolution setting. Printing at an output resolution of 240 to 300 dpi is a safe bet for top-quality photos.

Paper setting. Make sure you're using the right setting for your chosen paper: e.g., "Photo Paper." Generally, the paper settings control the amount of ink that is put on the paper. "Plain Paper" setting uses the most ink, for example, while the "Glossy Film" and "Photo Paper" settings use the least. When you find a setting that works for a particular paper type, save it and give it a name you can remember.

Keep it clean. Run the cleaner function in your printer every now and then to get maximal efficiency from your printer.

what’s next?
 

To find out about the latest range of digital photo printers available to you, call 08451 304060 or click on our yellow 'shop HP' button above.