Printing

Practice. There is a little more to it than that, but in spite of all the advertising hype about photo realistic prints, making the best prints is not a science, but rather a craft. You get better as you make a print, evaluate it, make adjustments and try again. Here are some tips on getting better prints from a photo quality inkjet printer:

Be sure the dpi (resolution) of your image file is correct. All inkjet printers today are optimized for an image at 200-300 dpi at the printed size. The printer resolution is how the dots of ink are laid down on the paper by the printer and has nothing to do with the dpi of the actual image file. Image dpi higher or lower than 200-300 dpi (the actual number will vary depending on the printer, the paper used and your personal preference) will produce worse images from the printer. A high dpi for printer resolution can help make the image more photo-realistic to a degree, but this also depends on the pattern of how the inkjet puts the ink down.

 
Paper, paper, paper. You must use the right paper, a paper optimized for digital images. There are many choices available now, from glossy to mat to canvas surfaces, but the paper must be white enough and coated properly for inkjet inks.

Set the driver carefully. When you go to print, check on the printer's properties. You must choose the proper image quality (usually best) and the right paper. You may have to experiment with a couple of sheets of paper to get the right setting if your particular paper isn't listed. Select "color management" (such as ICM) if your printer driver has it.

Test. Try a print, evaluate it, make adjustments to the photo and print again.

Can a photo lab print from my digital file?

If you have the right file, absolutely. There are some distinct advantages to a lab print, too. Labs are set up to make good prints time-after-time, day-after-day. They can give you prints on traditional photo papers. These papers are more permanent than inkjet prints and will last as long as any color print. You can get larger prints more easily from a photo lab. Some of the newest digital printers do superb prints for sizes 11x14, 16x20, 20x30 and even larger.

Prints from a photo lab have more traditional heft and texture to them, which some people prefer. You can have multiple copies printed fairly fast (inkjets print out images one-at-a-time, slowly). The right file will be determined by the lab, so always check with them. Usually, it will be a JPEG file, with enough data to drive the size of print you need. This will depend on the type of digital printer the lab is using. They may ask for a file size (e.g., 20 MB) or a photo size (8x10-inches at 300 dpi). It is also a good idea to send along a small inkjet proof print if you can so the lab knows what you expect the image to look like. 

How can I get a picture into a newsletter?

Digital cameras, scanners or photo disks (Photo CD or Picture Disks) all work fine as a source for your digital images. You will need a design or publishing program (software that is made to integrate digital images and text together) for best results.

You can use a word-processing program, but most of them tend to be harder to use for newsletters and similar things than design/publishing programs.

Here are the steps:

• Select your photo: and get it into digital form onto your hard drive (scan it, use a digital camera file or take it from a disk).
• Resize it: Open it in an image-processing program to make sure the picture is the right size.

You'll want to have a photo file that gives you approximately the size you expect to use, for example, 4x5-inches, at 300 dpi (a safe setting that works with all inkjet printers). You can resize your image later if you decide to make it bigger or smaller in the actual newsletter. Be sure you resize larger digital images down if you use them smaller or you will bog down your computer with excess data to deal with. You'll need to get a bigger photo (rescan or a different file) if you decide to make a picture larger. If you just make a photo in your newsletter bigger without the right size file to support it, it will never look its best. Save your photo in the right type of file. All design/publishing programs will recognize and import JPEG files. Open your design/publishing program. Use the tool that allows you to draw in a photo box to mark a place for your photo. Import the photo into the box. Sometimes you can double click on the photo box or it will be in the menu. Find your file and bring it in. Size it carefully in your newsletter and note the size. Be sure that final size is close to the size of the image as it came from the image processing program. Don't make your digital images too small. A big mistake in many newsletters is that too many digital images are crammed on a page. That makes them hard to read and understand for the reader. A thin black line for a border can make lighter digital images stand out better on the page and often gives a picture a classy look.

Dye Sublimation is a printing process where the color dyes are thermally transferred to the printing media. Dye sub printers use the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color format and have either three ribbons (cyan, magenta and yellow) or high-end printers have four CMY plus a blacK. The paper is run in and out of the printer four times, once for each color and then a fourth time when a protective overcoat is applied.

Dye sub is continuous tone printing. It prints tiny square dots each of which is denser in the center and lighter on the edges. These dots can be varied from almost no dot at all to an almost completely solid dot. The dyes are transparent so different colored dots can be printed on top of each other to form any one of 16-million colors. This is known as the subtractive color process. Dye sub prints rival conventional photographs in both their color gamut and longevity with water and UV resistant qualities.

For the sake of accuracy we must state that most printers today that claim to be dye sub type printers are actually dye diffusion. The complete technical name for this process is Dye Diffusion Thermal or "D2T" printing. To achieve true sublimation printing requires a laser to vaporize the dye material. The common 4x6" dye sub or the bigger ones that do up to 8x10" prints heat the dye material with a thermal printhead and use pressure rollers to push the ribbon into contact with the paper and then diffusion occurs.

• Color Copier - Color printing device using electrostatic and CMYK Pigments.
• EPP - Enhanced Parallel Port - the newer hi-speed, bidirectional printer port on modern computers. Some older digicams and scanners use the EPP port to transfer data.
• PictBridge - PictBridge is a new standard for direct printing from digital cameras to inkjet photo printers without the use of a computer. To get more information please go to the CIPA PictBridge web page.
• PIM - PRINT Image Matching - Epson's standard of embedded color and printing information for digital cameras. Many of the camera manufacturers have joined with Epson and now embed the PIM information in the Exif header of the JPEG images created. Epson just announced at PMA 2002 the new Exif 2.2 standard incorporating their PIM info. See the Epson PIM web site.
• IEEE-1284 - This is the high-speed bidirectional parallel port specification, used by printers and devices like card readers.
• Exif Print - Exif Print (Exif 2.2) is a new worldwide printer independent standard. Under Exif 2.2, the digital still camera can record data tags for specific camera settings and functions such as whether the flash was on or off, if the camera was in landscape, portrait or night scene mode, etc. Referencing some or all of this information, an Exif Print compatible application can process digital camera images intelligently based on specific camera settings and the shooting environment.
• Full Bleed - Printing term used when an image or inked area extends to the edge of all four sides of the printed piece. Better known as "borderless" in today's world of inkjet photo printers.
• Halftone Image - An image reproduced through a special screen made up of dots of various sizes to simulate shades of gray in a photograph. Typically used for newspaper or magazine reproduction of images but it is also how today's inkjet printers work. Halftoning or dithering are the methods used to produce a smooth gradation of color versus distinct bands of color or moirč patterns.
• Moirč - A visible pattern that occurs when one or more halftone screens are misregistered in a color image. Often produces a colored checkerboard or rainbow pattern.