Digital Photography Printing: Simplifying
the Pixels and DPI's by John Sollars
Digital photography printing has opened new avenues for amateur and professional
photographers alike. For most photographers, the backup of digital photography printing offers unprecedented freedom to get
the best shots. No more worrying about wasting that precious piece of film running out, in addition to not knowing for sure
that anything worthwhile is on it!
However, when it comes to getting the printing done, there are a few things
one should keep in mind to prevent wasting too much of quality photo paper, and the costly printing ink. In this article,
we'll review a few basic terms related to digital photography and offer a few tips on getting the best prints.
Resolution Resolution refers to the 'image-sharpness' of
a document, and is usually measured in dots (or pixels) per inch (DPI). It also refers to the image-sharpness that printers
and monitors are capable of reproducing. Depending on your particular needs, documents can be scanned at various resolutions.
The higher the resolution of a document, greater the image-sharpness, and larger the file size will be.
With digital photography printing in mind, the first thing you need to ensure
is that you download the pictures at their full resolution. If in the end, you have 72dpi (dots per inch) pictures, your print
quality will be useless. A 72dpi resolution is good for viewing on your computer screen, but an image with 200 to 300dpi will
give a good quality 8x10 inch print.
Pixel Pixel is short for 'Picture Element.' It is the smallest
part of a digital image, and each image is comprised of thousands or millions of pixels. This basic unit, from which a video
or computer picture is made, is essentially a dot with a given colour and brightness value. The more pixels an image has,
the higher the resolution of that image will be. One Megapixel is equal to one million pixels.
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is a standards
committee that designed this image compression format. The compression format they designed is known as a 'lossy' compression,
as it deletes information from an image that it considers unnecessary. JPEG files can range from small amounts of lossless
compression to large amounts of lossy compression. This is a common standard on the World Wide Web, but the data loss generated
in its compression makes it undesirable for printing purposes.
When dealing with digital photography printing, you will mostly work with
the JPEG file format. Remember that every time you open and save a JPEG file, you lose some of the image information. Therefore,
it is advisable to do all the changes in one sitting, and then save them only once.
Resolution Guide to Quality Prints The higher number of
megapixels a camera has, the more detail an image will retain when enlarged and/or printed.
1 to 2 Megapixels Cameras with this resolution range are
sufficient for sending photos electronically via email, but are not ideal for printing photos. Most camera phones, PC camcorders,
and PC cameras have a resolution in the 1 to 2 megapixel range.
3 to 4 Megapixels Cameras with this resolution range are
good for printing and retouching the standard 4x6 inch images.
5 to 6 Megapixels Cameras with this resolution range produce
professional results when enlarging photos up to an 8x10 inch format.
7+ Megapixels Cameras with a resolution range of at least
7 megapixels promise superior quality and detail when printing or enlarging photos beyond the 11x14 inch format.
By simply looking at the file size, you will quickly learn to be an expert
judge on quality. A picture of 100kb (kilobytes) or less is most probably too low-resolution for good quality digital printing.
Once you get to a minimum size of 400kb, you are working with a more useful resolution for an 8x10 inch print.
Printing Paper If you're proud of your photographic effort,
or if you want those family shots to be available for the next generation, you will definitely want your prints to be done
on decent paper. Needless to say, in the end, your prints will be only as good as the paper you use.
There are many new coated papers available on the market specifically for
this purpose, and you should consider what is recommended for the printer you are using.
Archival paper, popular in the world of inkjet printing, is the longest-lasting
paper and it is acid-free. These printing papers don't come cheap, so plan carefully. Print only after final cropping, or
on completion of other changes, such as after the addition of a border with your imaging software.
Regular colour inkjet and laser printers are good for text and charts, but
not always best for digital photography printing. PictBridge-enabled printers allow you to print your digital photographs
directly from the camera. Portable printers, such as the HP Photosmart 320 series, allow you to take a picture and print 4x6
inch sized pictures anywhere on the move.
Incidentally, for smaller 4x6 inch prints, dye-sublimation printers give
outstanding quality prints, and they are generally waterproof. However, the materials for such printing do not come cheap!
If you cannot get satisfactory results with your own digital photography printing, especially if you're printing larger than
8x10 inch sized images, you could try one of the brick-and-mortar, or even online photo labs that make use of dedicated photo
printers with excellent results.
Photo labs can easily handle digital files directly from your memory card.
Take your digital camera, a homemade CD, or your camera's memory card along for professional quality digital photography printing.
About the Author
John Sollars is the managing director of Solar Electronics, which are both
ink and pc peripheral suppliers based in Shropshire, UK. To access a comprehensive online shop of original and re-manufactured
hp and canon inks please visit http://www.mega-office.co.uk
Five
Tips for Finding the Right Photo Printer by Karl Smith
Because there are so many photo printers on the market these days, it can be difficult to easily find the one that is right
for you. A lot of photo printers advertise features and statistics that might not mean a whole lot to most people. HP has
Vivera inks; Epson has UltraChrome. What's the difference? Who knows. The HP Photosmart 8450 has a resolution of 4800 x 1200;
the Epson Stylus R320 has 5760 x 1440. Are you going to notice that difference? Hard to say. With so many minor differences
between different models and different manufacturers, it is better to focus on the big issues, like the following:
1. Decide how serious you are about photo printing. You can spend anywhere from $50 to $500 or more on a photo printer,
so you need to figure out if this is something you are really interested in or just something you want for occasional use.
Unless you are a professional or someone who plans on selling your prints in some way, you probably don't need to spend over
$200. There are plenty of models in that price range and most should give you good results.
2. Figure out which features you will actually use on a regular basis. Photo printers are packed with extra features these
days, including color LCDs, memory card slots and inputs for digital cameras. But how often are you really going to use these
things? Many of the features advertised on photo printers involve using the printer as a standalone machine - in other words
printing without the use of your computer. That may sound neat, but in reality how many people print pictures directly from
their camera or memory card without looking at them on their computer? Viewing and editing photos on a 2″ screen is
just not very practical. Also, while it does make the printer menu easier to use, you might find that a feature like an LCD
has little practical use.
3. Try to narrow it down to one brand. This may be easier said than done, but things will be much easier if you can focus
on one brand and not have to worry about comparing different technologies and terminology. Think about your past experiences
or what others have told you about their own printers. For instance, if you are sick of your old Epson inkjet printer jamming,
then maybe it's time to try a Canon.
4. Do a side-by-side comparison of specifications and user reviews. While we did say that the descriptions and specifications
on photo printers can be confusing, once you have narrowed it down to two or three printers, there is really no other way
for you to tell the difference. You can't properly test out the photo quality yourself, so all you can rely on are the specifications
and what others say about the printers. Online user feedback can be slightly skewed sometimes though. One, there might not
be enough reviews to get an accurate assesment. Two, people have the tendency to seek out a place to express their frustations
rather than their happiness. If you are content with your printer, then you probably aren't going to go out of your way to
find a review site and write up a review about how the photo printer does exactly what it should. But if you are unhappy with
it, you will be glad to go through the trouble to let whole world know how much the printer stinks. That being said, if you
notice the same comments being repeated at different trusted sources of reviews, like CNET and Amazon, it is probably safe
to say they are pretty accurate
5. Do you actually need a dedicated photo printer? Well, of course not. Nobody needs a photo printer. What we mean is do
you need a printer that just prints photos well and doesn't really do much else? Would you be better off buying an all-in-one
printer that could also print photos? Each printer manufacturer only has a certain number of inkjet cartridges, so the photo
printer you are looking at might use the same cartridges as a more useful multifunction machine. There will be some small
differences between the results from different machines, but those differences might be negated by the additional features
you get.
About the Author
Karl Smith lives and breathes ink. He writes printer reviews and product trouble shooting guides at Pacific Ink.
Printing your photos at home - useful tips and hints for best
quality by Ziv Haparnas
Digital photography revolutionized the way in which we take, view and share photos and also the way in which we print them.
Many digital photos never get printed but there are still many of us who prefer tangible paper prints. Photos can be printed
using a professional service (in-store or online) or at home. In this article we will give you tips for getting quality prints
at home.
A few years ago getting high quality prints at home was an expensive task that was only suitable for semi-professionals
who could afford it and who had the know-how. Today low cost printers can generate amazing quality prints and sophisticated
software can do most of the processing work behind the scenes. The result is that even amateur photographers can generate
very high quality prints by pressing a single Print button.
There are a few simple tips to follow that can help in getting higher quality prints:
Edit your photos: make sure that you print exactly the photo that you want printed. Using simple photo
editing tools (such as Photoshop or even Windows built-in Paint application) you can crop a photo to include just the area
you are interested in or crop out parts which you do not want in the print. For example you took a photo of a group of friends
but on the left corner of the photo there is a bystander that just happened to be there. You can crop the photo to include
only your friends and thus effectively eliminate the unwanted object from the print.
When cropping photos always remember aspect-ratio - depending on the paper and the printer you're using sometimes you're
limited to a certain photo size. For example if you print on a special 4X6 photo paper any source photo that is not in a 4X6
aspect ratio will have to be either stretched, cropped or parts of the print will be left blank. Make sure that you crop your
photo to fit a specific aspect ratio if you're printing on a specific aspect-ratio paper.
More photo processing can be done in order to enhance your prints. It can include red-eye removal (many software packages
will do it for you automatically) contrast enhancement and more. For example if a portion of the photo that is important to
you is a bit dark - you can "stretch" the color palette in a way that this section will look more lit and detailed. This will
usually be on the expense of "overexposing" other portions of the photo that you care less about.
Always remember photo resolution: Every photo is built out of pixels. The more pixels in a photo the higher
the photo resolution is. We will not get into details here about the correlation between mega pixels and print quality but
a general rule of thumb is that to get good print quality you need 300 pixels per inch or more. This means for example that
the biggest paper size a 2 mega pixels photo can be printed on is 4X6 while an 8 mega pixels photo can be printed on an 8X10.
Pick the right printer and paper: there are many different printing each with its advantages and disadvantages.
They range in quality and cost. To get the best print quality you should use photo paper in conjunction with a printer that
supports such paper. Photo paper and photo printers are more expensive than document oriented A4 Inkjet printers. Choose the
printer by evaluating how many prints you will make and how important quality is to you. If you print occasionally for fun
an Inkjet printer with normal or photo paper is probably good enough for you. If you print a lot and quality is very important
photo paper with a photo printer is the way to go. As a rule of thumb glossy photo paper provides the best quality for color
photo prints while matte photo paper provides the best quality for black and white prints.
Printer ink and maintenance: printers need to be setup and maintained. It is extremely important to follow
the instructions and to use compatible ink cartridges. High quality compatible ink can make the difference between low and
high quality prints. It is usually recommended to buy ink from the same brand as the printer. Some calibration is usually
needed when replacing ink and sometimes every few months of use. Follow the instructions for such procedures carefully as
a calibrated printer results in much better quality prints than a printer that is not aligned and is poorly maintained.
In conclusion it is very easy to print your photos at home. Just buying a mid-range printer and hitting the "Print" button
in your photo viewing software will probably result in good prints that are satisfactory for most consumers. Following some
simple tips can enhance those prints to professional quality. As technology advances and prices go down experimenting at home
with various photo processing tools, paper sizes, paper types and inks becomes affordable and is probably the best way to
find what combination yields the best print quality for you.
About the Author
Ziv Haparnas is a technology veteran and writes about practical technology and science issues. This article can be reprinted
and used as long as the resource box including the backlink is included. You can find more information digital photo printing
printing and photography in general on printrates.com - a site dedicated to digital photo prints
