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February 27, 2008
[ HANDSOME PRINTS ]
DPEXPERT HEARS HOWLS OF PAIN from across the Wide Brown Land: “Why do my printed photos never look like they do on the monitor?” Indeed, it is a truth universally acknowledged that getting a satisfying print is just about the hardest part of DIY digital photography, and that is why many, if not most, snappers still take their memory cards to the nearest photo lab for print making.
When it comes to printing at home on an inkjet printer we may assume two categories of bewildered user, the unfussy who just wants quick, consistent output from the printer, and the more fastidious photographer who wants to make exhibition quality prints. This week we’ll concentrate on the requirements of the unfussies.
There is some advice that is common to both categories. Find a paper you like – preferably from the printer manufacturer – and stick to it. That removes one variable from the process. And always use the manufacturer’s inks. Third party inks will not match the printer/paper profile that is installed at setup.
Canon Pixma printer owners have an easy life. Your printer comes with some software called Easy-Print Tool Box. Open the Easy-PhotoPrint section, select an image straight from the camera, and, provided that it is sharp and well exposed, Easy-Print will turn out consistently good prints. You select the paper size and type and the software resizes the image to fit. There are no image editing tools, other than red eye removal, so the quality of the print depends on the quality of the saved image.
Derek Mobbs, the applications engineer and trainer at Epson Australia, is the expert on inkjet printing on his company’s printers and his sets of instructions for printing can be downloaded from http://tech.epson.com.au/downloads.
Derek insists: “Calibrate your monitor.” That is, adjust the monitor so that it has the best possible tonal range and the most nearly accurate colours. This can be done via software, such as Adobe Gamma which is loaded into the computer when Photoshop is installed. The software method is subjective and not the best way to go. Hardware calibration is better, using a device like Panton’s Huey, which plugs into a USB port and adjusts the black, white, grey and colour output of the monitor.
Different printers put up different dialogue boxes, but they all contain the same basic options. Here are the easiest steps to a great Epson print from Photoshop Elements.
· Open Edit/Colour Settings and select Always Optimise for Printing.
· Open the image to be printed and select File/Print, the first level of print dialogue boxes comes up
· For Colour Management select Photoshop Elements Manages Colours
· Open Printer Preferences
· Select paper type and size and check Best Photo
· Open Advanced and select ICM and turn Colour Adjustment Off
· Choose Border or Borderless
· Click on OK to return to first dialogue box
· Click on Printer Profile and select the correct profile for the intended printer/paper combination. The profiles are installed on the computer when the printer is first set up and they are named with a combination of the printer model and paper type
· Set Rendering Intent to Perceptual
What could be easier?
Next week: printing from Photoshop for the fussy photographer.
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Posted by terry at February 27, 2008 09:00 PM
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Comments
ATTENTION TERRY LANE.
I don't know if this will reach Terry Lane, but if it does, I have a complaint.
I regularly read his camera articles in the Green GUide.
In Green Guide 20/3/2008, he recommends several software programs. He neglects to mention that they are PC ONLY.
I spent a lot of time and effort downloading them, I also recommended them to several of my APPLE MAC friends, only then to find out they will not run on a Mac.
GRRRRR!
Posted by: David Perry at March 20, 2008 05:24 AM
David: Fair comment. However I only own and use a PC so I can't always check Mac versions. But what I will do from now on is indicate where software is for PC only or for both platforms.
I realise that this means for some applications -- such as Irfanview -- which are PC only I am not in a position to recommend a Mac equivalent. Except in this case my guess is that iPhoto will do the same job, so you don't need a third party photo viewer. Believe me, Windows does! You could spend the rest of your life waiting for Windows Vista to open one image just for viewing. However, that is another matter.
TL
Posted by: Terry at March 20, 2008 06:02 AM