Better Photo Printing

4 Steps to Better Ink Jet Photo Printing

1. Choose the right paper.
Glossy paper costs more but produces realistic color photos.

Glossy paper yields the best printed image but costs more than plain paper. The glossy coating on the paper allows the ink to stay on the surface of the paper and look like a real photograph.

2. Use the ink from the printer’s company.
The printer manufacturer optimizes their ink to produce the best quality possible on their own paper. This means if you own an Epson printer use Epson ink. If you own a HP printer you should use HP ink.

3. Choose the right print size.
To obtain a good quality print, the image has to have enough pixel information. Digital cameras have a fixed pixel resolution like 2 mega pixels, 3 mega pixels and so on.

Every digital camera image has a specific file size based on the mega pixels of the camera.

The file size determines how large an area the printed image can be printed with good results. If you try to print the image in an area larger than the file size supports the resulting print looks bad.

Use the table below for selecting the largest print size for your image:
640x480 pixels: web pages only
1 Mega pixel: 4x6 realistic photo print
2 Mega pixel: good 6x9 pictures
3 Mega pixels: excellent up to 8x10
5+ Mega pixels: prints beyond 11x17

4. Match the print settings to the paper type.
Make sure the computer's print settings match the desired paper type and ink quality settings.

If you use glossy paper make sure the print settings for paper type is set to glossy paper.

If you use non-glossy paper do not use the glossy paper setting because the printer will use more ink than the plain paper can support.

Since non-glossy paper doesn’t have the glossy coating on the top layer of the paper the printed ink is absorbed by the paper and the image will look bad.

If you change the print setting to plain paper when using plain paper, the printer will use less ink and optimize the image for the plain paper.

Think of Cliff Ping as your graphics specialist. Based in Miami, I offer services in Web Site Design, PowerPoint slide creation, Photoshop photo retouching, desktop production and computer software training in Adobe and Microsoft products.

Under promise over deliver, get Cliff when you need help.

e-mail: cliff@cliffping.com    web site: cliffping.com