Dec 03 2007
Printing Photos on your Home Printer
What to make sure you do when printing your photos on your printer at home - set the right type of paper, and paper size!
Typically I take my digital photos to a lab to be processed - predominantly because I have quite a few at a time to print, and it becomes cheaper to take the photos to a lab to be printed. When I have only a few, then I print them on my printer at home.
I realize this may sound pretty obvious, but make sure you select the correct type of paper (written on the paper’s packaging) in not only the printer’s settings, but also in the printing properties in your computer.
It is particularly important to distinguish between matte and glossy photo paper. Get this wrong and the photo will turn out terribly - the colors will be too pale or strong, and they may even run.
Equally important, is to make sure your image is sized to match the size of the paper you’re printing on. Most cameras do not set their images at the standard 4″ x 6″ - they are a little larger, so when you download your photos off the camera, and print them without resizing/cropping, then the printer (or lab) will crop them for you - which could mean cutting off something you really want in the photo.
I’d suggest at least resizing your photos in photo editing software. Most cameras include some form of software with their cameras these days.
Make sure that you also notice whether or not you’ve turned off the borderless printing option - provided you don’t want the photos to have the white border. It’s entirely up to you. I don’t particularly like this, as it’s cropping the image to make it even smaller - the overall size of the photo stays the same, but the actual photo printed shrinks to allow room for the white border.
Where you have color balanced your photo in editing software such as Photoshop, the colors will generally come out as you expect them to. If they don’t, you may have to either calibrate your monitor, calibrate your printer, or both.
Printing at home is very convenient, so if you’re going to do this on a regular basis, make sure you have spare ink cartridges, as they have a habit of running out at the most inconvenient moments! Also, be sure to have enough paper. Photo paper tends to go on sale relatively often, so this should minimize the cost, somewhat.
