Basics re: printing?

[jorf]

So, I've been at this for about 6 months now and have yet to print anything. (I only have a laser at home.) I'm often disappointed about what I see comparing my images in PSE and then when they get on to flickr or some other web site. Same image/size/resolution. So I'm a bit nervous about printing and seeing vast differences.

Looking for any basic advice. My guess is to just go for it and see from there. What do you say?

Thanks

[OsmosisStudios]

WHERE you get things printed matters a helluva lot. What kind of paper and process also seriously impact quality.

For absolute best results, you'd want a dedicated wet-lab chemistry printer with acid-free archival paper. Unfortunately, that kind of printers runs anywhere from $100k to $250k, if not more. And that's just for the printer: supplies and upkeep are higher too.

Thats why you should refer to a pro lab that owns the equipment and can print for you. You should be able to get their printer profile for the printer they're using, so that you can calibrate your computer.

[jorf]

thanks. any suggestions?

[natek313]

I just created an account with White House Custom Colour (WHCC). I got my sample prints back from them today, and I am really impressed with how they turned out. Of course, I need to calibrate my monitor so that I can get more accurate print matching, but that has nothing to do with the quality of work they do.

[robolepa]

Originally Posted by jorf

So, I've been at this for about 6 months now and have yet to print anything. (I only have a laser at home.) I'm often disappointed about what I see comparing my images in PSE and then when they get on to flickr or some other web site. Same image/size/resolution. So I'm a bit nervous about printing and seeing vast differences.

Looking for any basic advice. My guess is to just go for it and see from there. What do you say?

Thanks

Hi Jorf. As Os and Nate mentioned, you need to get a monitor calibrator before anything else. I got a Spyder for under $200, and it made a huge difference on my MacBook Pro. Prior to using that, I'd calibrate it with Apple's built-in calibration tools. Umm......not real accurate. I print most of my stuff at home on an Epson 6 ink printer. From monitor to paper - the color is impressively accurate.

[pjl]

I was in a similar boat; lots of pics, no prints and wondering.
Decided to toss the dice with Costco printing and check it out.

Pics came out quite nicely and didn't cost an arm and a both legs.
8x10's @ $1.50 ea; 11x14 and 12x18 @ $2.99 ea; 16x20 @ $6 ea.

Thom Hogan's got some good info on commercial printing set ups (Rite Aid, etc.) and what specs you should save your pics with to transfer to the printer.
(rgb color, 8 bits, 275-300 dpi, stuff like that)

Throw down a few sheckels and see what you come up with!

[petracsr]

If you are printing at home, what is the best format for the pics? Also, and this is probably a really dumb question but here goes...before printing, is it better to flatten the layers in phtoshop, or does that matter?

[teaking]

If you are printing at home the first thing you need to decide is what colour space you will be working in its usualy sRGB aRGB or pro photo. if you are unsure stick to sRGB for now you need to set this as your colour space with in photoshop. Just remember some printers will print sRGB as standard so if your unsure convert to sRGB before printing or you prints could look dull if unsure consult your printers manual.

If possible calibrate your monitor if you dont have an hardware calibrating device you can do a quick dirty calibration with adobes gamma or on websites with pictures where you adjust your monitor its not ideal but it gets you in the ballpark.

After all your editing and you come to print the picture make sure you have your up to date printer driver installed and in photoshops print command choose to let photoshop manage the colours choose your printer your printing to and the paper its either at this point where you can choose your printers preferences or you have to choose print before you can choose them either way make sure you go into them and turn off any colour management your printer may be doing alot of problems occur from double colour management. The print your work and hopefully you should get some nice results.

I missed out profiles because most printers install there profiles for the device.

Im sorry that was a bit of an essay lol

[crockny]

Hi - I just got the Epson Stylus R2880 photo printer and did my first printout. I calibrated my HP LCD monitor with the Spyder Pro -- using semi-gloss Epson paper -- the printout was much darker and warmer than what was on the screen -- now what????

[peeperita]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

WHERE you get things printed matters a helluva lot. What kind of paper and process also seriously impact quality.

For absolute best results, you'd want a dedicated wet-lab chemistry printer with acid-free archival paper. Unfortunately, that kind of printers runs anywhere from $100k to $250k, if not more. And that's just for the printer: supplies and upkeep are higher too.

Thats why you should refer to a pro lab that owns the equipment and can print for you. You should be able to get their printer profile for the printer they're using, so that you can calibrate your computer.

i'm going with online printing for the first time and i saw where they offered up their profile.....how do i make use of it?......will my spyder read the profile for me when i recalibrate?

thanks

peeper