25 TOP POINTERS FOR IDEAL PHOTO PRINTS
1. Select sensibly
If you’re prepared to limit your print size to A4, it makes good sense to buy a multi-purpose printer that’s good for producing both files and pictures. Canon’s most current 5-ink and 6-ink printers lead the way for multi-purpose A4 printing, with the PIXMA TS6250 and PIXMA TS8250, respectively. They’re fast and produce excellent-quality colour images. For a similarly multi-purpose choice in A3-format printing, the Epson EcoTank ET-7750 is a great option, with its high-capacity ink tanks.
2. Go big
For larger-format printing, A3+ or ‘Super A3’ has an optimum print size of 19x13in (483x329mm). That’s significantly larger than standard A3, and the aspect ratio is a much better suitable for the 3:2 format of most cameras. There’s a variety of Canon and Epson models to choose from (see above and the following pages), or you might take a larger step up to an A2 printer, such as the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 and Epson SureColor SC-P800. These can produce image prints that are twice the size of A3, at 23.4 × 16.5 in (594x420mm), however they do not come cheap.
3. Direct printing
Most multi-function or ‘all-in-one’ printers include a PictBridge memory, wi-fi and port card slot, so they can print photos straight from compatible cameras or sd card without the requirement to use a computer. If you require quick prints on the fly, it can be beneficial.
4. Screen your screen
WYSIWYG sounds terrific however, all too often, what you see on screen won’t match what you get on paper. The typical offender is that the screen is set with expensive a brightness level and requires denying a bit. For ultimate precision, invest in a monitor-calibration tool like the Datacolor Spyder5 Express.
5. Crop creatively
Unless you’re shooting with a 3:2 element ratio camera and printing on 6x4in postcard-sized image paper, you’ll typically find that your image files have a various element ratio to the paper you’re printing on. Instead of simply losing an automated quantity off the top and bottom or sides of the print, crop your image creatively so that it looks its finest when printed on paper.
6. Faster or much better?
The ‘regular’ quality setting in your printer’s settings ought to prove sufficient when creating postcard-sized prints. It should also make it possible for a good turn of speed, with each print only taking a matter of seconds to complete. For A4 or bigger prints, it can be worth picking the best-quality setting, as prints can look marginally sharper, and have somewhat better tonal definition and smoother graduations, although they’ll take longer to output.
7. Ready
Guarantee you choose the correct type of paper in the printer homes or preferences dialog box. Colour precision and general print quality is critically depending on this. If the settings are incorrect, you can end up with awful-looking results.
8. Vehicle fix
Specifically when printing images straight from your cam or sd card, the ‘automobile repair’ or ‘photo improve’ alternative readily available in many printers can help to optimise print quality without the need for applying manual modifying or corrections.
9. Don’t dry out
If you have an expert photo printer that you just utilize periodically, it’s a good idea to switch it on at least once a week. A tiny cleaning cycle will most likely be activated, but you might also develop a print on a plain sheet of paper; it uses a little of each colour ink. This assists to avoid ink drying in the nozzles of the print head over a time period, which can be really challenging to clear, even with succeeding running of the print-head cleaning routine or a ‘deep tidy’ cycle.
10. Colour management
Most times, you need to find that you get good outcomes with your printer’s colour management set to ‘vehicle’. This can apply improvements which may make your picture prints look over-saturated in colour, or too high in contrast. Especially if you’ve edited your images, use the manual, standard colour setting or appoint colour management to your modifying program instead of let the printer have control.
11. Paper chase
Glossy picture prints aren’t the only way to show your images. Semi-gloss or lustre papers are a great option, matt papers work really well for pigment-based printers, and there’s a large range of ‘art’ documents on the marketplace, consisting of the similarity canvas effect and image rag. If you experiment with various media, you’ll discover that you can create really distinctive-looking prints.
12. Get lined up
When you purchase and set up a brand-new printer, it’s a great concept to run a print-head positioning regimen. This will ensure that you get the sharpest possible prints, with minimum degradation from ink droplets being misaligned. It’s worth duplicating the procedure every six months or so, and after carrying the printer to a various location.
13. Nozzle check
Particularly before creating a large-format inkjet print of A3+ or A2 size, it’s worth running a nozzle check regimen. If you see any faint lines across the print, it’s likely that some of the nozzles in the print head are blocked.
14. Dye or pigment?
Specialist picture printers of A3+ or larger formats tend to run on either pigment-based or dye-based inks. Pigment-based inks tend to be more robust for printing on matt paper, but typically do not have the super-smooth surface and uniform reflectivity of dye-based inks on shiny paper.
15. It remains in the edit
If you’re producing prints to last a lifetime, it’s worth putting some effort into making them look their best. A little care at the editing phase can go a long way. At least, you need to use any necessary corrections for brightness, contrast and colour performance.
16. Transport system
The paper transportation system can end up being dirty after a long period of time, which can deteriorate print quality. Some printers have a routine that you can run for cleaning up the paper path, readily available from the maintenance area of the printer properties dialog box.
17. Finest resolutions
A printing resolution of 300dpi (dots per inch) is something of an industry standard, but a lower resolution of 150dpi can however yield great results, especially when using an inkjet printer. As a rough guide, a 3MP (megapixel) image is sufficient for producing an A4 print, and a 6MP image is enough for an A3 print. The majority of present digital electronic cameras have far higher megapixel counts anyway, so you shouldn’t have any issues even when ordering poster-sized prints from a lab.
18. Decompress
It can be tempting to apply aggressive compression settings when conserving JPEG files, so that they use up less room on your hard drive or other electronic storage, in addition to being quicker to upload to the web or send to individuals via email. This can result in unwanted compression artefacts and a deterioration of quality that’s more noticeable in printed photos than on screen.
19. Across the border
When producing borderless prints, you’ll lose a small amount around the edges of your image owing to the print overlapping the area of the paper. You can generally select the amount of extension and lower it to minimise the loss, but be careful not to end up with a thin white line along any of the edges. Bear in mind that borderless printing is not appropriate for plain paper or matt photographic paper.
20. Mono magic
Normal A4 photo printers run on six inks at the most, and do not have extra grey inks. A result of this is that mono picture prints can lack clarity and contrast, as well as suffer from unwanted colour casts. For optimal mono quality, it’s worth updating to an A3+ picture printer that’s created to excel at black and white along with colour printing.
21. Test prints
Flaws that you can’t see on screen can be visible in small-format prints. Before producing a large-format print, attempt a small 6x4in image and inspect it for defects. It likewise gives you an excellent idea of how the colour, brightness and contrast will search in your last large-format print.
22. Keep it genuine
Everyone enjoys a bargain and you can conserve a stack of money by buying cheap, non-genuine ink cartridges and photo paper. You run the threat of impurities obstructing the nozzles in your print heads and you’ll often find that colour precision and general print quality are greatly inferior. In some tests, we discovered that inkjet photo prints created with low-cost consumables began to visibly fade after only a few weeks, when they ought to last for years.
23. Save cash
A better method to conserve money on your printing expenses is to buy high- capability cartridges. Some printers have the schedule of XL and even XXL cartridges, as an alternative to standard-capacity options. These will usually provide considerable savings, especially for printing photos which tend to use far more ink than general colour documents.
24. Save ink
A few of Epson’s range-topping, pigment-based printers use the very same channel in the print head for picture black and matt black. Each time you swap in between these 2 alternative cartridges, you’ll lose a sizeable quantity of ink, as the channel requires to be purged and recharged prior to printing. Try for that reason to lower the variety of times you switch in between shiny and matt media as much as possible with these printers.
25. Supersize your prints
When hung on the wall, even A3+ photo prints can look a bit lost. Instead of producing your own large-format prints, it can be much better to utilize a premium online laboratory, such as Loxley Colour or Whitewall. You’ll have to wait for your prints to turn up in the post, but you can develop much bigger prints and get extra options, like boxed canvas and acrylic prints.
For A4 or larger prints, it can be worth selecting the best-quality setting, as prints can look marginally sharper, and have a little better tonal definition and smoother graduations, although they’ll take longer to output.
As a rough guide, a 3MP (megapixel) image is sufficient for creating an A4 print, and a 6MP image is enough for an A3 print. When developing borderless prints, you’ll lose a small amount around the edges of your image owing to the print overlapping the location of the paper. You run the risk of pollutants obstructing the nozzles in your print heads and you’ll typically discover that colour accuracy and total print quality are greatly inferior. You’ll have to wait for your prints to turn up in the post, but you can produce much larger prints and get extra choices, like boxed canvas and acrylic prints.
Our videos
Related Links
Our Services
- printing dublin
- business card printing dublin
- Banner Printing
- T-Shirt Printing
- Promotional Printing
- Graphic Design
- printing services dublin
- Copying Services
Important Links