25 TOP TIPS FOR PERFECT PICTURE PRINTS
1. Select sensibly
If you’re prepared to restrict your print size to A4, it makes sense to buy a multi-purpose printer that benefits creating both images and files. 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 quick and produce excellent-quality colour images. For a similarly multi-purpose choice in A3-format printing, the Epson EcoTank ET-7750 is an excellent option, with its high-capacity ink tanks.
2. Go large
For larger-format printing, A3+ or ‘Super A3’ has an optimum print size of 19x13in (483x329mm). That’s noticeably larger than standard A3, and the aspect ratio is a much better suitable for the 3:2 format of the majority of cameras. There’s a series of Canon and Epson designs to select from (see above and the following pages), or you could take a larger step up to an A2 printer, such as the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 and Epson SureColor SC-P800. These can create photo prints that are two times the size of A3, at 23.4 × 16.5 in (594x420mm), however they don’t come low-cost.
3. Direct printing
Many multi-function or ‘all-in-one’ printers consist of a PictBridge wi-fi, port and memory card slot, so they can print photos directly from suitable cams or sd card without the requirement to utilize a computer system. If you need quick prints on the fly, it can be helpful.
4. Display your monitor
WYSIWYG sounds excellent but, all frequently, what you see on screen will not match what you get on paper. The typical offender is that the screen is set with too high a brightness level and requires denying a bit. For ultimate precision, buy a monitor-calibration tool like the Datacolor Spyder5 Express.
5. Crop creatively
Unless you’re shooting with a 3:2 aspect ratio video camera and printing on 6x4in postcard-sized image paper, you’ll often find that your image files have a different aspect ratio to the paper you’re printing on. Rather than simply losing an automatic amount off the bottom and leading or sides of the print, crop your image artistically so that it looks its finest when printed on paper.
6. Faster or better?
The ‘regular’ quality setting in your printer’s settings must show sufficient when developing postcard-sized prints. It should also allow a good turn of speed, with each print just taking a matter of seconds to finish. For A4 or bigger prints, it can be worth choosing the best-quality setting, as prints can look partially sharper, and have somewhat much better tonal meaning and smoother graduations, although they’ll take longer to output.
7. Ready
Ensure you choose the right type of paper in the printer homes or choices dialog box. Colour precision and total print quality is seriously based on this. You can end up with awful-looking outcomes if the settings are wrong.
8. Car repair
Specifically when printing photos straight from your video camera or sd card, the ‘automobile repair’ or ‘photo boost’ option offered in most printers can help to optimise print quality without the need for using manual editing or corrections.
9. Don’t dry
If you have a specialist image printer that you just utilize periodically, it’s a good concept to change it on at least as soon as a week. A small cleansing cycle will probably be activated, however you may also produce a print on a plain sheet of paper; it utilizes a little of each colour ink. This helps to avoid ink drying in the nozzles of the print head over a time period, which can be extremely challenging to clear, even with succeeding running of the print-head cleaning routine or a ‘deep tidy’ cycle.
10. Colour management
Many times, you must discover that you get excellent results with your printer’s colour management set to ‘car’. However, this can use improvements which might make your photo prints look over-saturated in colour, or too expensive on the other hand. Particularly if you have actually modified your images, utilize the manual, basic colour setting or appoint colour management to your modifying program rather than let the printer have control.
11. Paper chase
Glossy photo prints aren’t the only method to display your images. Semi-gloss or lustre papers are a good option, matt papers work actually well for pigment-based printers, and there’s a wide variety of ‘fine art’ papers on the marketplace, including the similarity canvas result and image rag. You’ll discover that you can create really distinctive-looking prints if you try out various media.
12. Get lined up
It’s a good idea to run a print-head positioning routine when you purchase and set up a brand-new printer. This will make sure that you get the sharpest possible prints, with minimum destruction from ink droplets being misaligned. It’s worth duplicating the treatment every 6 months or two, and after transferring the printer to a various place.
13. Nozzle check
Particularly prior to developing a large-format inkjet print of A3+ or A2 size, it deserves running a nozzle check regimen. This will create a test print that you can examine for quality. If you see any faint lines throughout the print, it’s most likely that some of the nozzles in the print head are obstructed. Run a head-cleaning cycle and repeat the test, to avoid squandering the expense of a big sheet of picture paper and accompanying ink.
14. Dye or pigment?
Specialist picture printers of A3+ or bigger formats tend to run on either dye-based or pigment-based inks. Pigment-based inks tend to be more robust for printing on matt paper, however typically lack the super-smooth surface and consistent reflectivity of dye-based inks on shiny paper.
15. It remains in the edit
If you’re creating prints to last a lifetime, it’s worth putting some effort into making them look their best. A little care at the editing stage can go a long way. At the very least, you need to apply any needed corrections for contrast, brightness and colour performance.
16. Transportation system
The paper transportation system can end up being filthy after a long period of time, which can deteriorate print quality. Some printers have a routine that you can run for cleaning the paper path, offered from the upkeep area of the printer residential or commercial properties dialog box.
17. Finest resolutions
A printing resolution of 300dpi (dots per inch) is something of a market standard, however a lower resolution of 150dpi can however yield great outcomes, specifically when using an inkjet printer. 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. Most existing digital cams have far higher megapixel counts anyway, so you should not have any problems even when purchasing poster-sized prints from a laboratory.
18. Decompress
It can be tempting to use aggressive compression settings when conserving JPEG files, so that they take up less room on your hard disk drive or other electronic storage, as well as being quicker to submit to the web or send to individuals by means of email. This can result in undesirable compression artefacts and a deterioration of quality that’s more visible in printed images than on screen.
19. Across the border
When creating 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 pick the quantity of extension and minimize it to minimise the loss, but beware not to end up with a thin white line along any of the edges. Bear in mind that borderless printing is not suitable for plain paper or matt photographic paper.
20. Mono magic
Normal A4 photo printers work on six inks at the most, and don’t have additional grey inks. An outcome of this is that mono image prints can do not have clearness and contrast, as well as experience unwanted colour casts. For maximum mono quality, it’s worth updating to an A3+ photo printer that’s created to excel at white and black in addition to colour printing.
21. Test prints
Defects that you can’t see on screen can be visible in small-format prints. Prior to developing a large-format print, attempt a small 6x4in picture and examine it for flaws. It also offers you a good concept of how the contrast, brightness and colour will look in your last large-format print.
22. Keep it genuine
Everybody likes a bargain and you can conserve a stack of money by buying low-cost, non-genuine ink cartridges and photo paper. You run the risk of impurities blocking the nozzles in your print heads and you’ll frequently discover that colour precision and overall print quality are vastly inferior. In some tests, we discovered that inkjet image prints created with cheap consumables began to visibly fade after just a couple of weeks, when they need to last for decades.
23. Conserve cash
A better way to save money on your printing costs is to buy high- capacity cartridges. Some printers have the accessibility of XL and even XXL cartridges, as an alternative to standard-capacity choices. These will usually give significant savings, especially for printing pictures which tend to utilize far more ink than basic colour files.
24. Conserve ink
A few of Epson’s range-topping, pigment-based printers use the 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 significant quantity of ink, as the channel requires to be purged and charged before printing. Try for that reason to reduce the number of times you change in between glossy and matt media as much as possible with these printers.
25. Supersize your prints
Even A3+ image prints can look a bit lost when hung on the wall. Rather than creating your own large-format prints, it can be much better to use a premium online laboratory, such as Loxley Colour or Whitewall. You’ll have to wait for your prints to show up in the post, however you can develop much bigger prints and get extra choices, like boxed canvas and acrylic prints.
For A4 or larger prints, it can be worth choosing the best-quality setting, as prints can look marginally sharper, and have a little much better tonal definition and smoother graduations, although they’ll take longer to output.
As a rough guide, a 3MP (megapixel) image is enough for producing an A4 print, and a 6MP image is enough for an A3 print. When developing borderless prints, you’ll lose a little amount around the edges of your image owing to the print overlapping the location of the paper. You run the danger of pollutants clogging the nozzles in your print heads and you’ll frequently discover that colour precision and overall print quality are greatly inferior. You’ll have to wait for your prints to turn up in the post, however you can create much larger prints and get additional options, like boxed canvas and acrylic prints.
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