Printing Digital Images on a Colour Printer

It is well worth the time to develop your skills so that you can print quality images.

If you want great prints, use the highest quality for the files for the images you save on your camera. Before you start making prints, make a copy of each image you want to print so that you are not messing with your original file. Load the copied image into PhotoShop. You can make minor adjustments to the image before you print it. If you make a mistake, you can always return to the original.

Most images I print are 4” x 6”, at 720 dpi.(Note that paper sizes are usually measured in inches.)

Before you print you must resize the image so that it will print at the correct size. So, load the image, put in a width and height that will fit on your paper, and enter the number of points per inch that you will use on your printer.



As you can see, the image size has grown from 22.9 M to 31.7 M.

When you print, use the same brand paper and ink as the brand of your printer. The printer companies have made a lot of effort to ensure you can get the best quality prints, so don’t waste your time and money by messy around with substitute inks and paper. You can obtain some interesting and unexpected effects if you mix up your papers and inks.

Use photo-quality paper to bring out the vibrancy and sharpness of your images.

Take care handling the images – try to avoid finger prints and don’t leave them exposed to the air or strong sunlight for extended periods of time. Hey, it doesn’t really matter does it? You can always print another one.

I usually save the resized file so that if I do need another copy of the image, I can load the file that I have already adjusted and print another copy.

These days I use an Epson R210 that prints with six individual colours. If I have only one or two quality prints to make, I use the technique above. If I have to print a whole batch of images, I copy the images I want to a new folder, adjust the levels within each image so that they look good on the screen. Then I load the software (Epson PhotoQuicker) that came with the printer and use it to make the prints.

If you have a high quality colour printer, it will probably come with printer software that will enable you to print very quickly and easily. Usually all you have to do is select the paper size and quality you have in the printer and the software will optimise the printer to obtain the best quality print.