Choosing a Photo Printer
|
While sharing pictures online is cheap, convenient and ecological there are also many instances where it is ideal to produce a hard printed copy of a digital photograph. Choosing a photo printer can be an overwhelming endeavor for many people. Print technology is growing and changing as rapidly as digital imaging technology and there is really no way to create a definitive guide to the field. Similar to my guide to purchasing a digital camera this article is intended less as a list of suggested products or brands and more as an introductory guide to help you make sense of it all.
One common challenge many people face is the fact that colors do not always convert directly from screen display colors to print colors. This can be due to the printer or it can be do to the way the colors on the screen are calibrated (or miscalibrated). There are many software tools that will help you calibrate the colors on your screen to the colors on your printer and these are often included with the printer driver software package itself. Our eyes recognize three primary colors of light - Red, Green and Blue - which are the same colors of light used by digital camera sensors to record images. Printers use a slightly different set of colors to produce the same effects. Modern photo printers use four, six, eight or more colors of ink to produce the high quality gradient effects which we have come to expect. The four standard colors used to this end are cyan, magenta, yellow and black - collectively known as CMYK. More advanced printers may also include light magenta or cyan, green, red or various tones of black. The big advantage of having extra colors available to the printer is the ability to have better color saturation and smoother gradient transitions without grainy noise.
Another common print mechanism is called dye-sublimation or dye-sub. Where inkjet printers use tiny spray heads to spray small dots of liquid ink on a paper dye-sub printers take a roll of ink sheets and selectively heat parts of them to adhere them to the paper. Because the inks in the dye-sub process are heated and mixed they can create perfectly smooth gradient transitions with no evidence or pixels. Unfortunately they also tend to be come slightly fuzzy overall and lack the same crisp edges that can be produced by inkjet technology. Dye-sub printers have their place but inkjet technology has come so far that it is hard to beat. Additionally - and this is worth finding out - some inkjet printers have one cartridge containing all the ink colors (bad) and some have individual containers for each color of ink (good). Having multiple containers for each color of ink lets each color be purchased separately which means less overall waste of ink. While the printer may seem expensive the real cost of printing photographs is hidden in replacement ink cartridges. Before you purchase a printer make sure you investigate what type of ink and cartridge it supports, how much those are and how many pages you can get out of a new set of cartridges. The third option is to purchase a color laser printer. Mentioning laser printers is more of a side note than anything else. Laser printers are not optimized for image printing and this is very clear when photographs are processed on them.
Many photo printers support printing without ever hooking the printer up to a computer. This is usually accomplished in one of two ways. First is memory card support. The printer may support having memory cards containing photos to be inserted directly into the printer and then to be printed off the card. If this is the case the printer will need some sort of interface for selecting pictures off the card. This usually comes in the form of a small LCD screen located on the printer. This screen lets you select the photos you wish to print and in some cases even do basic edits. The other option for direct-to-printer printing is called PictBridge. PictBridge is a technology standard developed to help cameras talk directly to printers. If both your printer and your camera support PictBridge (and many do - check with the manufacturer) you can connect the two devices with a USB cable and print directly off of your camera. This is an extremely convenient option for many people - especially if you are not interested in editing your pictures using a digital darkroom. If printing from home and dealing with all the hardware associated with a photo printer doesnt appeal to you or seem practical based on the number of prints you wish to make you have a couple more options. First it to take your camera or memory card to your local photography shop. Many shops which used to develop film now offer digital print services. This is a reasonable way to go about it and has the added benefit of stimulating your local economy. If these services dont exist near you or you would prefer not to use them you also have the option of finding an online print service. Many websites offer printing of digital photographs for a fee. These services vary greatly in quality and often require a minimum of a year long subscription. The prints tend to be cheaper than purchasing from a local Photo Shop. The main disadvantage to ordering your prints from a store or through a website is that you lose the ability to control print quality. With no say into what printer they are printed on and no control over any of the settings you pretty much get whatever they send you. Perhaps this is not a problem for snap shots and the like but if you want to print serious photographs - especially when you are paying for larger sized prints - it may be well worth your time to research and purchase a photo printer for yourself.
Further Reading: |
