Digital photography printing seems like a mystery sometimes. Many people use software like Photoshop to edit images, but then don’t properly prepare their images for printing (please see the previous blog for more information on how to properly prepare your image using Photoshop). Worse, the printer and paper are often not set up correctly. The result? Disappointing pictures. A proper set up is possible and should result in photos to be proud of. Banish those disappointing prints right now!

Before you print anything though, think carefully about why you want to print your own pictures.

If you want to print:
     • Standard print sizes – snaps or standard size enlargements.
     • Black and white prints – of any size . . .

      . . . then choose a good print service that prints onto proper photographic paper. They will produce a better quality, more durable and cheaper print than you can.

I don’t want to completely put you off printing your own photographs, it’s just that from experience I have found it far easier and cheaper to get someone else to do the job for you.

In order to get top quality digital photography prints from home you will need quite some investment:
     • A decent printer
     • Manufacturers own inks
     • Special paper
     • Time and patience!

Read on to see why this investment is needed.

  A decent printer is a photo printer with at least six colors. There are cheaper “photo” printers available that use only three colours + black. These are not really designed for printing digital photographs. They cannot produce the wide range of colours needed for a good print.

  Manufacturers’ own inks are needed to get the best results. Manufacturers invest heavily in ensuring their inks produce top quality digital photography printing. With the high levels of investment they aren’t going to let their ink formulas leak into the hands of third party manufacturers!

The downside – cost. It is possible to get very good prints from third party ink manufacturers, and far cheaper. But it will never be the very best quality.

Special paper. Normal printer paper is quite absorbent. Ink tends to bleed slightly onto it. This results is feathered edges in your picture where some parts of the image merge into others.

To get the best digital photography printing you have to minimize the feathering. The only way is to buy more expensive photo papers. These are usually plastic coated. This stops the ink bleeding and results in a much more crisp digital photography print.

Patience! – Yep, you’ll need plenty of this for printing at home believe me! You print out a lovely digital photograph and . . . color cast? Paper round the wrong way? More green and white than black and white? Too small? Too big? . . . the list could go on and on!

On top of all this is the cost. Digital photography printing at home is costly.

A standard size photo, printed at home, will cost between $1 - $2.50. That pays for the ink and paper.

For all of the reasons outlined on this page I would seriously recommend using a print service.

The print service you choose will be able to deliver better prints to you if you can provide them with a good quality starting image. I’ve used Photoshop as an example, but the same advice applies for any image editing software.