Basic Printing Help ..

[bigdazzler]

OK this is really noob but I need some help. Ive never bothered with at home printing before and its probably about time I got to it.

I have an imac with Aperture and the GIMP for editing, connected to a pretty basic Canon ip1800 inkjet printer. I finally got around to replacing the empty ink cartridges ( laziness I know :p ) and was playing with some cheap kodak photo paper printing a couple of pictures.

I really dont know how to set up my images sizes for printing. Whats the best way to resize for 6x4 prints ?? I had a play and was getting all sorts of partial images being printed out, so obviously my settings and/or sizing is way out. The print quality wasnt too bad though for a cheap printer from what I could make out !!

These wil only be for me at home for frames and albums and so on so Im just looking for a way to get the best quality out of the gear that ive got.

Please dont go suggesting buying new sooper dooper photo printers as Im not doing anything commercial or for paying customers. I just wanna get it up and running with what Ive got.

[clm738]

Hi Darren,
Before you press print go into 'print preview", go into "Main" select media type (glossy photo, matt, etc. & if it has your paper name - Kodak glossy photo etc. - pic that one). then into "Page Setup" & select borderless printing. press OK
Select paper size then print.
Hope this of some help.

[Lani]

I find the best way is to size your image in PP ready to print straight out, set proportions using the crop tool( not sure how it is in Gimp, probably has something similar, that way you can apply sharpening etc how you want it.... sometimes printers will do funny things to an image. Also check the print preview box so it will allow you to see if everything looks ok without wasting ink., check paper size, orientation as well.

[davesmith]

To be honest, I wouldn't bother with the home printing unless it's the odd one here and there just to get an idea of how it might look.

If all you're after is something to show at home you don't need pro prints. Places like Big W will produce surprisingly good prints for the price.

For 6x4s as long as you maintain your original 3:2 ratio from when it was shot/cropped you just go in with your memory card and their software looks after it. Basically, with anything you've processed and got ready for print, copy it back to a memory card and whack it in at the shop. Whatever standard ratio you've cropped to in processing, can select the same ratios when you want to get them printed.

If you're after a bunch of 6x4s, look out for specials through all the mainstream retailers, you know like Big W, Harvery Norman, Dick Smith etc. Often they have specials for printing for like 10 cents each. They do produce a pretty good print and in a quality that, while nowhere near pro results, would probably be better than you can produce yourself, unless you want to fork out a bit of coin for a decent printer.

If you ever go down the path for "paid prints" I avoid the mainstream printers since it looks a bit tacky if Big W is printed on the back.

[bigdazzler]

thats what I normally do Dave .. I just go to my local Bing Lee store every couple of months with a USB stick full of pictures. I normally get a deal for about 10 or 12c each and theyre good enough for me :)

I just really wanted to have my printer at home set up just in case, say if someone comes over and says "oh can i get a copy of that? " i can bang it out right there for them .. nothing too serious, just so ive got it ..

anyways.. my issue is i cant seem to get the entire image onto the photo paper .. i am only getting parts of the image so my sizing or ratios are obviously wrong .. :confused013

[MarkW]

If your getting half or partial prints its one of two reasons:

As previous eplained the ratio of the image has to match the ratio of the paper you printing onto. An image sized at 5" x 7" cant be made to fit onto a 6" x 4" without some additional cropping. Its not much out of the image but you need to crop otherwise white space will appear. This is even though you may have told the system to size it to fit. Most printers will default to A4 size so if you are using 6" x 4" cut sheets you then need to change the paper size to the correctsize to be able to get the correct ratio.

The other issue can be the printer profile, which has to be changed each time you go from portrait to landscape or back again or change something else such as paper type. This is normally done when you ask for an initial print. Whilst you see it in your editing programme the right way up, the printer still has to be told to print it that way. In some programs like Photoshop CS3 each image has its own printer profile which is why the program will want to save after printing. Once printed it then knows which way is up unless of course you want to change something in the way it prints so it will save all over again.