Tips. For better printing.
Lab-quality photo printing
Tips for creating high-impact photographs
Photo prints from your inkjet printer not looking as vibrant as you had expected?
Read on to learn how you can achieve lab-quality photo printing by:
Priming your digital images for printing
Try TIFF
Most digital cameras use JPEG format, which loses some detail to save space when storing images. But saving the image in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) won’t compromise image quality. Simply choose ‘File > Save As’ in your image editor and select ‘TIFF’ from the drop-down list.
Look sharp
Many digital shots can look out of focus when you print them. You can use your image editor's sharpen tool to emphasize the edges that appear in your photo. Use the ‘Help’ option and search for ‘sharpen’ to locate your program’s tool.
Emphasize the subject
You can draw attention to the main element in your photo by softening the background. Select the entire subject with your image editor's magic wand, then reverse the selection to select the whole background. Now run your program’s ‘soften’ tool a few times to blur the background.
Go gamma
Dark images are notorious for printing poorly. If your program has a gamma correction tool, you may find this is more effective at brightening up the middle tones in your image than the standard brightness tool. But beware: a change of more than 30% may leave your images looking washed out.
Crop with caution
Think about where you plan to display your photo and use the ‘crop’ tool to position your subject accordingly. But crop with caution; as you trim the image’s size, you discard valuable pixels. The finished image needs a sharp enough resolution to print without showing jagged edges that arise from having too few pixels.
Optimising your inkjet printer
Calibrate your printer
Every time you change a printer ink cartridge, calibrate your inkjet printer’s heads. Calibration keeps the printer heads aligned and capable of printing crisp and accurate images. Get into the habit of printing a test page at least once every month to verify that your printer heads are still in good working order.
Avoid budget ink
For the best print quality, use your printer manufacturer’s branded ink. You might be able to save money by using refurbished ink cartridges or by refilling your own, but in most cases the result is an inferior print quality.
Keep a clean head
Seeing gaps, inconsistent colours and even ink splatters on your prints? Chances are you have a clogged cartridge. Run your printer program’s head-cleaning function to clean the printer heads - but be warned that this process uses a fair amount of ink.
Choosing the best printer photo paper for the job
Pick the right photo paper
Use the right settings on your printer. Use the printer setting guide on the paper product page. Ink2Paper.com Limited stocks one of the widest ranges of high quality, premium inkjet printer photo paper in the UK, including glossy, matt, satin and double sided photo paper in a range of sizes (A3, A4, A5, 7”x5” and 6”x4” photo paper) and weights.
Check the dots per inch (DPI)
The DPI shows how much ink the photo paper can absorb per inch on the page. Printing at a high resolution on low DPI photo paper will result in poor quality print. Most branded printer photo paper from corporate names are only suitable for printing at 1440 and 2880 DPI. At Ink2Paper.com Limited, our photo paper and card is 5760 DPI. We offer the highest quality printer photo paper to ensure high-impact prints every time.
Print right side up
When using gloss paper, print on the wrong side and your ink will smear or run, or your image will look dull and lifeless. The printing side of glossy photo paper is usually shiny, while the nonprinting side is dull and may have a watermark.
Master double sided printing
If you want to use your printer for double sided printing, we recommend that you use a matt or gloss photo paper. At Ink2Paper.com Limited we stock matt double sided, gloss double sided, gloss/matt double sided photo paper to meet your creative needs. In addition, our Greetings Card Kits are ideal if you wish to create personalised greetings cards. These are available with envelopes in 8”x6”, 7”x5”, 6”x4”, 6”x6” pre-scored and ready to print.
Allow adequate drying time
All of our paper is instant dry, whether gloss, satin or matt. But be warned: if a seller does not advertise that their paper is instant dry, chances are it is not. If this is the case, we recommend that you allow at least 10 minutes’ drying time before handling gloss paper prints, which can take longer to dry.
