Print at home. If you choose to print your own photos at home, the most obvious thing you’ll need to buy is a quality inkjet or photo printer. Most of today’s inkjet printers can produce very respectable prints. If you want to cut down on the amount of cutting and measuring you need to do afterward, consider an inkjet printer that offers borderless photo printing. These printers let you use special, standard-sized photo paper (such as 4- x 6-inch or 8- x 10-inch), and the printer will print all the way to the edges of the paper so that you don’t have to cut the print out before you can place it in a photo album or frame it.

To get good prints, you’ll need a printer that can print photos at a decent resolution. Some of this is, of course, up to your own discretion, but in general, most people want a printer that has a print resolution of at least 300dpi (dots per inch).

Print-worthy paper. Sometimes even more important than the right printer is the right paper. There is a variety of inkjet papers available, but when you print photos, you’ll get the best results if you use inkjet photo paper. Glossy or matte finishes are both OK, so choose whichever you prefer, just as you would choose glossy or matte prints when you take a roll of film to a film-developing and photo-finishing center. Most printer manufacturers sell their own brand-name photo paper, and there are also many lower-priced third-party papers available. We’d suggest, though, if you want to use a third-party paper, that you also buy some of the brand-name paper and print the same photo on both and then compare the results. Some companies’ printers use ink that is specially formulated to print with their paper. Often, the difference between using brand-name and third-party paper is minimal, but sometimes you’ll see a real difference in the quality of your prints.

A decision in ink. Another very important consideration is what ink cartridges to buy for your printer. You may have gotten a great price on your inkjet printer, but you’ll soon discover that replacement ink cartridges are not cheap. You’ve probably seen some of the third-party ink-refill kits and services that are available. It’s tempting to save some money this way, but using these generic refills can be risky. If the ink isn’t formulated just the way the printer manufacturer’s ink is, it may dry too quickly or too slowly, and the result could be prints that are smeared or have improperly blended colors. Even more alarming, though, is that if the cartridge is damaged during the refill process, it can actually harm your printer. You may choose to use third-party refill kits or services, but keep in mind that you do so at your own risk. The best way to ensure quality prints and safe printer operation is to buy the pricier manufacturer-branded replacement cartridges.

Image resolution & paper size. One of the most important things you need to check is that your image is of high enough quality to look good on the size of paper to which you will print. For instance, if you shoot an image at 2 megapixels, it probably won’t look very good printed on 8- x 10-inch paper. However, that same 2-megapixel image should be more than large enough to make a decent 3- x 5-inch print. Subscribers can check out the “Resolution & Print Size” chart at www.smartcomputing.com/nov06resolutionchart.

Routine maintenance. In addition to using the right paper and choosing the right settings, it’s also important that you perform some routine tasks on your printer to keep it working well. First, make sure that you print something, even just a small colored document or a test sheet, every week or two. This will help to ensure that your ink cartridges don’t dry out or become clogged, which can lead to discolored photographs as some colors are not fully distributed during printing. Second, your printer should include either buttons on the face of the printer or software that lets you clean the ink heads, check the levels of ink remaining, and perform other checks of your printer’s supplies and performance. Procedures vary for each printer, so check your users manual to see how to perform such tasks on your printer.

Most accurate colors. You can also greatly improve the final appearance of your prints by paying attention to things that can affect the color cast of your prints. One of the most essential things to do to get consistent results is to perform any photo-editing in the same room and under the same lighting conditions each time. This is because the type of lighting and brightness will affect your perception of the colors you see on-screen, so a picture you edit next to the window in the kitchen may have a very different cast to the subject’s skin tone than the picture you edit under the glow of a halogen lamp in a rather dark, enclosed den.

If you are a more serious photographer, you may also wish to buy special hardware, such as the ColorVision Spyder2express ($79; www.colorvision.com) to help you calibrate your monitor. These calibration devices assist you in ensuring that the colors your monitor displays closely match the colors you'll see when you print your photos. However, monitor-calibration hardware is expensive and may not be practical if you simply print snapshot photos of events such as family gatherings. In fact, most calibration hardware costs much more than the Spyder2express.

Outsource Your Printing

Normally, we’d agree that “outsourcing” is a bad word, but when it comes to printing your photos, sometimes letting someone else do the work is the best way to go. This depends on many factors, such as the type of prints you want, the number of photos you print on a regular basis, and which type of printing provides the best value to you.

Weigh your options. If you frequently edit and print individual photos, want to have control over the final output, and don't mind spending the time involved in making your own prints, you’ll probably be much happier investing in a printer and making your own prints at home. However, if your habit is to shoot a lot of photos at once—for instance, at a grandchild’s birthday party—and then print all of the photos on your memory card, it will make more sense to take your memory card to a local photo-developer to have prints made.

However, instead of taking your prints to a local shop, you can also order prints from the comfort of your own home. Just upload your photos to a photo-sharing or photo-printing site, such as SmugMug (www.smugmug.com) or Kodak’s EasyShare Gallery (www.kodak
gallery.com). Some of these sites simply offer printing services while others offer online storage, as well.

There is one final situation in which it makes sense to order prints rather than make them at home. If you want to make an oversized print (11 inches x 14 inches or larger), it will probably be more cost-effective to order a copy of your photo simply because printers that can handle oversized paper are considerably more expensive than your average printer that can handle paper up to 8.5 inches x 11 inches. If you want to order an especially large print (let’s say a 24- x 36-inch print to frame in your living room), you can use a service such as Pixel Outpost (www.pixeloutpost.com).

Suitable For Framing

Only you can decide which printing method makes the most sense for you. Whether you order prints or print your photos on your own printer, it’s worth taking the time to print and display some of your favorite photos. It isn’t until you see the first of your photos hanging on the wall that you remember what’s so great about framed prints and what you miss when your photos stay trapped on your computer’s hard drive.

by Kylee Dickey