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For all those mortals who simply want to hang a photo of us on the wall, or make an album, a poster, etc., the seemingly simple moment of trying to print our perfect images can be very frustrating. Because maybe we don't know much about impressions, but we have been touching up the image with love, we adore its tones, its contrast and the composition we have achieved after a lot of work. Everything is perfect and we can't wait to see how it looks on our wall. We put the images in a USB and we go beating to the nearest print center, and that's where the drama begins. They tell us about pixels per inch or per centimeter, of dimensions, of finishes ... and we have no idea, we see how the picture touches us, they cut it here or there to fit the frame size, or we have white borders that we didn't have and, to top it off, when they give us the copies, the colors have nothing to do with what we saw on the computer screen. Anyway, a drama. Nor is it that we are experts on the subject, but some minimums, right? It would be nice to have them. In this article I will try to print your images from something dramatic to something much more pleasant We see it?CAMERA SETTINGS
To get good quality paper copies, you have to start the process much sooner, even before you get the picture.- Shoot with the highest quality : It is important to always work at the highest quality allowed by the camera, then you are always in time to cut, compress, and so on.
- Set the color space to sRGB : It is the color space that stores more color information.
- Shoot in RAW : Store more information and allow you to make better adjustments in image processing.
COLOR
This is why the photo on your screen has nothing to do with your paper copy, even if you are printing at home, because each device has its own color profile, which means that each device interprets the colors at your way. It is perhaps, for the amateur, the most complex part of printing, because it introduces a lot of quite complicated concepts if you are looking for absolute perfection For the simple mortal, one option is to try to unify the different color profiles of the devices involved in the image printing process, what is known as the ICC color profile , especially if you print at home. The ICC profiles say that they transmit the information of each color to each of the devices so that they interpret the colors correctly. It is also important to have the monitor calibrated where you work with the images since, over time, it is possible that it has become mismatched. Do not panic, there are programs that do it for you easily, a simple and free option to do it is Quickgamma .BASIC VOCABULARY ABOUT THE IMAGE
One of the reasons we always fail to try to print any of our images is basically because the technician at the photography shop speaks a language that we do not understand. So it all starts by learning the language- Pixel : It is the basic unit , the atom , or the cell the set of which form an image. Surely you've seen images with poor quality where you see a few squares throughout the image. That is the pixels. You can also see them if you maximize an image. Each pixel is one color, and the sum of all of them gives rise to the image.
- Megapixel : A Megapixel is equivalent to 1,048,576 pixels, although we commonly round up to 1,000,000 pixels.
- Ppp (Pixels per inch) or dpi (dots per inch) . Determine the number of pixels in a given space. In this case, the more pixels, the better image quality. Why? Well, the space to “fill in” is the same do it with more or less pixels. If you do it with more, they remain smaller, if you do it with less, they need to “grow” in order to occupy the same space and consequently we lose sharpness.
- Inch : One inch equals 2.54 cm.
HOW TO PREPARE THE IMAGE FOR PRINTING
Once we have some basic vocabulary about the image, let's see in a simple way how we can apply it when preparing our images to have good printing results both at home and in the laboratory. For this we must, again, take into account certain basic aspects of the image.- Image size : It is given in number of pixels by width and in number of pixels by length. For example 1024 x 760.
- Resolution : This is what we have said before as pixels per inch (dpi). It is considered an acceptable resolution to print the image, a resolution of 300ppp, although from 150-200ppp we can already get good prints as long as we do not want large copies.
- File type : JPG, instant printers do not recognize RAW files, so it is best to transform it to JPG once you have finished doing the tweaks you think.
- Aspect ratio : The one that uses the paper is based on an aspect ratio of 3: 2 (the one that the 35mm reels used to have). Nowadays it is often used in digital cameras, the 4: 3 format, a more square format and more adapted to the screen format. That is why, the image we take and the one that is definitely printed, usually needs cutouts to adapt it to a more rectangular format such as 3: 2; that of most paper prints.
- Print size : The most common is 10 × 15. It is the one of most frames and supports and also the most economical, although most laboratories have many more printing options: 13 × 18, 15 × 21, 20 × 25, 25 × 30, and so on.
MEGAPIXEL TABLE AND PRINT SIZES
| Megapixels | Print Size (cm) | Print Size (inches) |
| 2 MP | 13.2 x 10.2 cm | 5.2 ? x 4 ? |
| 3 MP | 17.3 x 13 cm | 6.82 ? x 5.12 ? |
| 4 MP | 20.9 x 13.8 cm | 8.21 ? x 5.44 ? |
| 6 MP | 25.4 x 16.9 cm | 10.02 ? x 6.67 ? |
| 8 MP | 27.6 x 20.7 cm | 10.88 ? x 8.16 ? |
| 10 MP | 32.8 x 21.9 cm | 12.91 ? x 8.64 ? |
| 12 MP | 36.3 x 23.7 cm | 14.30 ? x 9.34 ? |
| 16 MP | 41.7 x 27.6 cm | 16.40 ? x 10.88 ? |
| 20 MP | 46.5 x 31 cm | 18.3 ? x 12.2 ? |
| 24 MP | 50.9 x 34 cm | 20.02 ? x 13.4 ? |
WHERE DO I MAKE THE SIZE, RESOLUTION AND OTHER SETTINGS?
It is best that you do them in your usual image editor. These types of adjustments are usually located or related to the size of the image. Below is an example of where the parameters are in Photoshop. As you can see they are located in image size . Inside you have all the parameters you may need to change to bring the image to print (or print it at home): Resolution, Pixels, document size, and so on.TYPES OF SUPPORT
Not everything is photographic paper although it is the most usual, you have many other media where you can print your photos: magnets, cups, canvases, etc. However, the most common is that we want the copies to put them in a frame. In that case you should always use photo paper of the best possible quality, especially if you want to print at home. Now, what kind of paper, gloss or matte?- The glossy paper has a greater color depth, so it is usually the one chosen when we reveal color photography. This type of gloss finish creates reflections and resists worse fingerprints or stains.
- On the contrary, the paper with matte finish , is usually more used to print in black and white, because it has less color depth. It is more resistant to fingerprints and does not generate shine.
