Printing

I use Epson Stylus Photo inkjet printers, the notes below refer to the 1290, but in my experience other makes offer similar features.
Both my printers, by default, print in portrait format; this means that the printer software rotates a landscape format image during the printing process. I have found that rotating the image in the editing software before printing gives a slightly improved print quality. The 1290 allows printing of images up to 2880 dpi. I find that prints at 720dpi give good quality. the 1440 dpi setting is visibly better. I find that the difference between the 1440 and 2880 dpi settings to be marginal, with the printing time greatly increased at 2880; so I generally us the 1440dpi setting. I also find that print quality, to my eye at least, is best when the paper type is set to 'Glossy Film' irrespective of the type of paper used. I use the black ink option for printing mono images as I find that using the colour inks invariably introduces a colour cast in parts of the image.Different makes of paper also seem to give rise to various colour casts when viewed in different light sources, even when using black ink. Some experimentation is needed to see which make and type of paper suits you best.

 

1.	2.
On clicking File>Print or Alt+Ctrl+P the above dialogue box appears. Clicking the 'properties' button brings upthe 'Properties' dialogue box	By default the properties are set to (1) Plain paper, (2) color ink and (3) automatic. Clicking the 'Utility' tab brings up several options. I recommend carrying out a nozzle check at the start of a printing session and clean the head if necessary. This especially if large prints are to be made. It is easy to waste expensive paper and ink if nozzles are blocked, leading to objectionable 'banding' on the print.
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Choose the (1) 'custom' setting and the 'Advanced ' button (2) appears along with a drop down list (3) of available custom settings.	Clicking the 'Advanved' button brings up this dialogue box. There is an array of choices that can be made. The settings I usually use are: Media Type - Photo Quality Glossy Film, Ink - Colour (except where mono prints are concerned), Print Quality - Photo-1440dpi and Color Management -ICM. Choosing Color Controls in this last categorie gives acces to a great deal of fine tuning of the printing which is beyond the scope of this guide.
5.
Most printer software gives the option of saving settings. Pressing 'Save settings' in the 'Advanced' dialogue brings up the 'Custom settings' dialogue.Type in an appropriate name (1) for the settings an click Save (2). It is possible therefore to save settings for Mono prints, color prints and for different paper types etc.. Next time the 'Printer Properties' dialogue is accessed and 'Custom' clicked, the saved settings appear at the bottom of the drop down settings box. Clicking the required setting automatically sets the saved parameters.
D.F.

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