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So you've bought yourself a nice digital camera, took it to a powwow and snapped off several gigabytes worth of photos till your battery finally ran out, or you ran out of memory, but now you have to figure out what to do with all of them. Most people will just simply copy them to their computer, maybe upload some to Facebook and the Powwows.com gallery and then forget about them till someone comments on them, but undoubtedly you have a few keepers among the hundreds of bunny ears and overloaded Indian tacos (if there is such a thing), but the question is what to do with the keepers. The best answer is to print, and frame them, or you could go all out and put them in a nice photo matte and custom frame. Below I have outlined a simple guide to different printing technologies and the pros and cons to each.
First a brief explanation of how color printing works. The basic colors that all color printers use are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, or "CMYK", where "K" or "Key" is the black. Some printers will give you light variations of Cyan and Magenta, some will also give you a Grey, Red, Green, Orange... The basic color scheme of CMYK is called the “Subtractive color model”, basically because paper does not give off its own light source; a full range of colors are only possible by using colored inks to filter the light reflected off of the page. Red, Green and Blue or the “Additive color model” is used when the display is generating its own light, such as a television screen. The range of colors a display or printer is capable of creating is known as the “Gamut”. See images below for what additive and subtractive colors look like, and notice how they both create the same colors.
Quick Glossary:
Carriage: The device that hold the cartridges in the printer, it’s the thing the slides back and forth.
Gamut: The range of colors that a display or printer is capable of creating.
Print Head: The device in the printer or built onto certain cartridges that contains the nozzles that the ink is sprayed from.
Toner: The resin powder that laser printers and copiers use rather than a liquid ink.
A note on printer and ink pricing, and generic cartridges: Printer manufacturers utilize what’s called a “Razor and Blades” pricing system, in that either the machine will be cheap and the refills will be expensive or it will be the opposite. So don’t get suckered into buying a $60 printer because you might end up paying through the teeth later on. A lot of companies in recent years have been making brand compatible refills for almost every printer brand and selling them at a reduced price compared to the OEM versions. These things usually don’t offer the same quality ink as the real thing and some may even damage your printer over time.
When it comes to Photo printers you have 3 main options. The first and most common are "Inkjet" printers, the second are "Laser Printers" (digital copiers are in the same category), and thirdly you have "Dye Sublimation" printers.
When it comes to printers by far the most common are "Inkjet" systems. Inkjet printers use a cartridge filled with a liquid ink and use either a pump or heat to eject the ink from the cartridge and onto the paper. The great thing about this type of printer is that the machines are usually very affordable and offer a wide variety of options when it comes to the materials that you can print onto because no heat is applied to the surface of the material. There are essentially two types of cartridges, the first and the one people are most familiar with are the block type, typically a printer using these will have one cartridge for the black and a one with all the colors, also these have the print head attached to them. The second type, which is becoming the industry standard, are the separated ink tanks. Printers that use separated tanks will general have a cartridge for each color plus the black. This is the best option because in the older block style when you run out of one color you are essentially throwing away good ink, but in a separated system you only have to replace the color that is out. Separated ink printers typically cost more at first but will save you money in the long run. The big plus is that inkjet printers can create very high quality graphics and color. One of the downsides to inkjet is the fact that the ink can and will dry up if you don’t print every now and then.
Laser Printers are the second most common type of printer, mainly found in office environments. Laser printers rely on a powder toner and high heat to fuse the toner to the paper, whereas an inkjet pretty much just stains the paper. Laser printers are not ideal for photos or graphics because most can’t deliver a resolution of more than 1200 X 600 DPI, there are however some that can. The other thing to note is that laser printers tend to over saturate the colors which will create a darker image when printed. Laser printers are best suited for printing text and other office documents.
Finally there are “Dye Sublimation” printers. This system is more commonly found in those small printers that you can usually dock a camera onto. This system works by using applying heat to a dye coated cellophane roll to directly transfer the dye onto the paper. The thing about these printers is that they are only designed for one size and typically one type of paper. The good thing is that when you buy the paper and ink packs you will know exactly how many photos you are going to get out of it because when the cartridges are built they will give you one of each color per page in the pack. The prints that come from these are of a decent quality.
Or you could just go down to your local drug store or Walmart and use their photo kiosks.
Tomorrow I will give my thoughts on a few different printer brands and models.
Subtractive color:
Additive Color:
First a brief explanation of how color printing works. The basic colors that all color printers use are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, or "CMYK", where "K" or "Key" is the black. Some printers will give you light variations of Cyan and Magenta, some will also give you a Grey, Red, Green, Orange... The basic color scheme of CMYK is called the “Subtractive color model”, basically because paper does not give off its own light source; a full range of colors are only possible by using colored inks to filter the light reflected off of the page. Red, Green and Blue or the “Additive color model” is used when the display is generating its own light, such as a television screen. The range of colors a display or printer is capable of creating is known as the “Gamut”. See images below for what additive and subtractive colors look like, and notice how they both create the same colors.
Quick Glossary:
Carriage: The device that hold the cartridges in the printer, it’s the thing the slides back and forth.
Gamut: The range of colors that a display or printer is capable of creating.
Print Head: The device in the printer or built onto certain cartridges that contains the nozzles that the ink is sprayed from.
Toner: The resin powder that laser printers and copiers use rather than a liquid ink.
A note on printer and ink pricing, and generic cartridges: Printer manufacturers utilize what’s called a “Razor and Blades” pricing system, in that either the machine will be cheap and the refills will be expensive or it will be the opposite. So don’t get suckered into buying a $60 printer because you might end up paying through the teeth later on. A lot of companies in recent years have been making brand compatible refills for almost every printer brand and selling them at a reduced price compared to the OEM versions. These things usually don’t offer the same quality ink as the real thing and some may even damage your printer over time.
When it comes to Photo printers you have 3 main options. The first and most common are "Inkjet" printers, the second are "Laser Printers" (digital copiers are in the same category), and thirdly you have "Dye Sublimation" printers.
When it comes to printers by far the most common are "Inkjet" systems. Inkjet printers use a cartridge filled with a liquid ink and use either a pump or heat to eject the ink from the cartridge and onto the paper. The great thing about this type of printer is that the machines are usually very affordable and offer a wide variety of options when it comes to the materials that you can print onto because no heat is applied to the surface of the material. There are essentially two types of cartridges, the first and the one people are most familiar with are the block type, typically a printer using these will have one cartridge for the black and a one with all the colors, also these have the print head attached to them. The second type, which is becoming the industry standard, are the separated ink tanks. Printers that use separated tanks will general have a cartridge for each color plus the black. This is the best option because in the older block style when you run out of one color you are essentially throwing away good ink, but in a separated system you only have to replace the color that is out. Separated ink printers typically cost more at first but will save you money in the long run. The big plus is that inkjet printers can create very high quality graphics and color. One of the downsides to inkjet is the fact that the ink can and will dry up if you don’t print every now and then.
Laser Printers are the second most common type of printer, mainly found in office environments. Laser printers rely on a powder toner and high heat to fuse the toner to the paper, whereas an inkjet pretty much just stains the paper. Laser printers are not ideal for photos or graphics because most can’t deliver a resolution of more than 1200 X 600 DPI, there are however some that can. The other thing to note is that laser printers tend to over saturate the colors which will create a darker image when printed. Laser printers are best suited for printing text and other office documents.
Finally there are “Dye Sublimation” printers. This system is more commonly found in those small printers that you can usually dock a camera onto. This system works by using applying heat to a dye coated cellophane roll to directly transfer the dye onto the paper. The thing about these printers is that they are only designed for one size and typically one type of paper. The good thing is that when you buy the paper and ink packs you will know exactly how many photos you are going to get out of it because when the cartridges are built they will give you one of each color per page in the pack. The prints that come from these are of a decent quality.
Or you could just go down to your local drug store or Walmart and use their photo kiosks.
Tomorrow I will give my thoughts on a few different printer brands and models.
Subtractive color:
Additive Color:
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