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Although I have used computers to generate graphics and obviously as a keen digital photographer to manipulate photographs, historically I have rarely needed to print pictures out and as a consequence, haven’t bothered too much with printers in the past however, that had to change.

Looking ahead and contemplating just how I might make a modest income in the near future, selling original prints of work I have created seems an obvious route to explore however and in order to do this, I would need to spend some time in mastering the “craft” side of printing which has a direct effect on how you prepare images for printing in the first place.

My Recent Set Up

These days, whether software or hardware, the “user manual” inevitably comes as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file on a CD as do the “Help” files so, for those occasions when I want to print this material out, I have an old ever faithful HP LaserJet which chugs along manfully as it has done for many years and prints legibly on virtual toilet paper using refilled cartridges !

In addition I have an old Epson A3 inkjet printer which I bought back in 2001, in fact it is a splendid beast and but for the fact it is of a generation before colour fast inks appeared, it would do me fine. Whilst I can use the Epson for various tests and set ups because it also has a roll feed capability, it is strictly an “non-production machine” in today’s terms.

I have been contemplating my future printing requirements for some time and really this particular blog is all built around that, for most likely a boring topic, for the odd one or two perhaps interesting, you have been warned !

The Printer Requirement…

Today for less that £100, actually quite a lot less, you can buy an A4 printer that will print photographs pretty flawlessly from quite a number of manufacturers such as Canon, Epson, HP and so on however, if you want something “more”, things get a bit more difficult.

The something more is fairly simple: If you want to print photographs, the basic choice lies between a gloss, semi-gloss or matt finish , the thickness of the media remains about the same, use the right branded paper which is matched to the printer technology and ink drying speed, you should get a good result. The “more bit” concerns different papers, materials, thickness and speed at which they will print/dry. There are heavy quality “Art” papers, even canvas to consider so materials handling capabilities push the price up of the actual printer.

Once into this arena and prices climb quite steeply, a perfectly adequate domestic A3 printer that costs around £300 will suddenly cost +£600 just because both mechanically and in software terms, it can handle a wider range of possibilities.

But More Than This…

Your pictures maybe 300dpi in terms of resolution but on your PC monitor, likely all you see is around 72dpi which when combined with the colour temperature of your screen and so on means that “what you see is not what you get” when you print. In addition and looking ahead to a “production” situation, there is an argument that says rather than printing out stuff yourself and therefore buying in all the “gear”, why not get specialist fine art printers to do that for you ? It may cost you £50-100 a large print but, the result is guaranteed and providing you can factor the cost into your sales price, you save yourself the bother on the other hand, is it as simple as that ?

But even if you do decide on that route, it becomes obvious that you need a local printer if only for proofing purposes. I ordered up an Epson A4 P50 inkjet printer which uses their “Claria” ink system which is rated for +90 years in a frame and around 200 in an album – who knows ? With a complete spare set of cartridges for the 6 ink system, the total cost came to £123 which is frankly, quite cheap and after just one afternoon of running off prints, it has already paid for itself in terms of the learning curve and a better understanding of the “possible”.

Conclusion

The pictures dotted around this blog entry are just some of the images I have used in my printing experiments but it has fed back into a whole series of fresh understanding as to just how individual pictures need to be handled and likely “stylised” for best effect.

I have set up the domain for baldys-somerset but there is no material there yet because I’m working across my various web sites with the aim of greater co-ordination between them and especially looking at web sales of original prints. Given the discrepancy between what people will see on screen and by default due to the screen technology, can I get them closer up to any original so that they can see the fine detail ? Fortunately, the answer is yes and I will incorporate it in my site.

Buying that A4 printer was more of a progressive step than I realised at the time and I fully intend to take advantage of the opportunity… watch this space.