Digital photos: Part two - Print lifelike photos

Use the right settings
It’s important to test the printer scientifically. This means making sure the printer settings match the paper being used.

This is one of the most common causes of incorrect colours. Why is this so important? Because inks and paper interact in complex ways.

If there’s plain paper inserted in the printer but ‘photo paper’ is chosen in the printer settings, the printer will apply far too much ink and the photo will come out as a smudged and soggy mess.

The printer needs to know exactly what kind of paper is being used to use the correct amount of ink for optimum output.

There’s more to it than that, though. Different brands of paper will react with the inks differently. This is why there are often colour shifts from one brand to another, and even between paper types (gloss or matt) from the same maker.

Don’t be tempted by old wives’ tales that circulate. One is that it’s possible to use less ink with certain printers by choosing the ‘inkjet film’ media type in the printer dialog for printing on conventional photo paper. Whatever truth in these stories, this kind of experimentation just adds more confusion. Stick to the printer maker’s recommended settings. (When using third-party papers, check the instructions – many come with lists of settings for different printer models.)

Lastly, third-party inks can scupper colour management. These are not usually recommended for photo output, which requires precisely formulated inks manufactured to very high standards.

How to adjust the printer settings
Once the test prints have been made, it should be obvious whether the differences are bad enough to worry about. If they’re not, you’re in luck. But if there are significant differences, there are two solutions. One is a home-made ‘fix’ which will work well enough with that printer and paper combination; the other is the more technical colour management route.

We’ll explain the simpler home-made route first. The printer dialog should contain an ‘Advanced’ or ‘Color’ tab. If this isn’t immediately apparent, check the printer’s manual or online help.

Typically, you can choose from three options. (Not all printers will have all three options, or use the same terminology.) One is automatic photo enhancement, where the printer ‘improves’ your photos using standardised internal adjustments to brightness, contrast, saturation and sharpness. This is often the default, but not ideal as it messes around with your pictures after you’ve perfected them.

The second option is manual adjustment. Here, it’s possible to adjust the brightness, contrast and colour balance of the printouts using sliders. By adjusting these sliders and making more test prints, it should be possible to get the printed output much closer to what’s shown on the screen. There should be an option to save these settings for re-use another time, so you could assemble a list of custom settings.