All Images And Text On This Site Are Copyright 1999-2001

by

Thomas D. Hill Jr.
ABOUT KEIKO
WHAT'S NEW
THE KEIKO GALLERY
EQUIPMENT
IMAGE OF THE MONTH
ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
Pronghorn Antelope, June 2001, Saskatchewan
My Print Workflow

Sometimes a hard thing to understand in today's digital darkroom are the intricacies of how to print your work. Imagine spending all day with Photoshop tweaking an image so that it looks just like you imagined when the shutter was fired. All you have to do is get that great looking digital file onto printed material so your adoring fans can rave over the master piece you've created. The problem is how do you plow through all those print windows and what do some of the terms mean to you and me? It's actually pretty easy. In fact, given a bit of time and trial and error, anyone can figure it out. It must be easy because I figured it out. First, let me say this description applies to my workflow. In other words, it explains how I get my digital files into print form. Other people may use techniques that differ slightly from mine. The differences may be related to slightly different color spaces they use or their systems may be different. Still the concepts should be the same.

For this article I'll explain my computer system. It's a Mac but that shouldn't deter you PC users from reading this article. Most of the windows should look the same. Second, I'm using Photoshop 6.0 (PS 6) and an Epson 1270 printer. Like the Mac, other print windows and printers should be similar. Certainly, Epson's other printer windows should be similar. So let's get going.
First, remember printing is the last thing you do in the digital process. It's after you've done all your color tweaking and applying that Unsharp Mask (USM). Don't forget the USM is applied at the very end and just before making your final save or before printing a picture.

Let's say you've already decided on a particular type of paper for your printer. I'm using a letter sized sheet of Premium Semi-Gloss for today's example. To get going, I go right to File->Print Options as the image above shows. You can use File->Page Setup initially to setup your page features but it's options are available through File->Print Options which is the way we're going.
Make sure the "Scale to Fit Media" box isn't checked. I prefer to control any re-sizing of my images and won't let Epson's software to do it. If the image doesn't look right on the paper, it's probably because the appropriate paper size needs to be adjusted. Regardless, I click the Page Setup button to go to the next window without adjusting any of the other buttons.
Now we're in the mode of setting the paper size. Select the appropriate paper size using the drop-down menu. Since this image is a landscape I box the Landscape button. I never have anything other than 100% in the Reduce or Enlarge option for reasons already mentioned. The Printable Area is always Standard which gives me the option to check Centered. This prints the image in the very middle of the print media. I've never used any of the other options at the bottom of this window so don't ask me to explain their features. Okay, now click the Options button and we'll go on to the next window.

This is where things get a little more interesting. First, you can select the media type on this window. For Premium Semi-Gloss like we're using today, Epson recommends selecting Premium Glossy Photo in the drop-down menu. Next, make sure the Custom option is selected on the Mode to activate the Advanced button. Instead of pressing the Advanced button like I'm recommending, you could go up to the Custom Settings drop-down menu and select ColorSync to control the print process. I can't explain why, but that process has never worked for me. I prefer to use the Advanced features. Also, you could select PhotoEnhance now instead of using the Advanced features. As you'll find, this doesn't give you as much control over the print process and sometimes the images won't quite come out correctly. So, I press the Advanced button and move on to the next window.
There are some very interesting options available in this window. If you haven't selected the Media Type, you're given another opportunity here. Under Color Management, select the PhotoEnhance4 option. This allows you to select the Tone and Effect of the print. Check both of those boxes.

Tone is a trial and error selection. I've found 80% of the time, Hard works best for matching my print to my monitor. Sometimes, this creates a print that's too thin in which case I go with the Vivid option. I've never used any of the other options. Since this is a trial and error selection, before printing a very large print using expensive Semi-Gloss paper, I test the this option by using smaller (letter sized), less expensive (Heavyweight Matt) paper. That way, if the print doesn't come out right I haven't wasted too many resources.

The Effect is always set to Sharpness and I set that to High all the time. The nice thing about this is it seems to improve the apparent sharpness without worrying about the pitfalls of using the USM filter.

There are some surprising results based on adjusting the Print Quality. I've never found any improvements with using the highest--1440 dpi--setting. I usually set it as shown at Photo-720 dpi which seems to work fine. The best benefit of this is ink consumption seems to be cut in half. Occasionally, banding seems to be a problem which looks like a series of even printing streaks across the picture. I've eliminated this 100% of the time by selecting 1440 dpi. Don't ask me why this occurs because I haven't a clue. I'm just happy to know how to fix it. Okay, the last thing to do here is check the Finest Detail.
Okay, we're done with all those windows so select OK until you get back to the Print Options window. We'll select the Print button here. If you haven't guessed, we're almost done.
The last thing to do before printing is reviewing what we've set. The print window does a decent job of presenting a synopsis of what's been set. Everything shown here was set previously. I suggest going through all the windows here a second time to enusre you've got things the way you want. The only thing we haven't discussed is the Print Space. I perfer to be in the same space as my image and change the drop-down menu to reflect this. Now the only thing left to do is press the print button.

Like a regular darkroom, sometimes this is a trial and error process. Most of my adjusting is done with the PhotoEnhance 4 options where I switch between Vivid and Hard. I've rarely changed anything else. Also, you'll definately see problems if you've selected the wrong paper media for the type of paper used.

Most of the time if you save your image, all the selected print options you've setup will be saved with the image. So, the next time you print, everything ought to be ready to go. I personally note the PhotoEnhance 4 settings in my Image Database just in case I forget what I've set. It avoids wasting that test print. Regardless, before printing on that really expensive paper, I usually make a test print with the cheap stuff 'cause you never know what may go wrong.

I hope this explains things without being to confusing. It took a lot of trial and error for me to refine this workflow and hopefully this little tutorial will save you a bit of time.

Cheers

Tom

22 July 2001