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Regardless of the photo-editing and -retouching software that you're using to process your photographs, some aspects of the image-printing process are the same. With most image editors, the print process consists of the following options:
- You get to choose which printer to print to. If you have a black-and-white laser and a color inkjet, for example, you can choose to output to the color inkjet.
- You can choose how many copies to print.
- You can choose to print only part of the image by choosing the Selection option. This assumes that you made a selection before issuing the Print command.
- You can adjust your printer's properties to print at different levels of quality, assuming that the printout is the final version.
- You can choose to print crop marks, which can help you or a professional printer cut along the edges of the printout.
Preventing surprises with Print Preview
Before you commit your image to paper, you may want to see a smaller view of an image in the context of a sheet of the currently set paper size, just to make sure that everything is okay. This prevents nasty surprises, such as printing your favorite portrait in horizontal format and cutting your subject in half. In virtually all software programs, you choose File --> Print Preview (or just File --> Print, depending on which program you're using) to see how the printout will look. Figure 1 shows the Print Preview window in Photoshop Elements. If you're happy with what you see, go ahead and issue the Print command (File --> Print or Ctrl+P) to open the Print dialog box.
Figure 1: A Print Preview window shows how your image will look on paper.
 | Higher-end photo-editing packages (such as Photoshop) let you choose to print color separations, which means printing each of the image's colors on a separate sheet. This can be helpful to a professional printing firm that may be using your printout to create the films that will generate your prints. |
Understanding your output options
In the Print Preview window, you can print the image by clicking the Print button, and you can also change the scale (size) and location of the image on the paper. With some image editors, a Show More Options check box opens an extension of the original dialog box. Options here may include applying a caption to your image or turning on crop marks. You may even be able to apply a background color and a border, which can be helpful if you're printing an image for framing and don't have a mat for the frame.
The Page Setup dialog box, which you open by clicking the Page Setup button in the Print Preview dialog box, allows you to change the printer you're sending the job to and to view your printer's properties (see Figure 2). It's also another place to choose the Background, Border, and Corner Crop Marks options. In many packages, the Page Setup dialog box also allows you to change the paper size and orientation.
Figure 2: You can specify paper orientation and size.
Printing your photos
When you're ready to print your work, choose File --> Print (or choose Print from the Print Preview window) and use the Print dialog box to take advantage of your printing options — which printer to use, how many copies to print, and so on.
If the software you're using offers a drastically different set of options through its Print dialog box, you can press F1 (in Windows) to open the software's help files. (Mac users can click the Help button in the dialog box.) If that doesn't work (though it should because most applications support this feature), use the Help menu and look for help articles that pertain to printing. The software may have also come with a Read Me file — a file that came with the software if you downloaded it from the Web — or a printed manual that you can refer to.
Of course, before you click the Print or OK button to begin the print job, you'll want to make sure that the right paper is in the printer and be sure how your particular printer wants the paper fed — good side down, the proper end in first, and so on. Most photographic paper has a "good side," which has the image-enhancing coating on it, and a repeated brand name on the back, making it easier to tell which side you want to print on. If you're not sure, though, do a test print first.
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