Photo printing is becoming increasingly popular among photographers and digital artists alike. In fact, according to IBISWorld, the online photo printing market has grown an average of 1.5% every year between 2017 and 2022. But there's more to printing a photo than just sending it to a print shop and getting it on paper. Here are the steps you should take to prepare an image for the best photo printing experience.
Click the image to calibrate your monitor
Calibrate Your Monitor
To ensure that your screen displays an image correctly, it's important to calibrate it at least once a month. There are several easy-to-use calibration tools available to buy. It's also helpful to look at a photo on the print shop's monitor before you print it. If you don't have a monitor calibration tool, at least make sure your brightness isn't at 100%. The brightness of your monitor will have the biggest effect on your print expectations.
Save Your Image Correctly
The way you save an image can have a significant impact on the way it looks. Many artists like to save their photos in PhotoPro, but PhotoPro has a much larger color space than many printers are equipped to handle. It's usually best to save your files in SRGB, but some print shops may request that you save images in Adobe RGB. It's important to ask a print shop what they prefer before printing. It's also a good practice to edit an image as 16-bit but save it as 8-bit.
An image's dots per inch, or dpi, can also affect its appearance. The lower the dpi, the lower its resolution will be, especially in larger prints, so it's usually best to save an image at 300 dpi.
Low Resolution (left) versus High Resolution (right). Click to see larger.
Edit Your Image
Even the most well-polished photos can still use a bit of editing before printing. Be sure to resize your image according to your printing specifications, crop it to the correct aspect ratio, and finally, sharpen it. Be aware that an image will look less sharp after it is printed, so it's usually best to sharpen your photo a little more than you think you actually need to.
Use Soft Proofing
The final step is to preview your image with soft proofing. Soft proofing is available as a feature in many popular software editing programs. It enables you to display your image according to various printing presets to give you an accurate idea of how it will look after printing.
Once you've properly prepared your image, you'll need to take it to a high-quality art printing service. Fine Line Supply Co. provides the best photo printing in the Ruston, LA area and can help you get your photo ready to display.