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TIPS ON PRINTING AND SCANNING
Courtesy of Epson
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1. Taking Care of Your Prints
As with all photos, care should be taken to preserve the long life of your prints. All colour dyes change over time, but a few simple precautions will keep them in good condition for years to come.
- Do not fold or roll the paper and try not to touch the printable side; moisture from your skin can affect the print quality.
- For best results, allow your prints to dry thoroughly for 24 hours before framing or storing. Do not use a hair drier to speed up the process.
- If you want to store your prints in a stack, allow to dry individually for at least 15 minutes, then place a sheet of plain paper between the individual sheets in the stack. Allow a full day for the prints to dry before removing the plain paper.
- When storing your printouts we recommend using acid-free, archival sleeves
- When displaying your printouts indoors we recommend framing in glass.
2. Getting the best printing results
- A high-quality image is the key to any good photo. Try to use a digital camera that offers a minimum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. This will produce photos of up to 4X6 inches (10X15 cm).
- Set the correct resolution quality in your printer for the type of printout that you are doing. For example, if you are printing photos you probably would like to set the ‘quality’ to ‘best photo’. Refer to your printer manual for information.
- Set up a workflow – be consistent: make note on what you set in the software and the driver so you can produce the same again. You should know why it “worked before”.
Specialist Software
- Printers and scanners do what the software (and you) tells them to do. Read what the software manual says about printing, scanning and colour management.
Special Media
- If using special media (eg vellum, t-shirt transfer etc), make sure the manufacturer rates the media for your printer model and its ink set. The manufacturer should have instructions on how to load the media and what you need to set in the printer driver. Remember that it is the special media manufacturer that says that their media will work on your printer. They should be able to advise “how”.
3. Scanning cherished images
Chances are, if some of your most cherished photos have been displayed for years, exposed to heat or light, maybe stuck to a refrigerator or stored in a non-safe album, you'll notice they have visibly faded or discoloured with time. With a good quality scanner, you can make new prints from old photos, slides, or negatives and quickly and simply colour restore them to near-original condition.
- Choose the photos you would like to restore. Do not limit your search to colour photos only. Old, faded black and white or sepia-toned photos are also greatly enhanced with this process.
- The most original photo source would be the item most likely to provide you the most improved, restored reprint. Try to locate the original negative or slide: scanning and colour restoring the negative or slide will give you a better result than scanning and restoring the print made from that negative.
- Set your final image size and pixels per inch (ppi) when you’re scanning.
- Don’t over scan. Most printers only require a final image size at 240 – 300 ppi for good output. Don’t scan at large ppi (eg 9600ppi) – most of the data will not be used.
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