Mouse Clix

By Hobie Lunin

A picture is worth 1000 words!

Lately I am hearing from people who are unhappy about the results they are getting when printing photos from their computer. As there may be many of you feeling the same way about your holiday photos, I thought I ought to see if I can help. Here is 1000 words on the subject!

It is probably true that the literature you get with a printer is not very helpful. Further, there is a tendency not to read much of it even if it were. Here are the things that are more or less essential to getting a good image from your printer. Start with the paper. You will only get a very flat and dull photo if you use plain paper. I suggest a good grade of glossy photo paper. If you are concerned about fading or other long-term problems like resistance to water and handling, look on the package to see if the company is touting any improvements in this area. Next is the photo program that you are using to look at and improve the photo before you print it. These can be inexpensive, like "Photofinish 4" or very expensive like "Adobe PhotoShop 6.0". We are not talking about doing anything fancy with the photos but rather just basic photo handling.

The first thing you can do is improve brightness and contrast. Most photos I see appear to be very flat looking but take a nice turn for the better if they are "enhanced" with increased brightness and contrast. Since each photo software program is different, you must look either in the text you received with the software or by clicking on help when you are in the program to determine how to make this improvement. Sometimes the contrast and brightness is in a one-click button to "improve" or "enhance" the photo. Other times it is carried out by separate clicks in the software.

Next will be to crop the photo. Most people do not get close enough to their subjects and include too much extraneous background. Look at the way the photos in this newspaper are cropped, just include what's interesting.

The crop command is often an icon on the task bar that changes your cursor to a cross when you pass it over the picture. Estimate where you think the new upper left corner of the cropped picture will be and click the left button there and hold it down. Now, drag the "cross" to the right and down and a box will form around the essential portion of the photo. Move it to the right such that the subjects are in the center of this frame, and downward such that you don't cut off anyone's feet. Then let the clicker up. The frame shows the new "cropped" photo. If you are happy with it, click on Edit and then Crop. If you are not happy with what you see, click the "X" at the top right of the screen to close the photo, but select "No" when the program asks you whether you want to save changes. Then you can go back to the photo and start all over again.

Once the photo is bright and cropped you are ready to select the size you want. If you are using 8 1/2" x 11" paper you may want to have the photo fill the page. This can be designated on one of the print set-up screens where the radio button (a small circle that you can click to make a dot in it) will specify either "scale to page" or "fit to page." If this is not available to you make sure that in your photo program that you have set the size to 8 1/2" x 11". If you cannot find that screen, be sure to check the manual or help to find the procedure for "changing size" or "resizing."

It is important to set the printer to high quality. The printers are all different in this regard, some referring to "high" or "low" quality while others refer to "dpi" (dots per inch). You will have a chance to set this property after you click on File and Print. When the next screen shows up, it will indicate the name of the printer and to the right of this the word Properties. Click on it and a screen will appear that will allow you to make the choices of portrait or landscape position of the photo, as well as what paper you are using (set this to Photo Glossy) and further, there may be a place to designate the dots per inch. Select at least 720dpi or higher. If you set it as high as 1200, the photo will take a long time to pass through the printer and the quality may not be much better the some setting less than 1000dpi. Be prepared to experiment with this!

Now you are ready to print. Click on OK and wait to see your results. At the high resolution there will be more ink on the paper and the glossy finish absorbs it slowly, so remove the photos one at a time and do not stack any thing on top of them for half hour or more depending upon the humidity.

Make some comparisons between various settings and with various enhancements made on your photo program. When you start to see good results write down what you have done so that you can duplicate it in the future.

After all, that photo of yours IS worth a thousand words (:-)>

TAKE NOTICE: PA. Tax-free Computer Purchase program is back again. Save by buying your computer, peripherals and software during the week of Feb. 18 to 25.

Next time in Mouse Clix: Cue Cat

Hobie Lunin is a Computer Instructor and Consultant, and will answer questions at hlunin@email.com. To see previous columns and other information, go to http://mouseclix.tripod.com