printing alternatives??

When I want to print one of my astro images, I take a CD to my local Walmart
and have them do the printing. This is certainly cheap and I don't get
charged for any prints that don't turn out. However, there are a couple of
disadvantages- crowds and settings. To avoid crowds, I can sometimes go by
on weekdays but the settings issue always bugs me- what I produce and take
there does not come out on their screen like at home and I almost always
have to compensate brightness settings. However, much of the time, I'm in
the dark and end up printing extra pics at different settings. Well, I'm
thinking about doing the printing at home. Up until recently, I really
haven't liked what is available to the home user and that's why I chose the
Walmart route. With Walmart, there are things you can't really control
though that I could at home. So, for anyone who prints at home, what are
you using? I wouldn't want this to be tremendously expensive, but not so
cheap that I have to replace the $50 cartridge on a regular basis. Also,
what about photographic printing paper- good brands that will last?

Thanks for any thoughts,
JW

You get what you pay for. By taking your images to WalMart, you are just
one step below taking them to Kinko's. You can never expect these type
of businesses to ever get your color balance right, as they are totally
clueless. You must remember that these places are used by people for
basic smapshot printing, not astroimages. To get proper color balance
and reproduction you must have your images printed at a photo lab, or go
through the trouble of learning about how to do it yourself. I would
first suggest joining the newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.astro to get
pointed in the right direction.

Another approach is the one I take, not to print astroimages at all. The
color gamut displayed by a computer monitor is much larger than what any
printer can do.

Matthew Ota

Josh Washburn wrote:
When I want to print one of my astro images, I take a CD to my local Walmart
and have them do the printing. This is certainly cheap and I don't get
charged for any prints that don't turn out. However, there are a couple of
disadvantages- crowds and settings. To avoid crowds, I can sometimes go by
on weekdays but the settings issue always bugs me- what I produce and take
there does not come out on their screen like at home and I almost always
have to compensate brightness settings. However, much of the time, I'm in
the dark and end up printing extra pics at different settings. Well, I'm
thinking about doing the printing at home. Up until recently, I really
haven't liked what is available to the home user and that's why I chose the
Walmart route. With Walmart, there are things you can't really control
though that I could at home. So, for anyone who prints at home, what are
you using? I wouldn't want this to be tremendously expensive, but not so
cheap that I have to replace the $50 cartridge on a regular basis. Also,
what about photographic printing paper- good brands that will last?

Thanks for any thoughts,
JW

Josh Washburn:
When I want to print one of my astro images, I take a CD to my local Walmart
and have them do the printing. This is certainly cheap and I don't get
charged for any prints that don't turn out. However, there are a couple of
disadvantages- crowds and settings. To avoid crowds, I can sometimes go by
on weekdays but the settings issue always bugs me- what I produce and take
there does not come out on their screen like at home and I almost always
have to compensate brightness settings. However, much of the time, I'm in
the dark and end up printing extra pics at different settings. Well, I'm
thinking about doing the printing at home. Up until recently, I really
haven't liked what is available to the home user and that's why I chose the
Walmart route. With Walmart, there are things you can't really control
though that I could at home. So, for anyone who prints at home, what are
you using? I wouldn't want this to be tremendously expensive, but not so
cheap that I have to replace the $50 cartridge on a regular basis. Also,
what about photographic printing paper- good brands that will last?

For the best in color printing at an affordable price: Apple Macintosh
computer with ColorSync-calibrated display/Adobe Photoshop CS/Canon
9900/pick a paper from http://www.inkjetart.com/. Result:
display-quality prints with repeatable results. It's ColorSync that
ensures the latter, and it's the lack of ColorSync that makes it
impossible to move your files from machine to machine (from home to
WalMart, e.g.) and achieve consistent results across various displays
and printers.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

though that I could at home. So, for anyone who prints at home, what are
you using? I wouldn't want this to be tremendously expensive, but not so
cheap that I have to replace the $50 cartridge on a regular basis. Also,
what about photographic printing paper- good brands that will last?

Thanks for any thoughts,
JW

My sons and I recently found ourselves asking the same questions, as my
younger son Tim (12 years old) has received a lot of requests for prints of
his lunar eclipse with geese images.

http://www.gmavt.net/~wooscon/TimLunarEclipse.htm

We spent a lot of time trying different options, and talking with people in
the graphic arts field. What we did is buy an Epson R800 printer for $350.
This printer uses UltraChrome inks (8 cartridges at $14 each) which, when
used with Epson's Premium paper, produce stunning and long-lasting prints.
He isn't doing much processing of the images, and has found Adobe Photoshop
Elements more than sufficient for resizing and formating. Cheaper printers
can also produce good-looking output, but we wanted to give folks a print
that we were confident would not fade for a very long time ( 50 years).

Dennis

"Matthew Ota" wrote in message
...
You get what you pay for. By taking your images to WalMart, you are just
one step below taking them to Kinko's. You can never expect these type
of businesses to ever get your color balance right, as they are totally
clueless.

My brother suggested Kinko's. Color balance really isn't the problem as
Photoshop output and the Walmart printers seem to match. It's the
brightness that seems to differ from store to store. As for what Walmart
uses, I watched (and actually helped participate in) a toner cartridge
change the other day. They were using Kodak photo printers.

You must remember that these places are used by people for
basic smapshot printing, not astroimages. To get proper color balance
and reproduction you must have your images printed at a photo lab, or go
through the trouble of learning about how to do it yourself. I would
first suggest joining the newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.astro to get
pointed in the right direction.

True, but I only do this occasionally. I am a planetary imager so I only
get really good images every so often that I want to print. If I were also
into long exposure work, I probably would learn the process myself because
The Mart would never get it right.


Another approach is the one I take, not to print astroimages at all. The
color gamut displayed by a computer monitor is much larger than what any
printer can do.

Yes, but then you miss out on visitors seeing your 4x6's, 8x10's on the
wall. There's nothing more gratifying than when a visitor sees the 8x10 I
have of Copernicus and surrounding area or the astonishing rings of Saturn
on the wall and says "wow!". Call me old fashioned I guess, but I still
like to have a hard print of what I capture.

JW



Matthew Ota

Josh Washburn wrote:
When I want to print one of my astro images, I take a CD to my local
Walmart
and have them do the printing. This is certainly cheap and I don't get
charged for any prints that don't turn out. However, there are a couple
of
disadvantages- crowds and settings. To avoid crowds, I can sometimes go
by
on weekdays but the settings issue always bugs me- what I produce and
take
there does not come out on their screen like at home and I almost always
have to compensate brightness settings. However, much of the time, I'm
in
the dark and end up printing extra pics at different settings. Well,
I'm
thinking about doing the printing at home. Up until recently, I really
haven't liked what is available to the home user and that's why I chose
the
Walmart route. With Walmart, there are things you can't really control
though that I could at home. So, for anyone who prints at home, what
are
you using? I wouldn't want this to be tremendously expensive, but not
so
cheap that I have to replace the $50 cartridge on a regular basis.
Also,
what about photographic printing paper- good brands that will last?

Thanks for any thoughts,
JW

On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 07:48:16 GMT, "Josh Washburn" wrote:

So, for anyone who prints at home, what are
you using? I wouldn't want this to be tremendously expensive, but not so
cheap that I have to replace the $50 cartridge on a regular basis. Also,
what about photographic printing paper- good brands that will last?

It is very possible to make high quality prints at home, but you need the right
tools, which aren't cheap. On the software side, you need Photoshop CS, which
has the best color management system around. On the hardware side you need a
good quality monitor and a calibrator for it. There are a number of printers now
that do true photo quality. I favor the Epson models that use ultrachrome inks.
With high quality paper, you can expect prints to last many years. Figure your
printing cost at around $1-2 per square foot. If you are doing many prints,
consider one of the larger printers. You will spend more up front, but the ink
is packaged in larger containers and the print cost drops rather dramatically.

If you don't want to make the investment in equipment and software, another
option is to establish a good relationship with a photofinisher. A friend of
mine was getting prints for several years at Sam's Club. He knew the guy who ran
the machine, got the technical details, was able to download an ICC profile for
the printer, and got good results.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

"Dennis Woos" wrote in message
...
though that I could at home. So, for anyone who prints at home, what
are
you using? I wouldn't want this to be tremendously expensive, but not
so
cheap that I have to replace the $50 cartridge on a regular basis.
Also,
what about photographic printing paper- good brands that will last?

Thanks for any thoughts,
JW

My sons and I recently found ourselves asking the same questions, as my
younger son Tim (12 years old) has received a lot of requests for prints
of
his lunar eclipse with geese images.

http://www.gmavt.net/~wooscon/TimLunarEclipse.htm

Boy, call that a lucky, but unique, shot! I can see why people would want
prints.

We spent a lot of time trying different options, and talking with people
in
the graphic arts field. What we did is buy an Epson R800 printer for
$350.
This printer uses UltraChrome inks (8 cartridges at $14 each) which, when
used with Epson's Premium paper, produce stunning and long-lasting prints.
He isn't doing much processing of the images, and has found Adobe
Photoshop
Elements more than sufficient for resizing and formating. Cheaper
printers
can also produce good-looking output, but we wanted to give folks a print
that we were confident would not fade for a very long time ( 50 years).

The Epson brand is what I use after ditching Canon a couple of years ago. I
have to say that I feel it's a better brand because the cartridge system
takes many more refills before having to replace. With Canon, I was
spending $50 every couple of weeks. Thanks for your advice. I don't have
that particular model, but I'll keep it in mind.

JW


Dennis

Chris L Peterson wrote in message ...
On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 07:48:16 GMT, "Josh Washburn" wrote:

So, for anyone who prints at home, what are
you using? I wouldn't want this to be tremendously expensive, but not so
cheap that I have to replace the $50 cartridge on a regular basis. Also,
what about photographic printing paper- good brands that will last?

It is very possible to make high quality prints at home, but you need the
right
tools, which aren't cheap. On the software side, you need Photoshop CS,
which
has the best color management system around. On the hardware side you need
a
good quality monitor and a calibrator for it. There are a number of
printers now
that do true photo quality. I favor the Epson models that use ultrachrome
inks.
With high quality paper, you can expect prints to last many years. Figure
your
printing cost at around $1-2 per square foot. If you are doing many prints,
consider one of the larger printers. You will spend more up front, but the
ink
is packaged in larger containers and the print cost drops rather
dramatically.

If you don't want to make the investment in equipment and software, another
option is to establish a good relationship with a photofinisher. A friend
of
mine was getting prints for several years at Sam's Club. He knew the guy
who ran
the machine, got the technical details, was able to download an ICC profile
for
the printer, and got good results.

_______________________________________________ __

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

if you get a large Epson printer get also a continuous ink system, much
lower printing costs per page . As a matter of fact, the only home system
that is competitive pricewise .

best regards,
matt tudor