|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
"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 |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
"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 |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
alternatives for Gregory Olsen? | Joe Strout | Policy | 1 | June 28th 04 02:20 PM |
Alternatives to A*mart | Paul T | Amateur Astronomy | 114 | May 30th 04 03:07 AM |
Alternatives to Drift Alignment? | sdh | Amateur Astronomy | 47 | December 16th 03 02:49 AM |
Alternatives | Wouff Hong | Policy | 0 | October 13th 03 11:00 PM |
alternatives to the big bang... ARE THERE ANY... have you say | james beavis | Astronomy Misc | 12 | September 9th 03 08:12 AM |