How to Prepare Your Printer for Photo Printing

Impeccable photos don’t only depend on a good shoot or great Photoshop skills. Printing devices play a big role on faultless prints. To assist your photo printing process the following are five steps you can take to prepare your printer and give it some TLC and in return it will print out the best pictures of your life. 

Printer Preparations Steps:

Step 1: Keep Printer Driver Updated – In order for your printer and your computer have the best communication they need a printer driver. Such printer drivers are constantly being revised by Printer Manufacturers and it is a good idea before printing photos to check your printer brand’s website to download updates.

Step 2: Printer Settings Changed to Best Quality – You need to make sure your settings are the best for photo printing. The best place to see how to change print quality settings is your printers owner’s manual. It is important you use the highest possible color printing resolution because the greater the dpi (dots per inch) the better your prints will be. Depending on the printer you might have bonus features such as automatic contrast or smoothing adjustments.

Step 3: Paper Settings for Photo Paper – You already know how to change your printer settings and there you can also choose the type of paper to be used. Best results are found obviously using high gloss paper and the printer needs to know you are using it to increase the amount of ink and touch ups required for flawless prints. If you set this up from the start you will definitely save yourself from poor quality results and save paper and ink on the process.

Step 4: Verify you have Printer Ink- All of the above will be worthless if you don’t have plenty of printer ink available. Make sure you check your ink levels and see if you have enough for the type and size of photograph you are about to print. If you choose to change the cartridge prior to printing it is important to align the cartridges and run a printing test.

Step 5: Photo Test – Organized printing isn’t easy but it helps you keep frustration out of the process. A good idea is to reduce the size of your photos and add them on a single sheet of photo paper. Make this your test sheet and then use the small photos to keep in your wallet, make magnets, send on a letter or make a collage.