Printing Photographs from Digital Cameras

There are now many options to produce prints from digital cameras.

One of the many advantages of digital cameras is that it is easy to create your own prints at home. To get the best results you will need a special type of printer, a photo realistic inkjet printer. These photo printers can also be used for normal printing. You can purchase a photo printer for less than $100.

To get the best results you will also need to use special photo paper. The quality of your digital photo prints depends on the quantity of paper you use.

If you are looking to create the perfect print then you may want to look at dye sublimation printers. These are more expensive than inkjets, but produce a better quality print.

You may notice that some digital cameras are described as Pict Bridge compatible. This means that you can connect the camera directly to a printer without using a computer. The printer itself also has to be Pict Bridge compatible. A cable should be supplied with a Pict Bridge compatible digital camera. You then control the pictures that you want to be printed through the camera's menu system.

Now there are many printers available which accept memory cards from digital cameras. To make a print all you need to do is take the memory card from the digital camera and insert it into the printer.

Basically you have the following choices for printing digital photographs from your digital camera:

Regular color inkjet or laser printers: They are not great for photos. They can print nice text and charts, but usually their photo prints are quite poor.

An inkjet photo printer: This is the lowest cost option. inkjet photo printers have 6-8 colors of ink and produce stunning photos as large as 13 x 19 inches. Ink and photo paper can be costly though. Most modern photo printers are PictBridge-enabled, which allows you to print directly from the camera! Some other printers can grab photos off a memory card -- just insert the card into the slot and use the LCD on the printer to select the photos you want to print.

A dye-sublimation printer: A good option for 4 x 6 inch prints -- if you do larger prints then there are not many options. Dye-sub printers run the paper through four times: once each for cyan, magenta, and yellow, and then again for a protective coating. Prints from dye-sublimation printers are quite durable and are usually waterproof (unlike some inkjets photo prints). The catch is that materials are expensive.