Printing your Digital Photos

One of the big advantages of digital photography is that you can print your own photos.  But is that really an advantage or an exercise in frustration?  It depends.

Another advantage is being able to use your computer as a "digital darkroom" thus avoiding messy chemicals and delicate proceedures and physical danger.  There are lots of pros and cons to "diy" photo printing.

Advantages of "Rolling your Own"  

1. You can get nearly instant results
2. If you are a perfectionist you can get results comparible to a professional photo lab, or better.

The Disadvantages

• Cost - Unless you can get special buys on paper and ink that 4x6 print will cost you around $.25 minimum. The cost with some systems is upwards of $.40.  Compare that to good online services that can deliver a better product at $.10 and up.
• Durability - Unless you use some very specific printer/ paper/ ink combinations the photos you print at home could start to show fading in less than six months.  (There are many factors in this topic to be considered worthy of another article.)
• Quality - You can make magnificent prints at home but be prepared to make it your primary hobby and expect to shell out some dollars.  If you don't want to do that then sending your digital files to a processor such as Kodak will often yield better, more durable results.

More to Come

I'll write additional articles on printing your digital photos and another one on how to protect prints from fading.  Perhaps I can save one of you a couple of years of frustration, many wasted ink cartridges and boxes of paper.