Elizabeth, aka sevenbridges, is a photographer living in Berkeley, CA. She is inspired by things she sees every day, and tries to capture them in a unique way. Her background in the IT world gives her a leg up when it comes to understanding printing. When she's not shutterbugging or working on prints, she spends time with her daughter and watches really bad movies with her boyfriend. This piece was originally published in the Etsy Forums.

In the last few years many artists and photographers have started to print digitally at home, a shift from the chemical photo labs that have long been the standard. It's possible to control the color, media, and to produce a print in a very short amount of time - but you have to nail the basics to do it properly and create a print that will wow your customer.

Why Print Digitally at Home?
So, given the options, why print at home? Beyond the longer turnaround time inherent in sending out your prints, most outsourced labs don't offer you the same creative control. Learning to tune the color of a print, choose the paper it is printed on, and generally making printing part of your creative process is a truly worthwhile thing, and provides your customer a product that is produced by you, from beginning to end.

Outsourcing your prints is always an option. Some outsourced labs are cheap, that is certain - and many provide a great quality image for the money. Adorama (www.adoramapix.com) can print a 16x20 print on excellent paper for $10. iolabs (www.iolabsinc.com) prints on a wide range of paper at archival quality, with a minimum order of $25. PrintsAhoy (printsahoy.etsy.com) is an Etsy seller of high quality digital prints, selling 8x10 prints on photo rag for around $8 each. An equivalent print-at-home might cost between $3-10, for ink and paper, but there is a significant upfront cost, as well as a learning curve.

Source
Before you even think about printing, you have to have a good source! A high quality scan or photo of your traditional media work will make all the difference in your end print. If you aren't getting good results, there are lots of tutorials available if you search the web - looking through them will help you figure out the right technique for both your art and the equipment you have available.

Likewise, your digital photos must be high enough resolution to print at the size you want. Optimally, you should be printing at 300 dpi (dots per inch). There is some wiggle room in that, as long as your image turns out with the clarity you feel it needs to have. Make sure your image processing software is set to your desired print resolution and not screen resolution (72dpi - much too low for printing), to ensure a crisp image. Here's a nice little chart explaining optimal print size for a given number of megapixels.

It's important to keep in mind that the pixels and sizes for film reflect a professional scanner and scanning negatives. Also, image processing software has evolved to the point where interpolation (guessing what should be in between pixels) is very good, so sizing up can still be very successful. As always, use your judgement. Visible pixels mean it's way too big.

Printers
Next, let's talk about the heart of printing: your printer! There are dozens (if not hundreds) of consumer grade photo printers on the market. At first glance, many of these will produce a great image. They are perfect for snapshots and your photo album. However, they have serious limitations if you want to produce a quality print you can sell.

Most printers do not generally have archival inks, which means that their prints may fade or change over time. They are limited in what media they can use - they may not be able to use heavier or textured papers properly, or sizes over 8.5"x11". Beyond that, there are generally no color profiles available for them, which leaves you to trial and error as far as color goes.

So how do you choose a printer? There are quite a few professional grade printers which will not totally break the bank, and a whole lot that will. As I see it, the differences among them are broken into two important categories: pigment and dye based. Each has its benefits and drawbacks. A good discussion of pigment vs. dye can be found here. 

You may also want to consider whether the printer has a straight paper path - this means that you can feed in very thick papers, and the printer can push them through without any bending. It's also worth considering the maximum size the printer can handle, as this will define what print sizes you are able to offer.

Considering all of these things, choosing a printer is a still a matter of both technology and taste. Read reviews, but be aware that many review sites that offer comparisons only look at consumer grade printers. Try to see the output in person, if possible. As with most things, first hand experience is the best way to decide.

Paper
After the printer, the next obvious topic is paper. If you want to produce a quality print, you have to be printing on a quality paper - not just for color, but for archival quality, bleed (how well the paper holds ink in place once applied), texture, color (of the paper), and feel. At first glance, your paper is your print. Using a consumer grade paper is simply not an option.

So, what paper to use? There is an incredible variety of paper available, from makers who have been making quality art papers for hundreds of years (Hahnemühle) to long-standing leaders in papers for photo printing (Ilford), as well as many manufacturers exclusive to digital printing, sold through photo stores.

Paper can be very expensive, and you won't want to buy boxes of paper and find that you don't like the result. I suggest getting some sample packs from various paper makers - these generally are affordable, and you can test print on them and find the papers that you think suit your images best. Your portraits may look best on a velvet finish cotton paper, but architectural photos look best on gloss.

Generally, gloss papers will produce a sharp, bright image. Matte papers will provide a more subdued, warm image. Cotton rag, linen, pearl, and canvas each have their own distinctive characteristics, and it's only by trying them that you can tell what you like. Finding a paper you love and feel comfortable working with can really make production a lot more fun.

Color
There is nothing more frustrating than printing an image that was beautiful on your monitor, only to find it washed out or just plain wrong upon printing. There's also nothing worse as a buyer than receiving a print that just doesn't look like it did on the screen. Don't despair - color management can help!

To ensure that your image gets printed the way that you want, it really helps to understand your workflow, and how to use ICC profiles. The ICC, or International Color Consortium, has a tag-line of "Making color seamless between devices and documents." This is exactly what you need. They have tons of information, a section of which can be found here.

In short, an ICC Profile describes the way that digital color values are interpreted between your camera and your imaging editing software, to your display, even on computers with different operating systems, and ultimately into ink or pigment by your printer software and printer. A good introduction to ICC Profiles  can be found here.

Most good paper manufacturers provide ICC profiles for the leading printers. Using these can help you achieve much easier control and accuracy of color between your camera, display, and printer.

But above that, experiment. Don't be afraid to use your paper sample packs - that's why you bought them. Learn how to proof images, and how to use the tools in your image processing and printer software. Each probably has a good section in the handbook about color management that will give you a good start.

Digital printing is an art as much as a technology. I'm sure I haven't covered every important aspect of digital printing. It's a vast topic, and there are those with years of experience who surely have more nuanced advice - I welcome their comments! This article only documents the basics to produce a sale-able print that your customer will love. As for the rest, you will discover yourself through trial and error, ultimately resulting in the knowledge and ability to use it as part of your creative process, making your prints art themselves, and enhancing your images instead of merely presenting them.

Some useful links:

Printer Manufacturers
Canon
Epson

Pigment vs. Dye
OddParts

International Color Consortium Profile Information
Color.org
More Color.org Resources
Dry Creek Photo

Paper Manufacturers
Ilford
Hahnemühle