Printing photos

It depends n the quality of prints you expect. Do not underestimate places like CVS, Walgreens, Ritz camera or other photography stores that will print for you. Edit your card and just take it to the store and have them do the printing. They have lots of options on pricing and styles. They can also make albums for you. It is easier and probably as cost effective as pinting them your self.

To print your own, you will need photographic paper, you will have to calibrate your monitor*, you will have to invest in a quality printer like the Epson Stylus Photo R2000, then the ink.

Or you can go with the less expensive "office printers" and print out photos that will be okay, but will not look like what you see on your computer monitor. The colors will be off, they will not be as sharp. So, before you invest in another printer, try a few prints on the one you own now.

*Google "how to calibrate a monitor" (don't let it discourage you!)

There are fantastic deals on Craigslist for the wide-body(13") Canon Pixma Pro 9000 MKII. Canon essentially gave these printers away with purchase of various camera bodies. You can get a $450 printer on Craigslist for $150-200. And it makes stunning images with you in the driver's seat. I have tried having prints made at Ritz and Staples, but I am perhaps something of a perfectionist. With this printer, I consistently get stunners without a lot of callibration and with off-the-shelf available-anywhere Canon Platinum paper.

Read this . I use a Canon IP6000D, the last of the non chipped cartridge models and generic ink on Costco paper and get good results but you must print often enough to not plug up the print head.
http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/inktest.html

You won't get hurt much as long as you stick to either Epson or Canon.

Then, buy a premium glossy paper by the same brand.

–B.G.–

I have used ezprints and mpix as online developers. Mpix kills you for canadian shipping but the quality of both is excellent. I find that if I want to print 11×14 or larger i perfer mounting them to a 1/8th board to prevent warping.

Once you cost out ink anything and capital costs 8×10 and smaller prints are cheaper to be done by someone else and for me larger than that i like to mount.

monitor calibrating

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/monitor-calibration.htm

Personally, unless the printer prints 13" 0r 17" or greater wide, mountain pictures just do not come out.

Any standard sized print its cheaper to go to a kiosk at a camera store or Costco and get prints. Look better generally as well. Can do photo editing on kiosks as well.

Reason:

An inordinate amount of time will be spent trying to get color calibration done right along with keeping your ink jet printer from clogging. Not to mention printing software to actually use on said printer along with the photo editing tool for cropping yada yada yada. Essentially to keep a printer from clogging you have to use it all the time. That is essentially the bottom line in my experience. HP/Epson/Canon/Lexmark all have to be used regularly or they will clog and then you are into cleaning which essentially dumps all of your ink you just paid buckoo bucks for into a bucket and then it is still streaky. The other option is the replace the printer head.

Yes, printing BIG pictures to where one can actually start to feel the beauty and grandeur is a rewarding endeavor. But any smaller prints 4×6 5×7 8×10 11×14 and its just not worth it. Go with a laser jet. Worse you will have to do if you haven't used it for a long time is to shake the cartridge and put it back in the machine.

Commercial prints also come out better as said company has spent bucket loads of money color matching their paper to the inks and made custom profile for it. Doing so for anything other than a $3000 17" or 24" wide or greater printer is PAINFUL.