Ordering Prints


Inkjet photo printers provide immediate gratification, but not without hassles. Paper and ink are expensive. Getting perfectly even borders is next to impossible, and getting borderless prints can be equally frustrating.

There is another path to hard copy: ordering prints through iPhoto. Click the Order Prints button, specify the print sizes you want, and iPhoto transmits your photos over the Internet to Kodak's Ofoto print service. The prints look great, and because they're true photographic prints, they're much more permanent than most inkjet prints.

You can also order prints from other online photofinishers, many of whom also offer free online photo albums and other sharing services. Using these services isn't as straightforward as clicking a button in iPhoto, but it isn't difficult, either. Many services, such as Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com), offer software that simplifies transferring your shots. And some services offer output options that iPhoto doesn't, such as mouse pads, T-shirts, and even photo cookies. For links to some online photofinishers, see www.macilife.com/iphoto

To Order Prints

Step 1.

Select the photos you want prints of, then click the Order Prints button or choose Order Prints from the Share menu.

Step 2.

Specify the sizes and quantities you want.

Create a Temporary Album

If you're ordering prints from many different rolls, create an album and use it to hold the photos you want to print. Give the album an obvious name, such as Pix to Print. This makes it easier to keep track of which photos you're printing. After you've placed your order, you can delete the album.

Cropping Concerns

The proportions of most standard print sizes don't match the proportions of a typical digital camera image. As a result, Kodak automatically crops a photo to fill the print size you've ordered.

The problem is, automatic cropping may lop off part of the image that's important to you. If you don't want your photos cropped by a machine, do the cropping yourself, using iPhoto's edit view, before ordering. Use the Constrain popup menu to specify the proportions you want.

If you plan to order prints in several sizes, you may have even more work to do. A 5 by 7 print has a different aspect ratio than a 4 by 6 or an 8 by 10. If you want to order a 5 by 7 and one of these other sizes, you need to create a separate version of each picturefor example, one version cropped for a 5 by 7 and another cropped for an 8 by 10.

To create separate versions of a picture, make a duplicate of the original photo for each size you want (select the photo and press -D, and then crop each version appropriately.

If you crop a photo to oddball proportionsfor example, a narrow rectangleKodak's automatic cropping will yield a weird-looking print. If you have an image-editing program, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, here's a workaround. In the imaging program, create a blank image at the size you plan to print (for example, 5 by 7 inches). Then open your cropped photo in the imaging program and paste it into this blank image. Save the resulting image as a JPEG file (use the Maximum quality setting), add it to iPhoto, and then order your print.

No Questions, Please

Kodak can't print a photo whose file name contains a question mark (?). No digital camera creates files that are so named, but if you scan and name images yourself, keep this restriction in mind.

Resolution's Relationship to Print Quality

If you're working with low-resolution imagesones that you've cropped heavily or shot at a low resolution, for exampleyou may see iPhoto's dreaded low-resolution warning icon when ordering prints or a book.

This is iPhoto's way of telling you that an image doesn't have enough pixelsenough digital informationto yield a good-quality print at the size that you've chosen.

Don't feel obligated to cancel a print job or an order if you see this warning. But do note that you may see some fuzziness in your prints.

The table here lists the minimum resolution an image should have to yield a good print at various sizes.

Print Sizes and Resolution

For This Print Size (Inches)

Image Resolution Should be Least (Pixels)

Wallet

640 by 480

4 by 6

768 by 512

5 by 7

1075 by 768

8 by 10

1280 by 1024

16 by 20

2272 by 1704





The Macintosh iLife '06
The Macintosh iLife 06
ISBN: 0321426541
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 229
Authors: Jim Heid

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