Should you print at home?
It depends what you’re printing, but if you’re asking yourself this question then chances are you’re printing out more than a confirmation email or some e-tickets. If you’re considering printing something important, like invitations, photos or business cards at home then you need to have a think as to whether this is the best option to go for, or whether you might want to consider professional printing.
The advantages of home printing are all quite obvious: you’ll have the end product in your hands as soon as it’s printed, it will probably be cheaper in the long run and you’re in total control of the process. The disadvantages are that you won’t benefit from the expertise a professional can offer and, put simply, your printed items probably won’t look as good. What’s more, mistakes during printing could end up costing you both time and money, and if anything goes wrong you’ve only got yourself to turn to. Home printing may mean you get the prints straight away, but it can take a surprising amount of time to get everything printed off to the standard you need it, and this can also be stressful. Sometimes just taking a design down to a professional printers and going to pick it up at a later date saves stress, and you’ll have a great looking end product.
Photo Printing At Home:
Take great photos:
One of the most popular things to print at home are photos, and there are lots of tips and tricks you can try to get the best results possible. Ideally you’re looking for digital printing quality which will match the quality of your digital photos. A great place to start with this is to take great photos. It might sound obvious, but a better photo is going to improve the end product. There are so many useful tips on how to make the most out of a digital camera, so read up, get educated and you’ll have fantastic images as a starting point.
TIFF it:
Saving your images as TIFF Files is always recommended. JPEG format creates smaller images so you can fit more on your memory card, but in essence this means worse quality photos. If you want to print your photos then TIFF is always the best option.
Check your printer settings:
To get the best quality pictures you might need to adjust the DPI. DPI means dots per inch; the more dots you have the higher quality image. Most DPI settings can be changed easily from your computer’s control panel.
Use the right ink and paper:
Always use high quality photo paper and high quality photo ink to make sure your prints come out as well as possible. Once they’ve printed out leave them somewhere safe to dry out completely so you don’t accidentally smudge or contaminate the image.
Printing invitations, business cards and more
If you want to print your own invitations, business cards or anything similar then the same kind of tips will apply. Choose a great design and use a programme which is specially designed to enhance the quality of your image. So don’t use Microsoft word or paint and do use photoshop or illustrator. Again, changing your printer settings is a good idea as well as making sure you print on decent paper which is loaded correctly.
Follow these handy tips and printing at home should be a success. If you want to absolutely ensure quality however, it might be an idea to pursue professional printing, or at least get a quote – you might be surprised by the value for money you’ll get.