Photo Printing

[Whitewater]

Is anyone into Photo Printing? I have recently been given a digital camera, have downloaded the pictures, selected some, and set about printing them on glossy photopaper, using the optimum setting on my printer, but the results are rather poor, very stripy and colours not what they should be. I then checked out the printer, done all the things suggested for curing it, but to no avail. I think the printer is just not up to the job. It's a Dell Photo printer, but as it came as a freebie along with the computer, I think that it is probably not good enough to produce the quality required.

Any of you photo experts out there any ideas on this?? or can you suggest a good quality photo printer.

[golach]

Is anyone into Photo Printing? I have recently been given a digital camera, have downloaded the pictures, selected some, and set about printing them on glossy photopaper, using the optimum setting on my printer, but the results are rather poor, very stripy and colours not what they should be. I then checked out the printer, done all the things suggested for curing it, but to no avail. I think the printer is just not up to the job. It's a Dell Photo printer, but as it came as a freebie along with the computer, I think that it is probably not good enough to produce the quality required.

Any of you photo experts out there any ideas on this?? or can you suggest a good quality photo printer.

Check your ink, colour photos take a lot of ink, if yours is not full this may affect the printing

[macleod_callum]

Which Dell printer is it...

Callum Macleod

[Whitewater]

Dell Photo Printer 720 (I think Lexmark make it for them)

[George Brims]

I have one of those Dell 720s. If it's printing stripy pictures then it needs some attention. Those printers have the inkjet nozzles built into the cartridges, so if the nozzles won't unblock you can cure it by getting new ink cartridges. Epson printers, by contrast, have permanent nozzles fed by a cartridge that's just a container for ink, so you can mess those up permanently.

Anyway the 720 prints decent pictures when it's working right, though my Epson R200 does a better job. Ink for the Dell machine is kind of expensive too. It is built by Lexmark by the way. Lexmark are a spin-off of IBM, who traditionally gouge you for supplies. I got my Dell 720 for $15 US (it's a reconditioned one) and soon realised I should have bought two, as that would have been the cheapest way to get more ink!

[fred]

Any of you photo experts out there any ideas on this?? or can you suggest a good quality photo printer.

The ones in Boots Wick or the chemist on Traill St Thurso.

I gave up on printing photos myself a long time ago, too expensive, poor results and the colours fade after a few years. I just take the card from my camera into Boots, plug it into the machine and out the photos come perfect every time and at a fraction of the cost of spending half a day cleaning the jets on a printer.

[George Brims]

Good point Fred. Over here in the US I believe Costco are the cheapest place to get a bulk batch of normal size (3 by 5 or 4 by 6) prints made. However I do still like to fiddle around with things and print a few myself in larger sizes. The Epson R200 will print up to 8.5 by 44 inches. It's also handy to have a batch of paper around for the odd time you want to print just one or two to give to someone right there and then.

Oh I have found that ABCink in the US are a good source of ink for various printers. I don't know what they would be like for shipping to the UK though.

[changilass]

When I was over on holiday we got ours done in Wallgreens great quality not too expensive, hope this helps

[girnigoe]

The ones in Boots Wick or the chemist on Traill St Thurso.

I gave up on printing photos myself a long time ago, too expensive, poor results and the colours fade after a few years. I just take the card from my camera into Boots, plug it into the machine and out the photos come perfect every time and at a fraction of the cost of spending half a day cleaning the jets on a printer.

Can I just point out how EXPENSIVE Boots are for printing digital photos!

They start at 49p if you are only printing a few (up to 20 i think) then the prices gradually start to fall if you are printing loads at the same time.

I use the Truprint website. Its great!! 10 per photo (6x4). They always have offers on for free prints and postage is dead cheap and VERY fast. I ordered some pictures yesterday morning and they came in the post this afternoon!!

I must say though when my memory card is full I do like to go in to Boots and use the machine to put all my photos on to CD. Its only £2.99 and now you also have the option to print an Index for it for an extra £1...

[Whitewater]

Thanks all for your help.

George, I had a go at printing in black and white and the pictures were perfect. From what you have said, I guess I have a problem with the colour cartridge, it is pretty full, but has not been used for a while, so there could be a blockage in there somewhere, the evidence seems to point to that. I'll replace the cartridge and have a go again. I like the creative control on the pictures and how easy it makes it, not like when I used to develope and print years ago.

Thanks again all.

[George Brims]

One thing I forgot to mention is that when I bought from ABCink they included a wee bottle of clear cleaning fluid for inkjet nozzles. I don't know what's in it, but my guess is you could try a Q-tip and some alcohol to clean the nozzles on the cartridge. Might do the trick until you can get a hold of a new one.

On ink costs, there's a system you can buy which has bottles of ink (housed in a tray to contain spills) and little capillary tubes which you insert into holes drilled in the cartridge. I never risked it on my Epson printer because there's a risk of blocking the nozzles with plastic bits from drilling the holes, thus ruining the printer, but with the Dell/Lexmark system where the nozzle is in the cartridge it might be worth a try. The bottles hold about 15 fluid oz of ink. A friend of my son worked at a custom T-shirt place and he said even there they got weeks of use out of a set of bottles. That is a bit extreme though, and I certainly wouldn't try it in a house with small children!

[jay]

Can I just point out how EXPENSIVE Boots are for printing digital photos!

They start at 49p if you are only printing a few (up to 20 i think) then the prices gradually start to fall if you are printing loads at the same time.

I use the Truprint website. Its great!! 10 per photo (6x4). They always have offers on for free prints and postage is dead cheap and VERY fast. I ordered some pictures yesterday morning and they came in the post this afternoon!!

I must say though when my memory card is full I do like to go in to Boots and use the machine to put all my photos on to CD. Its only £2.99 and now you also have the option to print an Index for it for an extra £1...

try Sutherlands chemist in Thurso £5 for 50 6x4 prints and £15 for 50 5x 7 can't match the quality at home at all - even with a good PC and printer - you can even edit on the machine and print in B/W, sepia as well colour! the red eye reduction is great!