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><H1
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><A
NAME="PHOTOS"
>15. Printing Photographs</A
></H1
><A
NAME="AEN2774"
></A
><P
> There are many details to getting decent photo output from common
printers. If you haven't bought a photo printer yet, see the
photo-related tips in <A
HREF="printers.html#SHOPPING"
>Section 5.4</A
>.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="GS-PHOTOS-TIPS-AND-TRICKS"
>15.1. Ghostscript and Photos</A
></H2
><A
NAME="AEN2780"
></A
><A
NAME="AEN2783"
></A
><P
> Ghostscript has some difficulties rendering color photographs
through most drivers. The problems are several:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>Many drivers have poorly tuned color support. Often the
colors don't match the Windows driver output or the screen.
OTOH, all drivers, and Ghostscript as a whole, have readily
adjustable color support; the "Gamma" settings (see
<A
HREF="ghostscript.html#GSGAMMA"
>Section 10.2.2</A
>) are one thing
to play with, and there are others documented in Ghostscript's
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>Use.htm</TT
> documentation file.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>I'm only aware of one Ghostscript driver with support for 6
and 7 color printing; it's in beta at the moment and supports
most Epson Stylus Photo models. It is rumoured to produce
better color than the Windows driver (!). The Ghostscript
driver core itself provides no support for non CMYK or RGB
colors; arguably, some work to put that there is needed.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>Ghostscript often ends up dithering coarsely, or generating
printouts with artifacts like banding. The dithering can
usually be corrected; see <A
HREF="ghostscript.html#GSCOLOR"
>Section 10.2.3</A
>, and read
the documentation for your driver.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
You should be able to correct some of these problems by tuning
Ghostscript; see <A
HREF="ghostscript.html"
>Section 10</A
> for more
information on how to do this. Fiddling with Ghostscript options
is much easier if you declare them as options in your spooling system.
</P
><P
> That said, the obvious solution for now is to use non-Ghostscript
software for printing photos, and indeed, such things do exist.
The main contender is the print plugin in the Gimp, which supports
pixel-for-pixel printing on Epson Styluses and Postscript printers
(with basic PPD support). That Epson Stylus portion of that
driver is available for Ghostcript, as well, as the
<B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>stp</B
> driver. Also possible to use for this
purpose are the assorted external pnm-to-foo programs used to
print on printers like the cheap Lexmarks; these print attempt to
print pixmaps pixel-for-pixel.
</P
><P
> The best solution, of course, is to buy a Postscript printer;
such printers can usually be completely controlled from available
free software, and will print to the full capability of the
printer.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="PAPER-FOR-INKJETS"
>15.2. Paper</A
></H2
><A
NAME="AEN2803"
></A
><P
> Color inkjets are extremely dependent on the paper for good
output. The expensive glossy coated inkjet papers will allow you
to produce near-photographic output, while plain uncoated paper
will often produce muddy colors and fuzzy details. Nonglossy
coated inkjet papers will produce results in between, and are
probably best for final prints of text, as well. Stiffer glossy
coated "photo" papers will produce similar output to
lighter-weight glossy papers, but will feel like a regular photo.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="PHOTO-PRINTER-SETTINGS"
>15.3. Printer Settings</A
></H2
><P
> For photo output on most color inkjets, you should use the most
highly interlaced (and slowest) print mode; otherwise solid
regions may have banding or weak colors. Generally with
Ghostscript this is what will happen when you pick the highest
resolution. With Postscript printers, you may need to add a
snippet to the prologue based on the settings available in the PPD
file. The Gimp's PPD support doesn't include (printer-specific)
print quality settings, but I added one in an ugly way for my own
use; contact me if you'd like that. If you use PDQ or CUPS, you
can easily control all the printer settings you need. VA Linux's
<B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>libppd</B
> and the GPR front-end can also add these
options for Postscript printers.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="INKJET-ARCHIVING"
>15.4. Print Durability</A
></H2
><A
NAME="AEN2813"
></A
><P
> Color inkjet printouts usually fade after a few years, especially
if exposed to lots of light and air; this is a function of the
ink. Printers with ink-only consumables like the Epsons and
Canons can buy archival inks, which are less prone to this
problem. Newer printers often use pigment-based inks, which
don't fade as much as the older dye-based ink did. No inkjet
output is really particularly good for long-term archival use.
Write the bits to a CD-R and store that instead.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="COMMERCIAL-PHOTO-PRINTING-SOFTWARE"
>15.5. Shareware and Commercial Software</A
></H2
><A
NAME="AEN2819"
></A
><P
> There's a program called <A
HREF="http://home.t-online.de/home/jj.sarton/startE.htm"
TARGET="_top"
>xwtools</A
> which supports photo printing with all the
bells and whistles on an assortment of Epson, HP, and Canon
printers. Unfortunately, it was written under NDA, so comes
without source. Unless you use it for the Epson Stylus Color 300
on GNU/Linux x86, it costs E15 for personal use; commercial pricing
is unknown.
</P
><P
> The ESP Print Pro package from Easy Software supports some
printers which might otherwise be unsupported. These drivers are
not reported to be very well-tuned for photos, but they do work.
</P
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