301 lines
7.1 KiB
HTML
301 lines
7.1 KiB
HTML
<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>Printing Photographs</TITLE
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><META
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NAME="GENERATOR"
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CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK
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TITLE="The Printing HOWTO"
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TITLE="How to generate something worth printing."
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>The Printing HOWTO</TH
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CLASS="sect1"
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><H1
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CLASS="sect1"
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><A
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NAME="photos"
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></A
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>15. Printing Photographs</H1
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><P
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>There are many details to getting decent photo output from common
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printers. If you haven't bought a photo printer yet, see the
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photo-related tips in <A
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HREF="printers.html#shopping"
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>Section 5.4</A
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>.</P
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="gs-photos-tips-and-tricks"
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></A
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>15.1. Ghostscript and Photos</H2
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><P
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>Ghostscript has some difficulties rendering color photographs
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through most drivers. The problems are several:<P
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></P
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><UL
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><LI
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><P
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>Many drivers have poorly tuned color support. Often the
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colors don't match the Windows driver output or the screen.
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OTOH, all drivers, and Ghostscript as a whole, have readily
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adjustable color support; the "Gamma" settings (see<A
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HREF="ghostscript.html#gsgamma"
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>Section 10.2.2</A
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>) are one thing
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to play with, and there are others documented in Ghostscript's<TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>Use.htm</TT
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> documentation file.</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>I'm only aware of one Ghostscript driver with support for 6
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and 7 color printing; it's in beta at the moment and supports
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most Epson Stylus Photo models. It is rumored to produce
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better color than the Windows driver (!). The Ghostscript
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driver core itself provides no support for non CMYK or RGB
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colors; arguably, some work to put that there is needed.</P
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></LI
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><LI
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><P
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>Ghostscript often ends up dithering coarsely, or generating
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printouts with artifacts like banding. The dithering can
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usually be corrected; see <A
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HREF="ghostscript.html#gscolor"
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>Section 10.2.3</A
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>, and read
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the documentation for your driver.</P
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></LI
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></UL
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>
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You should be able to correct some of these problems by tuning
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Ghostscript; see <A
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HREF="ghostscript.html"
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>Section 10</A
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> for more
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information on how to do this. Fiddling with Ghostscript options
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is much easier if you declare them as options in your spooling system.</P
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><P
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>That said, the obvious solution for now is to use non-Ghostscript
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software for printing photos, and indeed, such things do exist.
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The main contender is the print plugin in the Gimp, which supports
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pixel-for-pixel printing on Epson Styluses and Postscript printers
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(with basic PPD support). That Epson Stylus portion of that
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driver is available for Ghostcript, as well, as the<B
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CLASS="command"
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>stp</B
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> driver. Also possible to use for this
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purpose are the assorted external pnm-to-foo programs used to
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print on printers like the cheap Lexmarks; these print attempt to
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print pixmaps pixel-for-pixel.</P
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><P
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>The best solution, of course, is to buy a Postscript printer;
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such printers can usually be completely controlled from available
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free software, and will print to the full capability of the
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printer.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="paper-for-inkjets"
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></A
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>15.2. Paper</H2
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><P
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>Color inkjets are extremely dependent on the paper for good
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output. The expensive glossy coated inkjet papers will allow you
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to produce near-photographic output, while plain uncoated paper
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will often produce muddy colors and fuzzy details. Non-glossy
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coated inkjet papers will produce results in between, and are
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probably best for final prints of text, as well. Stiffer glossy
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coated "photo" papers will produce similar output to
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lighter-weight glossy papers, but will feel like a regular photo.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="photo-printer-settings"
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></A
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>15.3. Printer Settings</H2
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><P
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>For photo output on most color inkjets, you should use the most
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highly interlaced (and slowest) print mode; otherwise solid
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regions may have banding or weak colors. Generally with
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Ghostscript this is what will happen when you pick the highest
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resolution. With Postscript printers, you may need to add a
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snippet to the prologue based on the settings available in the PPD
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file. The Gimp's PPD support doesn't include (printer-specific)
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print quality settings, but I added one in an ugly way for my own
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use; contact me if you'd like that. If you use PDQ or CUPS, you
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can easily control all the printer settings you need. VA Linux's<B
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CLASS="command"
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>libppd</B
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> and the GPR front-end can also add these
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options for Postscript printers.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="inkjet-archiving"
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></A
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>15.4. Print Durability</H2
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><P
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>Color inkjet printouts usually fade after a few years, especially
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if exposed to lots of light and air; this is a function of the
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ink. Printers with ink-only consumables like the Epsons and
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Canons can buy archival inks, which are less prone to this
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problem. Newer printers often use pigment-based inks, which
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don't fade as much as the older dye-based ink did. No inkjet
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output is really particularly good for long-term archival use.
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Write the bits to a CD-R and store that instead.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="commercial-photo-printing-software"
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></A
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>15.5. Shareware and Commercial Software</H2
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><P
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>There's a program called <A
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HREF="http://home.t-online.de/home/jj.sarton/startE.htm"
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TARGET="_top"
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>xwtools</A
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> which supports photo printing with all the
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bells and whistles on an assortment of Epson, HP, and Canon
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printers. Unfortunately, it was written under NDA, so comes
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without source. Unless you use it for the Epson Stylus Color 300
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on GNU/Linux x86, it costs E15 for personal use; commercial pricing
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is unknown.</P
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><P
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>The ESP Print Pro package from Easy Software supports some
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printers which might otherwise be unsupported. These drivers are
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not reported to be very well-tuned for photos, but they do work.</P
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></DIV
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WIDTH="34%"
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