jmcgloth Loc: Ocean Park, WA

My printer will only print JPEG files--not RAW. Can I use RAW files in some software that will allow me to print them?

Jim from Ocean Park

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

Short answer = NO

You have to convert to some other format in order to print....
JPG, PNG, TIF, etc.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

When I open a Canon camera raw file (.cr2) in Picasa, I have no problem printing it on a black-ink laserjet I happen to own (don't have another printer at the moment).

Here is link for Picasa, which works in Windows 8 too:

http://picasa.google.com

Am curious why you want to print an unprocessed raw image?

jmcgloth Loc: Ocean Park, WA

Well, I'm new to all of this. Just wanting to get the highest quality prints I can from my shots.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

For best quality printing, I recommend converting to TIF format - after you process the images in your RAW editor to your liking, of course.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

That is great to know :thumbup:

jmcgloth - we all learn stuff everyday on this site, newbie or not :)

Dave333 Loc: Forres, Scotland

I too am curious as to why you want to print an unprocessed RAW file. Most RAW files require sharpening and contrast adjustment as a minimum.

amehta Loc: Boston

Welcome!

It takes a bit of learning and practice to get good at processing a raw image so that it is better than the jpeg from the camera. The camera embeds a jpeg file in the raw file, so until you become more proficient, you can extract the jpeg with Instant JPEG From RAW.

When you're doing typical printing, up to 8x10, since a 7.2mp image (3000x2400) will give you quality results.

WNC Ralf Loc: Candler NC, in the mountains!

What software are you using? I print mostly from LR and it converts to a printable format for the printing.

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

There are many questions. Have you updated the drivers on your printer? May be its time to change? B&H has a sale on a Canon 100 for like 98 after a 300 rebate. Good printer.

johnst1001a Loc: West Chester, Ohio

Exactly. That is what I do now, I work with the photo in CS6, then import to LR5 for final processing and print formatting. I have all my printer presets, light adjustments etc., set up in Lightroom.

With this, as you say, you do not have to convert the file at all, LR takes care of that.

DaveMM Loc: Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Don't get sucked into the 'RAW will give you the best quality image' issue without understanding a bit more. I only save in RAW, so I fully believe that it is best for ultimate image quality. However it does require both additional time and knowledge to get the advantages out of it.

RAW has all the information the camera can give, with a far wider dynamic range than JPG, but it will only give you the best final image where you are prepared to work on it in a good RAW editor such as Adobe Camera Raw (comes with Photoshop, Lightroom and Elements). If you just open the RAW image in a suitable program and then print it, the result will almost always be worse than the same picture printed from a file the camera has converted to JPG before saving.

So, unless you have a decent RAW convertor and image editor which you are prepared to spend time both learning and using, stick to JPG. However, if you have both editor and time, RAW can give you results you cannot achieve otherwise.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

Very good explanation!! :thumbup:

Blaster6 Loc: Central PA

I see the confusion.

Somebody told you RAW files are the best image quality. What they forgot to tell you is that RAW=uncooked. Like the raw ingredients to a cake, you have the ability to make something really good or really terrible but you have all the raw ingredients and it is completely up to you how you process them. If you are an expert baker you will make something much better than you could buy in a store. If you don't know what you are doing you will probably make something worse.

Just like you wouldn't eat all the raw ingredients for a cake, you wouldn't print a RAW file because it hasn't been cooked yet. You can let the camera cook it and produce a jpg for you or you can bake your own. You just have to practice until you get good at it.

FredB Loc: A little below the Mason-Dixon line.

I take it that you are putting your memory card in the printer directly - this is only rarely a good idea. Every piece of software that you might run across that can open and display a raw file can also send it to the printer as-is, but as others have noted, accurately, it is also rarely a good idea to print an un-corrected raw file.

It appears that you need to make a choice - if you want the convenience and speed of printing straight from your card inserted in to the printer, you'll need to shoot in JPEG format. The camera will process the original raw file into something that's been sharpened, perhaps color corrected, and exposure balanced, to the best of its' ability. Not perfect, perhaps, but usually pretty good.

The other choice is to use some raw editor and graphics image processor to do that work yourself, and then save the result as either a TIF or JPEG format file. TIF is "good" because it does not feature quality-diminishing compression as JPEG does, but the backside there is that a TIF file can be huge, in relation to a JPEG - I'm talkin' eight to ten times larger.

What you end up doing will depend on your ambition, computer hard drive space available and so on. Entire books have been written on image processing workflow, all of which I've never bothered to read. :)