Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

First a little background info Shooting Nikon D7000- Raw Post Process in Lightroom 4.1 My questions are in regards to printing to my HP 6210 all in one printer ( a 5 or 6 year old dinosaur)

Im trying to print to this old beast and have had very little success either from Lightroom or Irfran view . I print mostly 4 x6 5x7 8 x 10

My Questions

1) Does it make any difference if i print in Lightroom directly from the Raw file or should i convert to JPEG
2) is there an optimum or average file size for printing these sizes - MB , pixels, DPI , etc maybe im trying to print from too large of a file ??? what are the general guidelines I could start with .

3)Do newer printers have an advantage over my old unit as to file size ???

4)Recomendations on a fairly decent printer for these sizes say in the $200-500 range Wireless is a bonus Im spending most of my extra $ on fast glass these days .

Ive attached a typical pic so you can see file size etc Taken in the morning as the sun found a small opening in the cloud cover

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

The newer printers definitely have an advantage - especially those with eight inks and the ability to make marvelous B&W prints. Granted, most of those with 8 or 9 inks are more than $500. I can only address the Epsons but Canon and HP also have made great strides in the last few years. If B&W is not your thing, there are quite a few printers in your price range form all three manufacturers. Do some online research. There will be some help here, i am sure.

Hankwt Loc: kingsville ontario

Captain C I always enjoy your well thought out advice - any advice on file sizes etc for printing ?? as per your advice i have been looking around for printers with more ink tanks any help is appreciated Ps Love your site and your work

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Thanks, that is very nice of you to say.

I have found most of the advice on how big you can print any file size to be a lot of baloney. Back in the "olden days" I had a Nikon D2H - only 4MP and I made great 12x18s and even made a 24x36 that was gorgeous. An image taken at a low ISO, on a tripod, and with great glass has as much (or more) to do with image quality as megapixels.

I see people say you should never resample pixels when enlarging. Well, for a small enlargement, yes, I will not resample and just change resolution to 240 or 200, but for BIG images, I just resample and enlarge that sucker. A big image at the appropriate viewing distance looks great.

So make them as big as you want and YOU decide. But I will bet you will get to a size that TOO big before it falls apart.

Too many pixel-peepers that espouse "stuff" they have heard/read but with which they have no practical experience will give all kinds of advice. It is not necessarily harmful, just baloney! :-)

jjestar Loc: Savannah GA

Epson makes great printers, it depends if you are looking for an All In One or a true dedicated Photo printer. I have several, the least expensive being the 1400 and it is pretty good for the money. I have a PM225 that just prints 4x6 prints I let the kids print there photos with this and the prints are quite impressive, much better than Walmart. I also have an older 2400 that makes great photos up to 13x19 in size and looking at the 4900 as we speak, I want a 17x22 printer and it will be an Epson.

Cotondog Loc: Saskatchewan, Canada

I have the Epson Pro 9000 Mark II. It is a dedicated photo printer, and prints excellent photos. Has 8 ink tanks. But, it will cost you more than your listed price range.

dfarmer Loc: St. George, Utah

I have been using a Canon Pro 9000 for about a year now and very pleased with it. It has 8 ink tanks and will print up to 13 x 19 prints. I got it for less than 500.00 with rebate.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

That's the one I have. I got mine free back when I bought my Canon T1i. They had a $400 rebate on that printer with the purchase of certain kits. Sammy's also had a no sales tax deal on the same weekend. So I paid the going price for the T2i, had to pay $400 for the printer, got a $400 rebate for the printer, and didn't pay anything extra for the Governor.

Captain it right. There are some great printers out there for about $600 or so. There are a couple of drawbacks to home printers that I've found. One is, if you were to add up the cost of the printer, paper, ink and power, and your time to print there's no doubt in my mind that the cost per page would be much higher than just having a print lab do it for you. Second, I've found that if I print an image with my printer and hang it in a room that gets bright morning sunlight, the image will fade rather fast. I believe that the commercial prints do not fade.

myts10 Loc: SE Ohio

I'm in the same frame of mind as you. How to get the maximum DPI that the printer will print from the software.
To answer your questions:
1) I don't have Raw capabilities with my camera so convert to TIFF for editing. I print directly from PSE so I can use the ICC codes supplied by my paper manufacture. Using them has made the biggest difference in the quality of my printing.
2) I don't think the file size matters as much as the DPI. Some where in the Lightroom Print menus, there should be something about DPI. Set it as high as it will go. The software will tell you if it is to high, PSE does.
3) I would say no. There is a big difference in the droplet size. The smaller the droplet the more of them you can get in an inch, DPI.
4) I don't trust wireless. Might be alright for general printing. But there is an antenna, that is capable of picking up signals. If my neighbor dials his cordless phone will the printer pick up an extra red dot? Anyway I'm more concerned about the longevity of the printer. One that will last more than a year. Ane the cost of ink.
As jeep daddy said, the cost can get high. However, I still want to print as big and as high quality as possible myself. There is still a difference between my calibrated monitor and the final print. If my print looks good than I can send it to a lab to have a larger print made.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

I assume you really mean PPI and no, you do not set it, "...as high as it will go." Setting anything above 360 is a waste of ink and memory. In fact, I would bet you cannot tell the difference among 200, 240, 300, or 360 PPI..

Funboystu Loc: Cambridgeshire, UK

I agree with the captain, in software terms ppi or pixels per inch is not relative to the print quality or indeed size by itself. If you go to many commercial printers you will see numbers such as 240/300/400 requested but that is because of the set size of the prints. You need to research and understand the triangle between print size/ppi/pixel dimensions to achieve the optimal print at any given size such as 6x4.

ab7rn Loc: Portland, Oregon

I use the epson 2880 and usually use 300 ppi. The 2880 wil print up to 13" wide and can do panoramas up to 44". I have seen it advertised for $599.00

jdventer Loc: Wallingford, CT, USA

I usually print from RAW from LightRoom; there is no need or advantage to converting to JEPEG. Unless you are doing serious up sizing I would just specify the print size and let LightRoom handle it.

You only really need to control file size when preparing photos for publishing on WEB .

http://www.digitalphotopro.com/technique/software-technique/the-art-of-the-up-res.html

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

I recently purchased an Epson Artisan 1430 printer - they run $300 but routinely have a rebate for $50 or $80. For what I need it's a great printer - it prints with better color accuracy than any of the local labs within 90 miles of me (though soon a Costco is opening 35 miles away - YAY!!!). I've also had great results from Canon printers but I wanted to be able to print directly on CD/DVD discs so I went with the Epson.