Making Great Color Prints

Before we get into the specifics of the various kinds of prints you can make, it's important to understand the basics of getting great color prints on your home printer. Many people end up frustrated with the quality they get, but with today's photo printers—even $99 models—it's not hard to get outstanding prints.

Start with Quality Images

To start, make sure you aren't unintentionally damaging the color integrity of your photos when you edit them. If your display shows colors inaccurately, and you edit your photos using that display as your reference, they aren't going to look right when you print them, no matter how much you fuss with your printer. So before you adjust the colors in your photos, make sure your display is reasonably accurate (see the sidebar “Calibrating Your Display for Color Accuracy” in Chapter 6, “Using the Standard Photo Editor”).