Preferred Software for Printing Photo's

[tompegbel]

Looking for advise for printing photos (i'm a newbie here so...bear with me), I have Canon Powershot S30 camera and a Canon 820 Printer which I am very impressed with, however I am still wrestling with editing software and looking for help when it comes to actually printing photos. I realize the best way is just trial and error but I would like to solicit some opinions. I have been using Zoombrowser, Breezebrowser and PhotoShop Elements all of which have been working fine but I wonder if there is any advantage in regards to printing from any one of these programs versus another or whether this is not even an issue. Also, I've just started reading about Qimage Pro in other forums that seems to provide greater flexibility and adjustment for printing photos.

[Sheila]

I have been using Canon's printing function for two years and have never had a problem. It does what it supposed to do. I too have the Canon 820 which is also great. I read on another forum not to use Photoshop to print, if that's any help.

Cheers
Sheila

[henkbos]

Use a D60 with the Canon S800. Printing is not the easiest part. Suggest you download and test, download and test, test, test. It's subject to personal preference. I've settled for QImage Pro.

Henk

[Mariner]

I have been running tests for weeks, trying to determine what is the best combination for quality prints from my S30 and my Canon S820D printer. I want the best achievable quality with my camera, printer and paper combination. Using Canon software to print on Canon paper gets great results. However, any other paper I tested fell short. There was less clarity, saturation, and over all, not much “snap”.

I wrote to Canon to ask them for recommendation settings for Kodak Ultima paper and you can guess the reply..... “for best results use Canon paper.” On to the Great Yellow Father (Kodak) website, they announced a new photo printing software about to be released. I signed up to be notified, and it became available a couple of days ago.

Within the new “EasyShare software it contains “One Touch to Better Pictures” feature, when used with Kodak Ultima or Premium picture papers, automatically sets the color on your home inkjet printer. It takes in to account my S820D Canon printer, operating systems, (I am using Win XP) Kodak and other papers. It calibrates your system for the best results. It has features for ordering online prints, sending the digital pictures through email, and making a few simple adjustments to the photograph. I am getting comparable results to the Canon/Canon combination with the Kodak EasyShare software. When I show 8X10’s to people they really do not believe they were not from the lab. They are stunning. One more feature that I particularly like is you can sort your photos by date taken. So, it reads the information in the file and sorts them in day order. For example, it might start with “Friday, December 15, 1989, and show you every day of your picture taking life in order. It is fascinating to see a life pictorial diary of your experiences, travels and life. I just hope it is never used as evidence against me, but to prove my innocence! Good Luck!

The Site:

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/digital/easyShare/software/softwareDownload.jhtml

[adrianweller]

Reading that I thought I would give the Kodak software a try as Kodak is just about the only decent paper available where I live. No Canon, HP Ilford or any other name you have heard of is available anyway.

The One Touch to Better Pictures is just hopeless with my HP 5550. It takes a nice bright image and prints it out as if it has been way underexposed. Don't know if I'm doing something wrong but I'm not going to waste too much paper finding out.

So far it doesn't seem to matter what software I've used on different printers as long as it takes you though the routine where you have to set your Printing Preferences along the way and can choose the quality and paper type. However the Kodak One Touch write-up says it works with your printer driver and adjusts the colours before you print which you don't really want if you have gone to a lot of trouble editing them first.

If I just want to print one image straight from any folder onto A4 then Windows Picture and Fax Viewer works OK for me.

I find HP Photosmart convenient if I want to print 2, 3 or 4 different smaller images on one A4 sheet. It's easy to drag the images you want to print on and off the layout template.

I have MGI Photosuite still lurking about on my hard disc somewhere which I haven't played with for some time now but I remember that could print some fancy borders and add titles etc.

[onehotrx7]

The absolute best package I have found so far is Jasc's After Shot (www.jasc.com) - does the job really well... close second is the Kodal software... it must be something to do with the photosmart as it is excellent for the Lexmark X83 and the Canon S400...

Cheers,
Stuart

[Jerry Vanderberg]

Specifically for creating integrated albums, has anyone compared PhotoRecord (which comes with the camera) to Fotana (or anything else that you can recommend)?

[sassyjo10]

Hey Adrian I noticed u mention the HP photsmart printing software. I had this software from an old HP printer,but it has quit working for me,Do u know where I might be able to get it? thanks

[mbze430]

There is only one option for me. Qimage.

[BernBennett]

Hi Tompegbel!

As you're using Canon printer, have you tried the Canon EasyPrint v3 software downloadable from the Canon website.
Gives various options, for printing one,two,four,nine,and index, or 3 with exif data alongside.

[fdi]

I switched to Qimage from Photoshop years ago, and never regretted it. The res-up algorithm is great and love that fact I do not need to store those ridiculously large files any more.

[DReb-MO]

I switched to Qimage from Photoshop years ago, and never regretted it. The res-up algorithm is great and love that fact I do not need to store those ridiculously large files any more.

Does Qimage support Canon RAW formats, CRW and CR2?

[fdi]

Does Qimage support Canon RAW formats, CRW and CR2?

No, and why would it, Qimage is a printing program. I use breezebrowser for RAW conversion.

[kathy1]

I have some pictures I would like to print out without cutting off parts of people at the top of the photo. I have a G6 camera and the proportions are not 4"x6"...is there any software such as QImage (or some other) that make it easier to adjust the picture so it will print out to 4x6 size...without chopping off the top & bottom of the picture (or to cut off only the bottom part of the picture)? To get the top & bottom to print out everything, I get about 1/4" of white space on the sides. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks.
Kathy

[KennyG]

QImage, best there is - period.

[malla1962]

photoshop is ok if you know what your doing,by the way i dont.

[malla1962]

will this qimage work with my canon i965?

[DReb-MO]

No, and why would it, Qimage is a printing program. I use breezebrowser for RAW conversion.

Because I think it supports both printing and minor editing of NEF files. I thought it was more than a simple printing program. Guess I was wrong.

[fdi]

Because I think it supports both printing and minor editing of NEF files. I thought it was more than a simple printing program. Guess I was wrong.

Turns out I was wrong. It does support RAW but you have to configure it for that. It also has significant editing capability but nothing like Photoshop. I will only use the editing to tweak brightness or color saturation for a particular print on a particular paper.

[Mr. Pickles]

Put me down for a vote for QImage. I have met a few that thought it was junk, but after talking to them about it, and they realized they were crazy, everybody is happy happy. You can tweak colors and hues in it. You can crop images in it...without destroying the original file. And it upsizes so well.