How to print photos?

It is great having photos on CDs, DVDs, MP3 players; great displaying them on PC monitors, TVs and so on, but sometimes there's nothing like a nice pile of glossy prints!

I can't be the only one to think so, so how what software do people use, not for post-processing, but for the actual printing process?

I'm using Easy-PhotoPrint, as bundled with my Canon Pixma printer.

It has exactly the simplicity I need: I can produce a number of pics per page for chopping up, one big print, have borders or no borders, all with no manual layout or calculation at all.

Its big disadvantages are:

• It only recognises JPEG files
• It can only assemble files for printing from one folder at a time
• It has no means of saving a batch for repetition

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Hey Nick, I just put mine on a memory stick and take it to the local drug store and plug it into the photo center and make copies for about .25 each.
This way I can pick and choose which ones I want to print and how many. They have home versions of these but it's just so easy to do it this way,for me anyway.

Thanks ...but I've got a PC, a printer, and a stack of glossy paper

nick
have you tried windows fax and photo viewer?
go through windows explorer, find your photos and double click to open them from explorer. then when you have them open, right click, choose print and windows photo and fax viewer should open. it will give you options regarding size from A4 single prints down to contact sheets.
i find it a really useful tool cos i'm always printing stuff off for my course and it saves the time of going through photoshop.
hope this helps.

Yes, IWTGB, I have, but it doesn't give me the layout options I want.

Thanks.

Its convenient to print at home but if you work it out (paper and ink), it costs more to do print at home.

Although my Canon is cheaper to run than my previous Epson I am getting through a lot of ink

I don't print my digital photos. But for those who do, there a bunch of reviews on epinions.com http://www.epinions.com/Printers/sea.../adv_search_~1 I hope it helps.

There is no way that printing at home in whatever size is economical in anyway - not in terms of financial costs, nor in terms of time saved, nor in terms of quality.. it does not match up with what you can get out of a computerised photo lab that takes your CD and processes them.

Thanks, Crvlvr, but it is the software I'm looking for: I'm happy with my printer.

Jpvs: you could be right, and you'd be even more right about getting it done in India where it is no doubt even cheaper. It is not that I'm printing copies of everything, just that I want to do a batch now and then.

When I get back I'm going to get several hundred of my family-holiday-slides from childhood digitised: it should be a lot cheaper there. But I'm still doing a few here just for fun

Have you looked on TuCows? Don't know if they're sacred cows, but one of these might work? Tucows

Have found some useful utilities there before.

Wanderer22

I have an HP color laser printer and I also have a colour inkjet.

The print results are good, but the photo processing companies pay $250,000 each for their printers and the results are not only a lot better, but they are a LOT cheaper than doing it yourself!

Have you ever calculated the cost of the toner or ink you use when printing at home, never mind the cost of the paper?

I have just ordered:

64 x Photos 6x4
2 x Photos 7x5
1 x Photo Poster 12x8
Order Total including shipping: £6.07 (Rs. 485/- US $11.00)

Had I printed them at home, it would have cost at least double.

If you want to print at home with an unusual layout, why not copy and paste into Word?

I've tried printing at home and found Canon Easy Photo Print the most convenient one. I still occasionally print 8x10 prints on my Canon i470D. Did you get Canon Photo Record in your software CD? Honestly, I've never bothered to try it before, yes I've discovered the 12-17 cent prints online as well, but it seems to save print orders as 'albums', see if it works for you..

Picasa from Google is free and I tried doing ctrl+click to choose pictures and tried printing, it works, the advantage here being that you can search for all pictures on your hard disc plus do some reasonable editing, effects etc. It also recognizes .TIF, .GIF, .RAW, .PSD, .PNG, .BMP..and some movie formats

This one - http://www.acdsystems.com/products/fotoslate/index - seems interesting, there's a trial download.

HTH.