Expert Tips for Printing Photos

Printing photos is an art form that requires more than just clicking the print button on your computer. It involves a deep understanding of color, composition, mediums, and printer settings to ensure that your photos look their best in physical form.

Whether printing your photos at home or sending them to a professional lab, some tips and techniques can help you achieve the best results. This printing guide shares a handful of expert tips for printing photos, including calibrating your computer monitor, adjusting the settings of your editing software, preparing your files for printing, and more!

By following our tips, you can create gorgeous museum-quality prints that finally give your photos the justice they deserve. Regardless if you’re a professional photographer with years of experience or someone printing pictures for the first time, continue reading to discover how to improve the quality of your prints!

Printing Photos Tips: Calibrate Your Display
Printing Photos Tips: Use the Right Settings When Editing Your Images
Printing Photos Tips: Prepare Your Files Correctly
Printing Photos Tips: Choose a Medium
Printing Photos Tips: Partner with a Professional Printer
About Artbeat Studios
Final Thoughts on Printing Photos
Recommended Photography Gear

Printing Photos Tips: Calibrate Your Display

^{Photo by gorodenkoff via iStock}

The first thing you will want to do is calibrate your monitor. This will ensure that your pictures consistently come out how you want them to when printing photos. Most people new to printing overlook this step and are shocked when their images look drastically different when printed.

Two tools that will help calibrate your display are Datacolor Spyder 3 Pro and X-Rite i1Display Pro. They take all the user error out of the equation and ensure the colors and contrast of your images are standardized and best align with how they will look on paper. You should always calibrate your device's screen whether you use a computer or tablet.

Printing Photos Tips: Use the Right Settings When Editing Your Images

^{Photo by grinvalds via iStock}

To best align with the settings and ink used in the majority of printers, you should use Adobe RGB (1998) as your working colorspace. To do this, you may have to adjust the settings of your editing software, like Adobe Photoshop. If you want to make sure you are using Adobe RGB, follow the steps below, as outlined by Artbeat Studios:

Open Photoshop and go to Edit > Color Settings in the menu bar. If you are using Photoshop CS3 or earlier on a Mac, the menu location is Photoshop > Color Settings.
Go to Working Spaces, and select "Adobe RGB (1998) for RGB files."
Under Color Management Policies, next to RGB, select "Convert to Working RGB."
Next to Profile Mismatches, check "Ask When Opening" and "Ask When Pasting."

Printing Photos Tips: Prepare Your Files Correctly

^{Photo by Galeanu Mihai via iStock}

While taking good photos and using a good printer are both important, prepping your digital files for print is equally important. This includes file size, format, flattening layers, and more. Here’s a short list of what to consider before printing photos, again, as outlined by Artbeat Studios:

The maximum file size you can upload on most websites is 500 MB.
JPG, TIFF, and PNG are the most commonly accepted file formats.
Only shoot 8-bit RGB files.
The embedded color space of your files should be Adobe RGB (1998).
Ensure you flatten all your files' layers before saving your final copy.
We recommend exporting sample prints at the size of the print.

Learn More:

Printing Photos Tips: Choose a Medium

In the past, printing photos only meant paper prints, but that is no longer true. Today, the list of high-quality mediums you can select from is longer than ever. Each material has a distinctive look and feel and pairs well with specific types of photos. For instance, landscape photography looks stunning on metal, and portraits pair well with canvas.

Check out some of the trendiest print mediums in 2023:

Metal
Canvas
Acrylic
Paper
Glass
Foamboard

Printing Photos Tips: Partner with a Professional Printer

Lastly, we 100% recommend working with a trustworthy and reliable printing company. They are professionally trained to work with all different types of printers and mediums and can even help to color correct or frame your photos.

We promise that no matter how hard you try, photos printed in a professional lab will always look better than those you print at home. Moreover, if you plan to sell prints of your photos, you can charge substantially more if they are of better quality. Therefore, you will make more money if you partner with a professional printer.

With that in mind, our go-to place for printing photos is Artbeat Studios.

About Artbeat Studios

So, who are Artbeat Studios? Well, they are an avant-garde online printing company celebrated for its excellent-quality prints, professional staff, and unbeatable low prices. While they offer multiple types of prints, our favorite is their HD Metal prints. Actually, they've won our annual Metal Print Shootout three years running!

Besides metal prints, they also have HD Acrylic Prints, Canvas Prints, and Paper Prints. Furthermore, their innovative and easy-to-use online software allows you to upload, customize, and order prints in minutes. We have been printing photos with Artbeat Studios for years and have always been overjoyed by the results. That’s why we are proud to recommend them to you here today!

Check out the video above by Artbeat Studios to learn how quick and easy it is to customize and order photos on the Artbeat Studios website.

Final Thoughts on Printing Photos

^{Photo by Kostyazar via iStock}

As you can see, printing is an important step in the photography process if you want to impress your family, friends, and clients. Many people try to save money by printing photos at home, but that is a big mistake if you want the highest quality images, especially if you run your own photography business.

The expert tips for printing photos detailed in this article can help take your photography to the next level. And as a bonus, here are a few more tips and tricks that will boost the quality of your prints: