Keep Your Printer Clean and Working: Inkjet printer require a little bit of extra effort to keep them running smoothly. Never let your printer sit without use for more than a week! Start up the printer and print at least one picture or document each week to make sure that it keeps running smoothly. This means you’ll be making sure that the nozzles are clear. Once a month or so use the printer’s print head cleaning and print head alignment utilities as well.
Print Settings are Vital: Before you try printing out the picture you’ll need to be sure all of the print setting match up to what you’re looking to get. This means verifying that the ink and paper setting are correct (color or black ink and paper size settings), the right side of the photo paper is up (photo paper has two sides one only one of which will properly absorb the ink properly and create the right print.) It’s also important to verify that the settings are going to match up to the quality of your print material. For premium paper you’ll want it to be set on high quality settings.
The Right Paper is Everything: Plain paper just isn’t able to provide a quality portrait that you’ll be able to keep. Paper of this type absorbs the ink in a fashion that leaves the colors looking washed out, you lose fine details, and sharpness becomes less clear. Instead use a high quality photo paper that will match up to your printer’s settings. Keep in mind this also means deciding if you want matte or glossy paper for your print as well. Glossy paper has a shiny quality and produces a visual quality that stands out but can also be reflective, smudge, and create glare in sunlit areas. Matte isn’t quite as sharp as glossy but it can help you evade some of the negative issues of the glossy.
Be Sure of the Picture’s Ability to be Increased in Size: There are certain limits as to how large a picture can be before the quality of a print is diminished. In order for a picture to turn out right you’ll need it to be at least 200 dpi and if you want it to be high quality you’ll need it to be closer to 300 dpi. In simpler terms if you need to sort out how the largest size you can divide the pictures pixel size by 200 or 300 for high quality shots.
