12. Printing Photos

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to put your visions on paper by printing the photos and projects you’ve created with Photoshop Elements.

Our society has been trying to get rid of paper for a long, long time, for the sake of efficiency and reducing our environmental impact. It hasn’t happened yet, and it’s not likely to any time soon. People still like to read books, send paper cards, and look at printed photographs. Despite the advent of digital picture frames and the popularity of sharing photos online, there are still plenty of times when you’re going to want to print your images on actual paper. That’s what this chapter is all about.

Using Your Printer

Photoshop Elements can print contact sheets, standard prints, and even the kind of picture packages that you get from a portrait studio. If it’s in your Organizer, you can print it, at pretty much any size you want. Of course, first you need to have a color printer installed and running and some photos you want to print. From there, your task is primarily to tell Photoshop Elements what size prints you want and then stand back.

Contact Sheets

Contact sheets are so-called because in the days before digital photography, the simplest way to get a quick look at all the photos on a roll of film was to make a print by laying the film directly on the paper—in direct contact with it—to produce a sheet like the one shown in Figure 12.1. The individual images were small, but they were large enough, especially when viewed with a loupe, for you to determine which ones were worth printing at full size. The same is true today, to some degree; if you want to sit back and look at a whole batch of pictures at the same time, sometimes it’s easiest just to print a contact sheet that you can view at your leisure and then pass around to others.

Figure 12.1. This contact sheet shows how the photographer tried different angles and exposures in order to end up with the best shot.

You can print contact sheets starting from the Editor, but you’ll be immediately transferred into the Organizer when you choose Contact Sheet in the Editor’s Print dialog.

LET ME TRY IT

Printing a Contact Sheet

To print a contact sheet from the Organizer, start by selecting all the photos you want to include on the sheet. These don’t have to be from a single event or batch; you can choose any photos you want, as many as you want. Then follow these steps:

1. Choose Print from the File menu or right-click any of the selected photos and choose Print from the contextual menu.
2. Choose your printer from the Select Printer pop-up menu. If you’re printing on envelopes or in some other nonstandard size or orientation, click Page Setup and choose your options.
3. Back in the Print dialog, click Change Settings to specify printer settings such as media type and quality level.
4. In the Select Type of Print pop-up menu, choose Contact Sheet. The preview layout shows what your contact sheet will look like (see Figure 12.2), using the photos listed on the left side of the Print dialog.
   

   Figure 12.2. Contact sheets in Photoshop Elements feature square images organized on a neat grid.

   

5. Set the number of columns (up to 9) you want the contact sheet to use. The more columns you include, the smaller each thumbnail image will be on the final printout.
6. Click the navigation buttons below the preview to scroll through the pages, if you’ve included enough photos to need more than one page. You can delete a photo by clicking its thumbnail and then clicking Remove. Click a thumbnail and then one of the rotate buttons if necessary to orient it correctly (see Figure 12.3).
   

   Figure 12.3. You don’t have to rotate images on a contact sheet, but if doing so makes it easier to compare them with the others it’s a good idea.

   

   If you want to add photos at this point, no problem. Click the Add button, and then choose an option in the Add Media dialog to display the pictures from which you want to choose (Entire Catalog shows you everything in the Organizer). Click the thumbnails you want to add and then click Add Selected Media. Click Done to return to the Print dialog.

7. If you want the thumbnails to be labeled, choose Show Print Options and choose the information you want to print: the dates the pictures were taken; their captions; their filenames, and/or page numbers if the contact sheet has more than one page.
8. If you want to specify a color device profile for more accurate color printing, click More Options and choose a profile from the Print Space pop-up menu (see Figure 12.4).
   

   Figure 12.4. Specifying the source profile for this image ensures that its colors translate correctly on the printer.

   

9. Click Print.

Standard Prints

The standard print sizes that we’re used to seeing (4″ × 6″, 5″ × 7″, 8″ × 10″, and so on) became standards because they matched the proportions of a single frame of film. With digital photography, we’re not required to use those standard print sizes, but it’s still convenient to do so for one simple reason: Retail picture frames use them. So unless you want to have all your matting and framing done at a custom shop (which can get pretty expensive), you’re likely to want to print your photos in standard sizes.

LET ME TRY IT

Printing Standard Prints

To create standard-sized prints from the Editor or the Organizer, follow these steps:

1. Select the photos you want to print. In the Editor, you can choose from any of the photos located in the Project Bin (see Figure 12.5).
   

   Figure 12.5. You can print directly from the Project Bin, without having to open the image window.

   

2. Choose Print from the File menu.
3. Choose your printer from the Select Printer pop-up menu. If you’re printing on envelopes or in some other nonstandard size or orientation, click Page Setup and choose your options.
4. Back in the Print dialog, click Change Settings to specify printer settings such as media type and quality level.
5. In the Select Type of Print pop-up menu, choose Individual Prints.
6. Choose the size of your prints from the Select Print Size pop-up menu.
7. Enter how many copies of each picture you want in the Print Copies of Each Page field.
8. If you want your pictures cropped to produce prints that fit the standard size exactly, choose Crop to Fit; otherwise, they’re scaled to fit within that area and may have white space around them (see Figure 12.6).
   

   Figure 12.6. The blue outline shows the full 4″ × 6″ area.

   

9. If you want to specify a color device profile for more accurate color printing, click More Options and choose a profile from the Print Space pop-up menu.
10. Click Print.

Picture Packages

When you have your portrait taken by a professional photographer, whether it’s at school, for a wedding, or in a studio to mark some other occasion, you’re offered a choice of packages containing various print sizes (see Figure 12.7). This is convenient because you end up with, for example, an 8″ × 10″ to frame, a couple of 5″ × 7″ prints to send to the grandparents, and a bunch of 2″ × 3″ copies to hand out to friends. Photoshop Elements offers several premade packages and also enables you to customize your own.

Figure 12.7. We all remember how our old school pictures came in picture packages.

LET ME TRY IT

Printing a Picture Package

You print picture packages from the Organizer; if you choose the Picture Package option in the Editor’s Print dialog, you’re transferred directly to the Organizer to complete the printing process. Here’s how it works in the Organizer:

1. Select the photos you want to print; you can include as many as you like.
2. Choose Print from the File menu.
3. Choose your printer from the Select Printer pop-up menu. If you’re printing on envelopes or in some other nonstandard size or orientation, click Page Setup and choose your options.
4. Back in the Print dialog, click Change Settings to specify printer settings such as media type and quality level.
5. In the Select Type of Print pop-up menu, choose Picture Package.
6. Choose a picture layout from the Select a Layout pop-up menu. Photoshop Elements may turn some pictures sideways to fit properly in the layout you choose.
7. If you want to add a border to the images, choose an option from the Select a Frame pop-up menu (see Figure 12.8).
   

   Figure 12.8. Custom borders make your snapshots look more like portrait studio products.

   

8. Choose whether you want to produce a multi-image package for each picture (turn Fill Page with First Photo on) or have all the pictures printed on the same page (leave it off).
9. Rearrange the photos in the layout by dragging pictures from the list on the left to the desired space in the preview area (see Figure 12.9).
   

   Figure 12.9. You choose which photos occupy which slots in the picture package layout.

   

10. If you want your pictures cropped to produce prints that fit the standard size exactly, choose Crop to Fit; otherwise, they’re scaled to fit within that area and may have white space around them.

Using Online Services

Adobe Photoshop Services enables you to have your photos printed in a wide variety of formats by online providers. Photoshop Elements can send your photos directly to well-known online service providers such as Shutterfly and Kodak, and even to your local drugstore for processing. (How retro!)

Start by choosing the photos you want to print, either in the Organizer or in the Editor’s Project Bin. Then, whether you’re using the Editor or the Organizer, choose an option from the Order Prints submenu in the File menu. This brings up the Order Shutterfly Prints dialog or the Order Kodak Prints dialog, depending on your choice (see Figure 12.10). If you prefer, these options are also available in the Create tab; click Photo Prints to see Upload Your Pictures and Order Prints Shutterfly and Order Prints Kodak Gallery, and then click your chosen provider.

Figure 12.10. Here’s what the Order Shutterfly Prints dialog looks like; the Order Kodak Prints dialog is similar.

The Order Prints dialog appears, complete with the provider’s logo. In the Sign Up (Shutterfly) or Create Account (Kodak) area, enter your name, email address, and a password and make sure that the terms and conditions box is checked, and then click Join Now (Shutterfly) or Next (Kodak). From there, you’re taken directly to the order form.

The process works similarly for Kodak and Shutterfly. Here’s an overview of the Shutterfly process. First, you choose the number and size of prints you want for each picture, and whether you want glossy or matte prints (see Figure 12.11). Then, add text to be printed on the back of each photo, if you like. Click Next to move to the next screen, where you choose recipients for the prints from your address book (see Figure 12.12) or enter new addresses if you haven’t done so before. Click Next again to review your order and either click Back to change it or Next to proceed. When you’re satisfied that your order is correct, enter your billing information and click Place My Order Now.

Figure 12.11. You can choose from seven sizes, and order as many of each as you like.

Figure 12.12. Being able to store addresses makes it incredibly convenient to send photos to Grandma.