Today's printers have the ability to print on many types of paper and even on things like t-shirts. When you click on the print icon in your photo software you will be printing using the default settings of your printer (which is probably plain 8 1/2 x 11 paper). Before printing your photographs you will probably need to set your printer up to print on photo paper or some other paper that won't soak up all of the ink that your going to use.

The printer setup screen shots below are all done for PhotoStudio 5.0 by ArcSoft pointing to an Epson Stylus Photo 785EPX printer. For those of you using other software and hardware your screens may be a little different, but the information below will provide you with more than enough information for you to get the most out of your photo printer.

First, you will need to select the "Printer Setup" on the File pulldown menu [see image 1 below]. The first screen [image 2 below] that will appear is the main Printer Setup dialog box. With this, you are able to change the printer that you are using as well as some basics like paper size and paper source (if your printer has more than 1 paper tray) and the orientation of your printing (portrait vs. landscape).

Image 1 - Printer Setup

Image 2 - Printer Dialog Box

By clicking on the "Properties" button on the Dialog Box, you will access the detailed printer setup. On the Epson setup, the first page is dedicated to setting up the paper type as well as the resolution -- in this example, the resolution can be set using "Mode", selecting "Photo Enhance" will print at a high resolution [selecting Custom allows you do select the actual DPI].

Image 3 - Properties page 1

The 2nd tab in the detailed setup is for setting up your paper size as well as the print orientation (landscape vs. portrait) as well as the option to center the image on the page.

Image 4 - Properties page 2

The 3rd tab of the detailed setup allows the user to customize certain aspects of the printing (inclusion of a watermark), page layouts, posterize the picture, etc.

Image 5 - Properties page 3

The final tab of the detailed setup provides the user with access to printer utilizities (Head Cleaners, Nozzle Cleaners, Head Alignment, etc.)

Image 6 - Properties page 4

As you become proficient in printing your images, you will use the first 2 pages of the printer setup quite frequently, the last 2 pages you'll use, but not nearly as frequently.

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