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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> Printing Your Pictures---Durability
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Showing posts 1 - 14 of 14, (reverse)
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 04/06/2002 06:01:29 PM · #1
Sometimes I like to print a picture rather than just view it on a monitor.I have an HP at my office and an Epson at home, both photo quality and inkjet. The problem is,neither of the inks is waterproof and even after weeks of drying,any water droplets will ruin the picture. In trying to find a solution to this I have found you can spray the sheet with clear acrylic. Any brand works well for me from the $9 per can at the art supply to the $1 stuff at Wall-Mart.

What do the rest of you do? Do the photo shops do a better job?
How about the Dye sub printers, are they better? I use Kodak high gloss premium paper (haven't been able to find the Ultima). Is there a better paper?

Thanks, David
 04/06/2002 06:13:30 PM · #2
Have same problem with HP prints but for larger prints like 16x12 until I get an A3 printer I will use commercial print shops like Jessops here in England. I have an A3/4 laminator - 100 A4 sleeves cost around BP£11 which I use to protect family album pages from wear and spills.

Vin
 04/06/2002 06:21:58 PM · #3
By the way David, where is everyone? its 2.20am over here but tea-time in the U.S.! I've just sent my 'curves' challenge entry in so I'm closing down now. Goodnight all.

Vin
 04/06/2002 06:25:29 PM · #4
I don't know vin. I was wondering myself. Maybe doing last minute work for the challenge. I was also curious as to what time it was where you are. I must get something to help me figure that out. Good luck, David


* This message has been edited by the author on 4/6/2002 6:26:07 PM.
 04/06/2002 06:38:08 PM · #5
I just finished my entry a couple of hours ago. 172 tries to find something worth entering. This was a tough one!
 04/06/2002 06:41:09 PM · #6
When I first got my camera, which was last spring, I took a bunch of digital pictures that I put on CD to Wal Mart for developing. There were in all, about 60-70 pictures. Wal Mart tried to charge me I believe $40-$50 for them, which I thought was outrageous. I explained this to them, and after talking with the manager of the photo center and my discount (I work there part time), got the price down to what it would be for film, like $18 I think. (added to this was the fact that they couldn't figure out how to get the pictures off of the CD, meaning that a 3-day guarantee turned into 3 weeks). It turns out that Wal Mart (I'm not sure about other developers) treat digital prints as "re-prints", hence the added expense... Needless to say, that is the only time I went there to get my pictures printed. In response to your question about the photo shops, the pictures are printed as regular photos and I believe are more resistant to water drops than pictures I print on photo quality inkjet HP. I've always used HP Premium Plus photo paper, simply because I haven't found anything else in stores. Does just spraying pictures with clear acrylic protect them? I had no idea (but then again I don't know anything about photography).
 04/06/2002 07:08:26 PM · #7
Mav, it works great for me and it gives them a gloss just like they were a photo. Remember to spray them in a clean area away from wind and dust. They dry fast and it doesn't seem to matter if the ink is cured or not. I haven't tried it on matte paper yet.
 04/06/2002 07:25:13 PM · #8
I did my first entry this time and really a bit excited about it:)

 04/06/2002 07:27:38 PM · #9
Watch out for Epson Photo Paper. It turns yellow in artificial light, especially flourescent. Hint: If you have photos on Epson paper that turned yellow, put them in sunlight for about 30 minutes.
04/06/2002 07:32:56 PM · #10
I have had a lot of luck with ordering my prints on the internet. Ofoto and Shutterfly are excellent companies to upload and order prints from. Sometimes you can get 20 or so 3x5's for free the first time you order. Also, at 20 to 40 cents per print they are as cheap as regular film developing and the quality is great. 8x10's run about $4.00 each. Oh and you get the prints back in about a week.
 04/06/2002 07:37:01 PM · #11
Originally posted by Shiiizzzam:
I did my first entry this time and really a bit excited about it:)



Great. I hope you do well. I am excited about my own this time. I unsubmitted my original idea after I realized I had an excellent example of curves from something I see all the time. Good luck to all in the new contest and I can't wait to see who won the present challenge. There were many great entries in the present challenge.
 04/06/2002 10:49:03 PM · #12
Originally posted by David Ey:
Sometimes I like to print a picture rather than just view it on a monitor.I have an HP at my office and an Epson at home, both photo quality and inkjet. The problem is,neither of the inks is waterproof and even after weeks of drying,any water droplets will ruin the picture. In trying to find a solution to this I have found you can spray the sheet with clear acrylic. Any brand works well for me from the $9 per can at the art supply to the $1 stuff at Wall-Mart.

What do the rest of you do? Do the photo shops do a better job?
How about the Dye sub printers, are they better? I use Kodak high gloss premium paper (haven't been able to find the Ultima). Is there a better paper?

Thanks, David


If you can live with 4x6 inch prints Costco now has do-it-yourself stations in the store to insert your media and upload the pics you want and get back beautiful glossy photo prints in 4 days. At least they do in the Kirkland (Seattle area) store.
 04/06/2002 11:50:19 PM · #13
I have very good luck printing my photos on the Office Depot house brand 69# premium high gloss photo paper. This paper is $39.99 for 100 sheets and it works better for me than any of the Kodak or HP hi gloss paper. I'm printing with a HP DeskJet 1220c and I'm very happy with the results...

As for getting them wet, well, i try to keep mine dry.
04/07/2002 12:30:37 AM · #14
For A4 size prints I use an Olympus P400 Dye-Sub printer. Both quality and durability are excellent. This is basically the same as a print you would receive ha dyou send a slide to a custom lab for printing. Seems that most today are digitizing and printing as the cost to profit ratio is better. Plus there is less worry about environmental problems which come with chemicals. When I use an inkjet and want photo quality, I too like the office depot paper. Though any longer, the majority of what I do on the inkjet is to use it in printing greeting cards that I sell at local shops on consignment. For that I use a good heavy card stock of 110lb.

To the best of my knowledge acrylic will keep them dry, but, doesn't protect from UV rays. So looking for protection from both would lead to double spraying. First the UV Spry, then the acrylic.
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