Photoshop Elements 8 for Windows: The Missing Manual

Chapter 16. Printing Your Photos

Now that you've gone to so much trouble to make your photos look terrific, you probably want to share them with other people. This chapter and the next two look at the many different options Elements gives you for sharing your photos with the world at large.

This chapter covers the traditional method: printing your photos. You can print them at home on an inkjet printer, take them to a kiosk at a local store, or use an online service. Elements makes it especially simple to use Shutterfly and Kodak Gallery, Adobe's online printing partners. You also get an easy connection to several other popular online photo services (Sharing Photos with Yahoo Maps). The best thing about using an online service is that you're not limited merely to ordinary prints: You can create hardcover books, calendars, embarrassing t-shirts—you name it.

Tip

If you create online albums at Photoshop.com (Online Albums), you can let friends order prints directly from your Photoshop.com web page. (Those prints come from Shutterfly.)

Getting Ready to Print

Whether printing at home or sending photos to a printing service, you need to make sure your image file is set up to give you good-looking prints.

The first thing to check is your photo's resolution, which controls the number of pixels per inch (ppi) in your image. If you don't have enough pixels in your photo, then your print will look grainy and pixelated. Most photo aficionados consider 300 ppi ideal; a quality print needs a resolution ...