Compressing Photos

wasn_me · Guru

Compressing Photos

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

I like your logic wasn_me .... and fully understand.

However, unless someone shouts me down (not unusual these days cry ) I would suggest that it MAY use a little less ink, but I very much doubt it.

Actually, I would suggest that unless you printed it as a small photo - eg 4x6 or similar - the resolution would so low to make it a pretty lousy reproduction.

I doubt it would be a worthwhile print as a 10x8 or A4 size. cry hmm

Cheers - John

hako · Guru

It will use basically the same quantity of ink, however if your printer has an economy setting it will use less ink. If you shrink the printed size of the photo it will use less ink.
I've found refilling the cartridges saves money and the kits are cheap.
Good Luck.

JeffRae · Guru

We wait until Harvey Norman has specials and get heaps printed. You can pick them up instore saving the freight cost as well

03_Troopy · Guru

Wasn_me, as others have said, reducing the size of the picture (ie the resolution) so as to use them online, or to email them, will mean you'll have poor reproduction if you print them. So the best thing to do is keep your original pictures at their full size, and save a copy in reduced size to email or whatever, then delete it afterwards if you don't want to use it again.

As for printing and the amount of ink used, that depends entirely on the size and quality of the print you make. You can set up your printer to print a very small image or a full page or even spanning multiple pages. Also most printers have a hi quality print setting, which may take a lot longer to print and use a lot of ink, and lesser quality settings that are quicker and use less ink. Different types of papers will also need different print settings and some use more ink than others.

Hope that helps.

El Gringo · Senior Member

Compressing pics won't save any ink as they basically decompress themselves to print.

Use paint net to reduce the size of the pic but keeping the quality is a much better option.
You can clean up pics, crop them and lots of other stuff to suit your needs.
Very easy to use as well.
www.getpaint.net/download.html

Cheers,

-- Edited by El Gringo on Saturday 9th of January 2016 02:35:13 PM

PeterD · Guru

wasn_me wrote:
When I compress a photo to post it on the forum it goes from say 1 megabyte to 250 kilobytes. One quarter the data????

As I see it, you are resizing your picture so it is not too big for the for the web page size. It will be the same DPI but the picture is smaller. Modern cameras have huge file sizes that will allow you to print large poster size pictures. The large file sizes produce large posters that have the same resolution when you print them as the prints made in smaller sizes. When you print those large files to smaller sizes your printer software reduces the resolution, your printer will not have the resolution to print every pixel of the picture when you print out say a 150 x 100 mm print.

If your file is too small to produce the required resolution for say an A4 page then the software will add your printer dots together to produce bigger diameter pixels on the page and your print will look grainy (like newspaper pictures.)

If less ink is used in your printing process then prints are likely to look washed out.

Hylife · Guru

Does anybody really print their own photos these days?
It is wayyyy too expensive to print your own.

As one who once developed and sold printing machinery, the industry CCIT standards are based on A4 text, 2.54cm margins, Times New Roman, 12point, single line spacing, random words.
A whole page like this is only 5% ink coverage because of all the areas that have no ink..

An A4 photo usually has virtually no white spaces and so is close to 100% ink coverage.

Additionally the printer may use up to a dozen or more dots of ink to make a particular shade or colour whereas text is just one dot black

Expect photos to use as much as 40 times more ink than text. If your cartridges state 300 pages this is the CCIT text rating. Photos would use them all up with as few as 20 pictures.

$70 for a set of genuine ink = $2 per picture or $2,000.00 per thousand photos.

Big W processing = 8 cents per pic or $80.00 per thousand.

Easy choice.

In the early days of digital we had no choices, you either printed your own or just stored the files and looked at them on the screen. If you think they are going to be trashed by the recipient then just use a refillable laser printer with toner at $10 per refill giving approx 3,000 pages.

Bruce and Bev · Guru

John aka Rockylizard......this is totally off topic, but its sad to hear you are being "shouted down" sometimes. Your posts and comments are always constructive, positive and often with a twist of humour in them.

As you know too well from your long experience here, people often mis-read others comments and see an adverse one, when in fact it wasn't intended :)

But certainly there is a lot of negative stuff happening here at the moment. Ive made it my NY resolution to not react to them anymore, unless its to defend someone under "attack" when it wasn't deserved.

Please keep your posts coming - I and many others enjoy them !!!!!

Cupie · Guru

I got sick of buying ink for my Inkjet so I decided to go for a $50 Mono Laser printer.

Best decision ... cartridges seem to last for ever. Got a pair of extra capacity ones from InkMart for less than $50 I think, about 2 years ago & still have one unused.

If I want color prints I go to WW or HNorman when they have a special.

PeterD · Guru

Bruce and Bev wrote:
John aka Rockylizard......this is totally off topic, but its sad to hear you are being "shouted down" sometimes. Your posts and comments are always constructive, positive and often with a twist of humour in them.

Why this comment here? I think we all supported him in some form or other.

wasn_me · Guru

Thanks for the replies. My query, (curiosity) was answered. also some interesting thoughts & information.

Thanks Pete