Making money from your printer. Choosing a printer for a business - do you really know your business 

Thanks - I know some do prefer more concrete answers [aka Buy This!!] but I don't sell printers ;-)

Exagerrating a bit - uou don't need quality then. Buy one that allows cheapest ink per ml. But printing just off card, without even rough correcting let's say lightness by eye/hand, would give you less than acceptable results. I was printing for clients in random labs or even non-photo printing services, but always had to correct something in order to get a print that is not what a client can't do himself by just clicki g Ctrl+P.

Even 'cheapest ink' is but one consideration... Too many assume it's the only thing to consider ;-)

Cheap and straightforward to use effortlessly with "SD card straight from my camera". So just don't expect good results. I know many people wolud pay for such crappy (typically dark and oversaturated) prints in postcard size. But you would have to fight with many similar cheap services/labs and your only weapon will be the price. Probably nobody here can recommend a solution for you. Just wrong channel/author/viewers. I have recently bought second printer as a companion for my mid-size pigment ink photo printer - both were bought after careful lecture of mr Cooper's articles. It's relatively cheap A4 "photo-home-office" tank style with 4 dye-based ink tanks, just for purprose you have mentioned. BUT. It still requires some manipulation and effort to get decent results. And people come back for more because their holiday photos look bright, fresh and don't muddy. To achieve this you don't need anything more than "calibration by eye" and some intuition. This may be your goal. Get more for some quality that even untrained client can see. And such guy can afford paying for "just right" paper instead of cheapest one, for "just right" color and a minimal (but thought - not automated) cropping. You go "fairly cheap" instead of cheap but you avoid teeth pain looking at your result/product.

I believe the original 'request' was not a serious one ;-)

Thanks - PRO-300, all pigment Mainly because if the media you use [pro-200 is all dye]

Yes - needs to be stuff people will buy...

PRO-300 or P700 if you insist on full pigment www.northlight-images.co.uk/canon-pro-300-printer-review/ www.northlight-images.co.uk/epson-sc-p700-printer-review/ Remember that my videos are generally only supplements to my written articles, rarely the other way round! ;-)

Or even having one...

Thanks - Glad I could help!

Not a bad printer at all... What PDFs?

Very true...

That was exactly why I came here!

Yes... However, you still need to pay attention to paper profiles and all the aspects of printing a photo such as paper choice. In many ways, digital artworks have problems in their source technology - iPads are particularly problematic for example. It comes down to the fundamental differences between screen and print - the print is a whole different thing. Does that different thing still reflect your original in a way you are happy with?

@@KeithCooper Thank you kindly Keith

Hilarious.

Excellent - it's a good printer

Yes - I get people asking for square versions of wide panoramic images sometimes...

@@KeithCooper hehe!! Classic.

Thanks, but that's just the stuff I won't make... ;-) Why? Well... I only use Macs, which rules out a chunk of my audience. I've no time for Lightroom - which rules out more To make something detailed enough to be usable as a step by step guide, it would need to be very specific, and relevant to a tiny audience, and of course specific to an individual image. Now, I have made quite a few 'from view to print' style videos, but they tend to discuss the principles of _why_ I'm doing things, more than the _how_ other than in relatively general details. See here in my video index [created since YT is so awful at curating content] www.northlight-images.co.uk/keith-cooper-photography-videos-index/#p3 My videos aim to give help in finding a direction and destination for making a print, not a step by step guide. What you want is partly the sort of stuff I can cover in our bespoke [paid] one-to-one training business, where I'll work on individual images with people using whatever tools they want. My other answer is that lots of people don't have my aversion to creating such detailed stuff, so there are a ton of on-line step by step guides for almost any editing setup.

​@@KeithCooper I can appreciate your reluctance to summarize what is inherently a complicated process with many degrees of freedom! I was hoping a short disclaimer could squash any issues that might arise out of that ;) A video like that could still have some aesthetic value since I think your voice and demeanor fit the role of mentor very well!

Thanks, but that's covered by many of the ones in the list I noted. Others will come, but in a similar vein... ;-)

Thanks!

Ah, an optimistic wish for many over the years... Get someone else to pay for your printer/ink... ;-) Printer choice is well down the list - best to ask about that once you think it's a viable and profitable business and have a business plan - otherwise any printer suggestions are meaningless at best. Who are these local photographers? Where do they get their prints made? How much do they pay? What sizes/papers do they use. Such printmaking is a very tight margin business...

@@KeithCooper The printer will be primarily for my own use but doesn’t heart making money in the side.

Then pick a printer you like... Otherwise my default 'no other info supplied' recommendation is still the P20000 ;-)

Thanks - I'll have a look at that next time I get a printer here to test. It's something that will be tricky to show in a video. Video on YT is hopeless from a colour accuracy and management POV - I hear some people even watch it on phones... ;-) :-) Most likely it would be a written article with a short video to 'promote' it

@@KeithCooper That’s very true. I guess if anything, a video will show some differences, but it will be 50/50 on which looks “better” in video format 😂. Keep up the good work. 👌🏼

Glad to help, but I'm not sure what it is that you want to print? "All the grey shades' ? Sorry but I know absolutely nothing about tatoos

Glad you enjoyed it

No, not any inkjet printers that I know of. Certainly none of the Epson/Canon ones i've tested in recent years The PRO-300 I've got in the video was fine after a few months, but longer, I don't know.

Interesting - As an aside... Have you considered profiling the scanner? Scan software such as Vuescan can work with available targets.

@KeithCooper yes, I used i1Studio and a large target ... I'd tried just VueScan and a target (IT8?), but didn't get great results. As it is I still had to slide the red in lightroom's calibration panel about 10 or so towards orange, as otherwise the reds could be too 'fuchsia' (I leave the English descriptions of colour to my wife ;).

Ah... Why Lightroom? Scan correction is something I'd do in Photoshop absolutely every time. Art repro is one of the most technical bits of photography/print I do - and that's before you have to deal with artists ;-) :-) [partly why I don't offer it as a commercial service] Vuescan and an IT8 is almost the gold standard - if this isn't working, you're doing something wrong in the process [using Lightroom yells out at me ;-) ] From assigning profiles, to specific adjustment layers - most of the adjustments I need are either not in LR there or dressed up as some simple 'slider' with no finesse or precision.

@KeithCooper well, I have to admit I use lightroom as a defense against being expected to do all of that layer work! Suffice to say, the artist is happy with the results- which thankfully don't include botanicals or any other such specialised subjects. I only do it as I've reached the required level of compromise so that it's not a huge burden, as there can be multiple new works each week and I don't get paid for it!!! And, I wouldn't take it on lightly for anyone else, there are too many potential gotchas. As it is I use cheap A3 scanners, as a proper one would be in the region of 4000 euro!!! (Which would include luxuries such as the option of using an additional bulb to bring out 3D textures of the works, which can be essential with mixed media ... instead of having to change scanner!!)

@@garyrowe58 Oh, I can see why Lightroom might seem inviting in such 'work' ;-) Personally I'd rather swim through wet concrete than use Lightroom for anything - but I've 25+ years of Photoshop experience ;-)

You just don't know, is my answer to that. Personally, I'd not use them in any printer I owned.

Who?

@@KeithCooper Alice Cooper.

@@benelleliv Oh, I do hope not... :-)

Thanks

Yes, but on sheets cut from a roll, 39" max length] See here - the section on pano printing [there is a video too] www.northlight-images.co.uk/canon-pro-200-printer-review/

Thanks