Photo Review

Printing your photos

Most photographers know the best way to preserve digital images is to print them. The best place to start is to acquire a printer, and that's where the first complication appears.

You must choose which type of inks the printer uses: dye or pigment. Each has different characteristics that can influence the appearance of the print, the surfaces it can be printed on and its long-term durability. So which type of printer is best for you?

Dye inks are liquid, which means they can be forced through very fine nozzles and should excel at reproducing fine details. They are cheaper to manufacture and formulators have plenty of colours to choose from. They can produce inks with a wider colour gamut and greater colour intensity than pigment inks.

Pigment inks contain millions of tiny solid particles of coloured pigment suspended in a liquid carrier medium. The printer nozzles that deliver the ink to the paper are, by necessity, wider than

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