How to print panoramic landscapes
You can’t really appreciate a panorama when it’s viewed on a monitor… We explain to you the best panoramic printing options In the third part of this month’s panorama special, we’re running through all your printing options – from printing at home on an inkjet printer, to ordering a professionally made print from a photo lab. Before you decide which option to go for, refer to the box opposite to find out how to crop and sharpen your panorama ready for printing (sharpening should always be the last thing you do). There are a number of home inkjet printers that allow panoramic printing, either via an adaptor that takes a roll of paper, or simply using single pre-cut panoramic sheets. Hewlet Packard’s Photosmart 8450 printer, for instance, can print 4 x 12-inch panoramas on dedicated paper. However, if you want to print a lot of large panoramas, using your own inkjet printer may not be the most cost-effective solution. Epson’s 210mm x 10mm Premium Glossy Photo Paper costs around £35 per roll. If you were to use this paper to print a series of panoramic images of a similar aspect ratio to the main image in this article, it would cost around £1.50 per print in paper alone. The professionals Results from commercial printers should be consistent but, as all monitors are different, what they see when they open up your image may not be exactly what you saw on your own monitor. If your own printer produces good results it’s worth making a small print to hand to the commercial lab so that they can match the colours and contrast.  |
If your printer is set up correctly in the first place, printing your own pans provides you with total control over the final output – enabling you to adjust colour, contrast and sharpness as you see fit. If your printer can’t handle prints larger than A4, it is, of course, perfectly possible to print two small panoramic images on one sheet of A4 photo paper. Simply re-size both images to the required dimensions (105mm x 297mm if your printer allows borderless printing) and minimise them. Next, go to File>New, select the A4 paper preset and then set the width to 297mm and the height to 210mm. Set the Background Contents to White and the resolution to 300dpi. Now bring up one of your panoramas and go to Select>All. Select the Move Tool and drag the selected image on to the new canvas. Close the copied image and repeat the process for the second panorama. With both images in position on the new canvas, go to Layer>Flatten Image and you’re ready to save and print. You will then need to cut the images carefully apart with some scissors once the ink has dried on the paper. Ready-made frames are hard to find for this aspect ratio. Custom-made frames offer great quality and plenty of choice but they’re an expensive option. For instance, a frame for a panorama measuring 200mm x 800mm would cost in the region of £40 to £80. A cheaper option is to buy a long, rectangular picture frame designed to hold up to three or four 6 x 4-inch prints, remove the inlay and insert your own panoramic card mount. There are numerous online picture framers – a quick search on Google brings up options, such as www.fastframes.co.uk, www.PictureFrames.com and www.digital-pictureprinting-frames.com. Alternatively, you may prefer to use your local picture framers if you want to avoid expensive postage costs or you’re worried about potential breakages. * This article was first featured in Digital Camera Magazine issue 48
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