TABLE OF CONTENTS Despite the great rush of some picture makers to 'all things web', most digital images end up being printed at some stage during their existence. Contributing to this scenario is the current crop of affordable high-quality inkjet printers whose output quality is nothing short of amazing. As little as 8 years ago it was almost impossible to get photographic quality output from a desktop machine for under 5000, now the weekend papers are full of enticing specials providing stunning pictures for as little as 150. See Figure 11.1.
Printer manufacturers have simplified the procedure of connecting and setting up their machines so much that most users will have their printer purring away satisfactorily within the first minutes of unpacking the box. Software producers too have been working hard to simplify the printing process so that now it is generally possible to obtain good output from your very first page.
Elements is a good example of these developments, providing an interactive printing system that previews the image on the paper background 'virtually' before using any ink or paper to output a print. As we have already seen in Chapter 3 the package also includes the ability to print a section of an open image, make a contact sheet of images contained within a folder and produce a print package of different sized pictures optimized to fit...
