[Techtalk] Mac or Linux for photo printing?

[MK Hayes]

The more serious you get with your photography printing, the more likely
you'll want to switch to Mac (or PC, the differences are less than they
used to be.)  Sad, but true.  Until someone hacks a Pantone Huey or a
Spyder, or the manufactures of these devices support Linux,
photographers are out in the cold.  The Gimp and other apps are starting
to use icc profiles, but without a calibrated monitor these things are
meaningless.  

But this is a long term thing.  And since your questions aren't about
why your darks all turn to black and why don't the reds look right, you
might not need to switch yet.  You did ask why the photo and graphic
arts geeks love their Macs.  It's all about color and its consistency
from digital imager to monitor to printer.  The apps that do all that
magic are now equally available to the PC.  I went with PC because the
hardware is cheaper, and I can incrementally update it.

On Sat, 2006-12-16 at 11:25 -0800, Carla Schroder wrote:
> Yo. Me again.
> 
> I'm getting frustrated with making photo prints on Linux. Some of the things 
> that are vexing:
> 
> -no simple way to scale images for printing, like 4x6 borderless, or 8x10 with 
> 1/4" border. I have to scale images manually, which is less fun than it 
> sounds

This I don't understand.  If I want 4x6 borderless, I put in 4x6 paper
and send a 4x6 image.  But I don't print photos from Linux, so maybe
it's different.  There are certainly batch image sizers for Linux.  

> -printing at different resolutions makes zero difference, whether it's 600dpi 
> or 2400dpi


There is no point in sending files to your printer at anything greater
than 300 ppi.  There isn't such direct correlation between the dpi of
your printer and the ppi of your files.  2400 dpi is a statement of the
quality of the printer, the smallness of the dots.  There are serious
printer geeks who recommend not sending files at any higher resolution
that 180-260, depending on the printer.  They've actually figured out
the native multipliers for different printer, and claim that these lower
resolutions are more efficient for the drivers to handle.  But I can
comfortably state than you won't see any difference above 200ppi.  

> -print preview is hideously slow, even on small file sizes

This maybe due to your high res problem.

> -I want to create calendars, postcards, and other fun stuff without having to 
> make it my life's work 

Chris doesn't like Scribus, but since you don't have a ton of experience
with inDesign, you may.  But there are certainly inexpensive Win and Mac
apps that do this.  I think you can do a lot of it from Photoshop
Elements. $100 and very worth it. The newest version even has a Curves
feature, which used to be the main reason folks gave up the training
wheels and went full version
> 
> For multi-image layouts I use KWord. It's faster and easier to slap a bunch of 
> images onto a KWord page in frames than to mess with Gimp layers. But it 
> still has some limitations, mainly requiring way too much trial-and-error and 
> manual tweaking.
> 
> I have a Canon Pixma 4200 printer using the Turbo Print drivers. 64-bit 
> Kubuntu. I've tried the Gimp, Digikam, Krita, Konqueror, some weird Gnome 
> apps I forget now that had the usual annoying fatal flaws and 
> unfinishednesses. I'm ready to take a look at Macs, but I want to hear from 
> the smart kids before I work up an attack of New Computer Lust.

Dual booting is probably in your future.  The cheapest way is just to
dual boot Windows.  While it is the evil empire, it doesn't lock in your
hardware choices.   For $200, you can leave a lot of headaches behind.
And while reading the fresh out of the mailbox Linux Format, that
www.fs-driver.org will let you mount your ext2/3 partitions in Windows.
(If you prefer Reiser, you need rfstool.)

> What makes the Mac so beloved of graphics artists? Is it the skillions of 
> dollars they have invested in Photoshop and other Adobe products? Are there 
> lower-cost apps that do the job for normal people? Am I missing some magic 
> Linux app that does what I want? Editing images for print is very different 
> from optimizing images for the Web. I want to be able to do nice print 
> layouts that actually come out the way I want, instead of in some weird 
> unpredictable manner, or that require waaay too much hassle to set up. Help 
> meeee....
> 
> TIA

And while writing this I see I'm in a majority.

MK