Digital Photography For Dummies, 8th Edition

Chapter 9

Printing and Sharing Your Pictures

IN THIS CHAPTER

Processing Raw files

Avoiding common printing problems

Shopping for a photo printer

Taking a look at printing options

Preparing photos for online sharing

Viewing your photos on a TV

In the early days of digital photography, printing and online sharing of photos was rare. Cameras didn't offer enough resolution to produce good print quality at sizes much larger than a postage stamp, and because retail options for printing digital images didn't exist, you had to either invest in your own photo printer or spend a big chunk of change having the files output at a pro lab. The Internet was in its infancy, too, with slow — and I mean slowwww — dial-up connections that made sharing even low-resolution photos a tedious, time-consuming affair.

Of course, those limitations are gone now. Even entry-level cameras offer enough resolution to produce great prints, which you can have made at any corner drugstore or other retail outlet, whether brick-and-mortar or online. And although some people who live in rural areas still rely on dial-up Internet service, the majority of us enjoy fast connections that enable us to upload photos in seconds.

Some potential glitches still exist, however. You may be dismayed to find that colors in your prints bear no resemblance to the ones you see on your computer monitor, for example. Or your favorite social media site may reject an image file for being too large or the wrong file type. To help you ...