Use High Quality Paper and Ensure Your Printer Knows It's There

High-quality paper will not help your photo printouts much if your printer still thinks it is using standard-grade paper.

As mentioned in other tips on MalekTips, when printing photos on your own color printer or photo printer, make sure to use high-quality coated photo paper, perhaps archival paper if you want your photos to last a long time. Such paper may cost more than standard inkjet, laser, etc. paper, but the difference in quality can be quite visible.

When using high-quality paper, however, you must make sure your printer knows such paper is being used. By default, most printers optimize their output for standard inkjet, laser, etc. paper. If you insert photo paper, the printer will still think it is printing on cheaper paper and won't make changes designed to optimize output on the higher-grade paper.

Thus, before you make prints on such paper, make sure to enter your "Printer Setup" or "Printer Preferences" mode; it should be available from most applications' "Print" dialogs. You should see an option for "Media Type" or "Paper Type". Select the type of paper that most accurately matches the paper you are using. Note that if you do not use paper sold by your printer manufacturer, you may need to experiment with these settings.