To Kathy, my best friend and true love.
Acknowledgments
There may be only one name on the cover of this book, but trust me, most of the credit for the finished product belongs to everyone behind the scenes that pull all my scattered thoughts together into something cohesive and hopefully readable.
First and foremost, thank you to my amazing family. My beautiful wife Kathy is an inspiration and more supportive than I would have thought possible. She puts up with the crazy hours and schedules, always encouraging me to do what I enjoy. My children Ken and Erin are a source of pride and joy. They may be grown and out of the house, but theyll always be my kids.
I want to thank the incredible group of people at Peachpit Press that made this project happen. Development Editor Linda Laflamme gave me encouragement throughout the project and put up with my delays. I hope that I get the chance to work with her again, although she may run the other direction when she hears my name. Production Editor Lisa Brazieal did a great job of scheduling and book layout. Shes the one thats responsible for how nice the finished product looks, and I thank her for that. Compositor Maureen Forys did a wonderful job with the layout of the book. Marketing Manager Zigi Lowenberg worked hard to get the word out on this book. I was lucky enough to have two project editors on this book, Karen Reichstein handled things at the start of the project before moving to other areas at Peachpit. Paula Baker stepped in and kept things going smoothly. Both did a wonderful job, making this one of the best projects Ive ever worked on. Jeff Greene did an outstanding job as technical editor, and you can be sure that any mistakes that might be in this book were introduced after Jeffs review.
And, they may not have been involved in the book on a daily basis, but Managing Editor Becky Morgan, Acquisitions Editor Pamela Pfiffner, and Senior Acquisitions Editor Wendy Sharp all made the project possible to begin with. I hope this is the first of many books!
for this book, and her expertise and knowledge in the area of matting and framing cant be beat. Tim Grey, Peter Burian, and Charlotte Lowrie are always there when I have questions.
Finally, I want to thank all of the companies that helped with information, product loans, and questions. Teresa Weaver (Apple Computer), John Jatinen, Andrew Staples, Jane Fainer, and Dano Steinhardt (Epson), Jennifer Shanks, Scott Heath, and Geoff Coalter (Canon), Sebastian Macdougall (Matrox), Adrianne Bennett and Siobhan Flanigan, and Ann Johnson of Porter Novelli (HP), John Pannozzo of ColorByte Software (ImagePrint), Doug Little (Wacom), Sandra Sumski (Gretag Macbeth), Brian Levy and Matt Chilton (ColorVision), Norm Levy (Media Street), Ellen Pinto and Allison Rhodes (Pantone), and Thomas Frizelle (Kodak). To anyone Ive forgotten, my thanks and apologies.
About the Author
Jon Canfield is the author of several popular photography books, including RAW 101: Better Images with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (Sybex, 2005) and Photo Finish: The Digital Photographers Guide to Printing, Showing, and Selling Images (Sybex, 2004). In addition, he currently writes the Output Options column for PHOTOgraphic and contributes to Shutterbug, PC Photo, Outdoor Photographer, and Digital PhotoPro. His images have been published in numerous books and magazines, including the America 24/7 series. When hes not photographing and writing, he works for Microsoft, where he has helped develop such digital imaging products as Picture It! and Digital Image Pro.
About the Tech Editor
A member of both the National Press Photographers Association and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, photographer Jeff Greene has been shooting professionally since 1982. He and his wife Christine own ImageWest Photography & Design in Paso Robles, California, where they have been producing award-winning digital images for a diverse selection of local, regional, and national clientele. Jeffs work has recently been featured in American Photo, Outdoor Photographer, and Petersens Photographic magazines and in Tim Greys bestselling Color Confidence (Sybex, 2004) and Photoshop CS2 Workflow (Sybex, 2005).
Introduction
My first attempts at printing images, almost 20 years ago now, were pitiful by todays standards. Of course, this was before digital cameras were available and a highquality scanner was able to do 300 dpi in black and white. Color scanners? Dream on! My first color printer was an Apple ImageWriter II, a dot-matrix printer that was able to slowly print very basic color at noise levels that rivaled a jumbo jet. From there I moved up to a new technology: inkjet. The early HP DeskJet printers were light years ahead of that ImageWriter II in quality.