I try to do most of my printing myself. I enjoy the process as part of the full creative control and I can have the print right away. But, there are times when I need to use outside printing services when I want either a paper choice that is not available on my Epson 4880 or I need to print a size that goes beyond my printer’s width. For instance, I had my good friends at Printmakers, Inc. do all the printing for my Hagia Sophia exhibit prints as well as for the limited edition folios. The paper choice, Kodak Endura metallic made those photographs truly shine and that was not available on the Epson 4880.

To have the full print size as well as to place the text lines below each photograph I had to bring the photographs to Photoshop and create the final version there. Then I uploaded the files using their eFTP software which I find much simpler than the more elaborate, and that much more (and unnecessarily) complex ProDesign. Here I will outline a process that will create the output file directly from Lightroom with a minor trade off: On Windows computers Lightroom 3.x does not allow entering more than one line of text for the Identity Plate text that can appear where you like. This is an issue only if you want to use more than one line of text and other embellishments like a separating line. (A quick check on the public beta of LR4 shows that this is still not fixed.) The biggest advantage of outputting directly from Lightroom is that you see how your print will appear, possibly against a background color other than paper white, and using Lightroom to apply proper amount of print sharpening to the output file. On top of that, it is very simple! As straight forward and quick it is, it will take me longer to explain these steps than to actually do them. So, don’t let the length of the post mislead you. [Read more...]