And I was able to use Qimage’s tools to salvage a photo that I thought totally unacceptable. It still wasn’t great but she liked it. Compared to prints from her fixed-focus point and shoot, I’m sure it’s fine. Compared to the magazine-quality stuff Gatermann shoots, it was garbage.

Agreed that the more pixels in the image, the better the quality – but 12 MP gear is pricey, so we make do with what we’ve got. Proof of the pudding is that my prints pass muster in photo competitions, and I’ve yet to have a judge comment on pixelation or over-sharpening etc.

Also agreed that longevity is really an unknown quantity — current inkjet inks haven’t been around long enough to prove out. And I’m not convinced that accelerated aging tests really indicate just how long a print will last. But there is a caveat: put the print under plastic or glass and don’t subject it to sunlight — and you’ll get far longer life.

But what the hell — just print another. I keep all my print files (a super A3 clocks about 50 MB) so it’s no great deal. Just the cost.

Cheers… /Mike

If I remember right, color prints made from negatives, if treated properly will last 25 years or more. If they are stored in acid free binders and pages, I doubt you’d need to worry much about it. An Ilfochrome (Used to be called a Cibachrome) which is a print made directly from a slide or larger transperency, are in the 100 + life range.

One other thing that Qimage does nicely is to let you up-size before giving the file to someone to print. You can go to the File menu and tell it to Print To File. You’ll get asked about resolution and such.

Put the files in the queue and tell it to process them. It should even do some of the smart sharpening. Then you can put those files on a CD and take them someplace to get done on a Fuji Frontier. The Frontiers run 300dpi, I believe.

I used QI to upsize some 2.6MP files from my Canon Pro 90; closeups of flowers. I had them printed 8×10 from those files. The detail on the Frontier prints is amazing! I did this back on an older version of QI, where the upsizing process was a little different (done via the filter interface for a picture and change resolution).

For a lot of things you never have to go to a program like Photoshop, since QI can adjust levels, do curves, remove redeye, sharpen, crop. But for the greatest control a program like Photoshop can do more.

I hope what you say about fading is true about most printers, but I just read earlier this week about magenta inks fading in general (they didn’t list specific printers or conditions). The longevity of film prints on processed photo paper is a known quantity, while the longevity of inkjet prints still raises questions, and at the very least isn’t proven (there aren’t any 25-year-old Epson and Canon inkjet prints).

But to keep from sounding like a total Luddite, digital pictures do have the advantage of allowing you to store them, so as long as you recopy them to new media over time (burn them to CD-R, then recopy the files to new CD-Rs every few years, and as new media become available, move to the new media–rewritable DVD is the obvious next generation) you can always print new copies if they fade. And they take up less space than negatives.

I think technology is going to solve this problem. If inkjets aren’t fixable, that’s not a problem–color laser printers get more affordable all the time.

Most inkjet printers are no longer subject to rapid fading, if used with the appropriate photo paper. Epsons range from 25 to about 100 years, and are the preferred printers for serious amateurs and pros. I use a Canon S9000, which is rated to give me about 25 years as well. I haven’t noticed any fading on pictures I printed 2 years ago (on an epson 870) and just hung in my cubicle, not exactly a protected environment.