The Digital Printing Handbook: A Photographer's Guide to Creative Printing Techniques [Paperback]

Tim Daly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2002 | Series: Photography for All Levels: Beginners

Before the digital era, many hours were spent in the darkroom tinkering with chemicals. Now, handcrafted prints can be easily created with a basic desktop workstation and inkjet printer. With clear, uncomplicated instructions for setting up a workstation, testing different papers, and creatively interpreting photographs, The Digital Printing Handbook offers no-fail advice for choosing equipment and materials, controlling image quality, and troubleshooting print results. Then, step-by-step projects demonstrate how to create a variety of digital printing effects, from the basic essentials to more advanced techniques. Each technique is simplified to work with all recent versions of popular software, including Adobe Photoshop. What’s more, they’re all explained in clear, jargon-free text that’s easy for beginners to follow, yet thorough enough for veteran artists. This guide also features an exciting range of "color recipes" for recreating amazing darkroom, vintage, and alternative print processes; proven advice for using a variety of printers, papers and inks; and a comprehensive reference section. The Digital Printing Handbook is both a handy reference and a source of inspiration—the definitive darkroom manual for the digital age!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tim Daly’s photographs have been shown in solo and group exhibitions worldwide for over a decade. He has written a number of books, including The Desktop Photographer as well as numerous magazine articles. He lives in Surrey, England.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Amphoto Books (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0817438270
• ISBN-13: 978-0817438272
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,841,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Computers & Technology > Digital Photography & Video > Digital Printing

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond LPT1, December 3, 2002

By 

Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Digital Printing Handbook: A Photographer's Guide to Creative Printing Techniques (Paperback)

As the age of digital photography has dawned, more and more serious photographers have begun to use Photoshop software to manipulate their photographs. But even after going through the arcane tricks of "levels" and "curves" they sometimes have difficulty transforming what they see on their monitor to what comes out of their printer. Even more committed digital photographers wonder if there are alternate ways to use the technology to create art. This book is aimed at the audience of advanced Photoshop users.

This is not a tutorial for photographers to learn Photoshop. For that I recommend "Photoshop 7 Artistry by Barry Haynes". Instead, this book is aimed at what happens when a file manipulated in Photoshop gets sent to the printer.

The section that I believe will be of most interest deals with printer color management. Photoshop users want to insure that what they see on their monitor will be what they get on their printer. Most Photoshop books discuss using Adobe Gamma to adjust a monitor but few give the details of calibrating a printer. In just 8 pages Daly tells exactly how to set up a profile for your printer so that your monitor and printer will match up. That alone makes this book worth the price.

For photographers interested in going beyond sending the command to print a photo, this book will offer a number of ideas. Some will be quite practical, like a discussion of monochrome printing techniques, or instructions on how to make a CD cover for the CDR on which you might save a photo file. Some will be of interest to the photographer looking to push his work into a more artful stage, like a discussion of how to create a rough-edged negative border around a print. And some will serve to remind us of just how far we can push our photographic art, like discussions of overprinting old manuscripts or creating a hand-bound book of photographs.

The book is not without fault. The discussion of custom printing modes is much too cursory. And even though printed in 2002, the book only refers to the 6.0 version of Photoshop. On the other hand, given the general nature of the discussions, in most cases, this is not a serious limitation.

If you are not interested in tinkering with your computer to get a better digital photograph, this book isn't for you. But for the Photoshop user who wants to get more out of his or her printer, this book focuses on that task more clearly and concisely than any other I've encountered.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK as a first book, January 23, 2003

By 

K. Maurer (Reading, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Digital Printing Handbook: A Photographer's Guide to Creative Printing Techniques (Paperback)

This isn't a bad book. It's a little basic. It might function well as your first book to answer elementary questions about digital printing.

I found the sections on color management to be a little thin. If you are looking to graduate to the next level, and want more in-depth knowledge and a better interpretation I'd recommend Photoshop Artistry.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book was right on target! Great book!, January 30, 2003

By 

James B. Ghiringhelli (Burney, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Digital Printing Handbook: A Photographer's Guide to Creative Printing Techniques (Paperback)

I was looking for some help in printing photographs to my inkjet.
There were many issues I didnt understand in color management.
This book was great for me as it discussed every detail including
color management, differient types of papers, file formats and
print quaility issues. In addition were some good PhotoShop tips
for improving your photo prior to printing. Glad I bought it!