Printing Instructions for Images

Printing Instructions: For the best results, images should be printed using some type of graphics/photo editing program, such as Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or Microsoft Office Picture Manager. It is not recommended that you use your browser for printing images, as they will, quite often, not print properly.

Follow these basic procedures:

Right click on the image in the browser and choose "save as" from the popup menu.
Save to your desktop (or other preferred folder, where you can easily find it)
Open your imaging program, choose "File", and then choose "Open" and navigate to where you saved the file, select it, and click open. (If Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is your default imaging program, simply click on the image file and it should open. If Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is not your default, and you would like it to be, simply follow the directions further down this page. Follow the same procedure if you prefer to use another program other than Windows Picture and Fax Viewer)
Once the photo is open in your photo program, click on "File", and then choose "print"
The next steps depend a lot on what model printer you are using. The basic settings you should choose for the best results are:
- Orientation (use Landscape for images that are wider than they are tall) (Found in Properties Tab)
- Choose paper size. (Letter size is the default, but you should choose "Legal" size for an image that is much wider than it is tall) Some printers may not allow you to change the paper size, but most will. You may have to place the paper in the manual feed tray of the printer.
- Choose "Fit to Page"
- Choosing "Allow Distortion" will stretch the image out to fill the page (OK for charts and tables, but not recommended for photographs)
Make sure the proper size paper is in printer.
Click "Print"

Imaging Programs

Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

In Windows XP use Windows Picture and Fax Viewer to work with your images without having to open an image editing application. If you store your picture files in the My Pictures folder, you see the preview window automatically. Double-click an image to preview that image in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, where you can:

Scroll through the images in the folder.

Increase or decrease the image preview size.

View the image in full size or as the best fit for your window.

Manage image files and print, save, delete, or change file details.

View a slide show of all your images, or select the set of images you'd like to view in a slide show.

Open the image in an editing program if you wish. Note that this closes Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.

Rotate images right or left by 90 degrees.

In addition, you can preview and annotate fax or TIFF files using the annotation toolbar. This toolbar enables you to draw lines, highlight portions of the file, or add textual annotations to the file. You can customize your annotations by editing properties such as line width, font, and colors. You can even use your personal pictures as a screen saver.

I always suggest that people make this the default program for their photo viewing and printing.

To make Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (or your preferred program) your default image program, follow these steps:

Open any folder
Click on Tools
Choose Folder Options
Click on the File Types tab (little flashlight image will do a quick search)
Find and choose JPEG in list of Extensions
In the bottom of the dialogue box, look for "Opens with (program name)
Click the Change button
Choose Windows Picture and Fax Viewer from list.
Click OK (Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is now the default)
Repeat the above steps for any other type of image file you want to change. I recommend changing JPEG, JPG, TIF, GIF, BMP extensions.

Microsoft Office Picture Manager

Microsoft Office Picture Manager is a software program included with recent versions of the Microsoft Office suite for Windows. It is a basic image-editing program. The Picture Manager has a few capabilities not present in the Paint program included with Windows, but not too many. It has the ability to crop, resize, and convert images between various formats. To find Microsoft Office Picture Manager, click on Start --> Program Files --> Microsoft Office --> Microsoft Office Tools --> then choose Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Irfanview

IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003. IrfanView is provided as freeware, but only for private, non-commercial use (that means at home). IrfanView is free for educational use (schools, universities and libraries) and for use in charity or humanitarian organisations. This is one of my favorite free programs for photo editing and printing. You can view its features and download it free at: www.irfanview.com.

Paint
There is another graphics program installed on all work stations called Paint. This is located in the Start menu also.
Click on Start --> Program Files --> Accessories --> Paint.

For further help or clarification, feel free to contact Greg Allen in the Cataloging and Metadata Department.

Indexed: Printing Images

Printing Images

Prepared by: Greg Allen