How Do I Print Photos?

Posted by Takkat on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by Takkat
Published on 2011-01-23T13:32:09Z Indexed on 2011/01/28 23:38 UTC
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Other than for Windows in Ubuntu there are no fancy utilities provided from printer manufacturers to print photos. I am aware of Gnome Photo Printer and of Photoprint, the first being easy to handle, the latter having more options. However I wonder if there are any other or maybe even better alternatives (including plugins) to perform the following tasks:

  • Print photos in the best photo-resolution the driver offers
  • Adjust paper size for standard values of photo papers
  • Choose paper tray if the printer has more than one
  • Print out multiple photos on one page including mixed sizes (grids)
  • Multiple prints with same settings
  • Borderless printing if the printer is capable of this

Any additional options like pre-processing for color correction or noise reduction would be nice to have but are not so essential.

Update

According to this spec it seems not to so easy to accomplish the simple task of printing photos.

Indeed all applications I have gone through have major drawbacks that make printing photos almost impossible. Below I will list what put me off using them for photo printing:

  • Gnome Photo Printer: no thumbnails, no grids
  • Photoprint: does not keep settings, GUI broken, no standard photo size, no thumbs
  • Eye Of Gnome: no multiple pages, no grids
  • Gimp + Images Grid Layout: far too many steps to finally find that prints are always different to their previews.
  • F-Spot: no grids
  • Picasa 3: no grids, very few fixed paper sizes, 300 dpi only
  • flPhoto: strange GUI, no thumbs, no printer settings, did not print at all
  • Windows: Ooops - everything works fine! But I want Ubuntu to do this!

After half a pack of ink cartridges and half a pack of photo paper cards I am getting tired of testing. At least Gimp and Picasa looked promising but both don't keep their promise when it comes to printing. I'd already be happy to quickly print a few photos with EOG if bug #80220 was fixed - but it's still on "wishlist".

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