help w/ printing 4 x 6 color photos

[johnkelley12]

Just got a new epson r380 printer that came with arcsoft photoimpression. I'm having problems printing color 4 x 6 photos. The resize function in photoimpression isnt very intuitive (at least to me).

Years ago I had a canon printer and used something called ez photo print (?). It would let me load a picture and then resize it automatically to 4 by 6. I dont really care about having enough pixels, etc. I just want something that's easy to use and will let me load a photo and easily modify it to 4 by 6.

Can someone recommend a good program for this?

 

[SilentRunning]

Have you tried Picasa?

 

[Zepper]

And welcome to the Forums at Anandtech.

IrfanView also does quick resizing/resampling, cropping and many other neat tricks and it's free like Picasa is now. IrfanView doesn't organize your photos - it leaves that to your wise choice and implementation of a folder structure for photo storage. Besides, IV isn't part of the Google juggernaut if that's of concern to you...

.bh.

 

[johnkelley12]

thanks Zepper and SilentRunning for the help! much appreciated!

 

[Rottie]

If Canon program is easy for you you should consider buying new Canon printer instead of Espon printer.

 

[you2]

Has anyone used both IrfanView and Picsa - if so any comments on how the two applications differ and advantages/disadvantages between them ?

 

[xgsound]

There is no reason not to try both. They're both free and small for photo programs, and anything beats the stuff that the manufacturers provide.

The last I used Irfanview, it was a tiny program (? 500k) I used mainly to display thumbnails of pic directories. It could also do batch changes and minor editing.

Since I got (2.1 MB at the time) Picasa, it handles 98% of my photo needs. It shows a library of all (or only selected) directories and keeps track of changes. It does more than minor editing without changing the original. It exports resized pics to it's "Picasa folder" in a subfolder name of your choice without changing the original. Print is great too. It asks what size to print (from 8 1/2 x 11 to wallet) the selected photos and lines them up on the paper for best fit.


Jim

 

[Zepper]

Picasa can take some time to scan your drive(s) the first time and also takes up a goodly amount of drive space with its indexes and thumbnails while IV takes very little drive space at all. IV's resizing and editing tools are very good I can chop things down to size for web posting in seconds, clear up redeye, etc. But if you have plenty of drive space, why not have both? I use Picasa sometimes to help locate things I know I have but lost track of and things I didn't know I had... But I use IV for most of my editing.

.bh.

 

[you2]

Does IV work on unix (freebsd/linux?). Imagmagic seems to do a good job of chopping and dicing... Hum... mostly I'm just exploring options. I still use film but sometime in the next 6 months i will drop film and start using digital (not sure if I want to go with canon/pentax/sony/olympus or nikon system). At that point I'll need to set something up on the comp to automate indexing/printing/web (not sure about web - the system I have with bw is not my home system).

 

[corkyg]

I have Irfanview and Picasa installed, and have used them both. But my favorite for printing photos is Corel Photo Album 6. Picasa is good, but is difficult to move edited pictures from Picasa folders to generic ones - they have to be "exported."

I also have Adobe PS Elements, and Canon software installed - but they are not as user friendly as Corel.

 

[Rottie]

I love Canon Easy-Photo Print and ZoomBrowser EX they are easier and user friendly. I usually use Easy-PhotoPrint for final print out 4 x 6, 5 x 7 and letter size photo.