# Best Export Settings for "Everyday" Third-Party Printing - Walgreens, etc.



## TexasPilot (Jul 15, 2016)

Good Morning;

Thanks to this forum I have learned a so much about getting great prints.   Thru this forum I learned about ColorMunki Display and calibration, using Costco effectively and accessing Dry Creek Photo for the printer profiles, and more.  Now, thanks to so many of you, when I control the process, I get great prints.

Where I need some advice as to export settings is when I need to give images to friends, relatives and associates who want to *"get some prints made"* from images I send them. They want to go to Walgreens, Sams, Walmart, and other retail photo outlets.  And I don't want to be in the print business.  I'll just give them a cheap thumb drive of disk or tell them how to download them.

What would be the best "export" settings for the images I send them so they can get this done on their own from the options available on the export box, in particular:

Quality:  (0 - 100)
Color Space: sRGB, Adobe RGB
Resize to?  (I'll be giving them JPEGs)
Resolution?
Sharpen for?   I want to consistently use just one (glossy, matte).  Amount?  High, Standard, Low?
Anything else?

In addition, knowing that they will probably use ones of these retail outlets, are there any develop module tips I need to know - especially in the Basic panel?

Once I get your feedback on this I'll just make a "Friends and Family" export preset.  I just want them to get a decent print.

Any and all advice on this will be appreciated.  If I'm making this too complicated, tell me that, too!

Ed
San Antonio, TX


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Jul 15, 2016)

My settings would be:
Quality: 80
Color space: sRGB (*very important!*)
Resize to: no resize
Resolution: Irrelevant, so pick any number
Sharpen for: Glossy paper, standard


----------



## TexasPilot (Jul 15, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> My settings would be:
> Quality: 80
> Color space: sRGB (*very important!*)
> Resize to: no resize
> ...


Thank you!


----------



## Gnits (Jul 15, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> My settings would be:
> Quality: 80



Why suggest Quality: 80 for prints ??? Curious.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Jul 15, 2016)

Gnits said:


> Why suggest Quality: 80 for prints ??? Curious.



Because it's the best compromise in my opinion. A higher setting is almost always not needed and will only increase the file size. As people will send these images to online print services, you don't want to give them an inflated file size.


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Jul 15, 2016)

By the way: because a lot of people don't understand that resolution is irrelevant, you may want to pick 300 ppi just to avoid having to explain that the resolution is really irrelevant...


----------



## TexasPilot (Jul 15, 2016)

JohanElzenga said:


> By the way: because a lot of people don't understand that resolution is irrelevant, you may want to pick 300 ppi just to avoid having to explain that the resolution is really irrelevant...



Thanks


----------



## Jimmsp (Jul 15, 2016)

When I do this, I always ask them "what size" do they want. LR makes it easy to crop to a 4x6, a 5x7, or a 8x10 (common sixes). I then just output a jpeg at 300 px/in at 90%, sRGB, glossy (many 1 hr pickups), standard sharpening, and off they go.
Every so often, you don't want the printer to make an arbitrary crop, so I do it.


----------



## TexasPilot (Jul 15, 2016)

Thanks!

Ed


----------



## joms (Aug 6, 2016)

Why do you choose glossy instead of matte? Is glossy printing that much better?


----------



## Rob_Cullen (Aug 7, 2016)

A great article by Laura Shoe at- Sharpening in Lightroom Part One — Overview and Capture Sharpening
Quote from the article-

_*Output Sharpening*:  this is size and medium dependent, and is accomplished in the Print, Slideshow and Web modules, and in the Export dialog where you create jpeg and other copies.  A large print needs significantly more sharpening than a small image to be viewed on the web;  an image printed  on matte paper needs more sharpening than one on glossy paper because the ink soaks into the former.  Output sharpening takes into account resolution, medium, and how much interpolation has been performed._
_ There is no correct amount of sharpening — it is subjective_


----------



## Replytoken (Aug 7, 2016)

joms said:


> Why do you choose glossy instead of matte? Is glossy printing that much better?



Glossy, and lustre, are not better, but they are more common. And you are generally better off choosing glossy when exporting if you do not know the paper surface that will be chosen.

--Ken


----------



## LouieSherwin (Aug 7, 2016)

Gnits said:


> Why suggest Quality: 80 for prints ??? Curious.



For an excellent overview of JPG quality take a look at Jeffery Friedl"s An Analysis of Lightroom JPEG Export Quality Settings.

He also has a plugin (Jeffrey's "JPEG Export Quality Tester" Lightroom Plugin) that allows you to quickly examine multiple JPG quality outputs for an image.

-louie


----------



## mhalweg (Jan 14, 2017)

I took some of my heavily edited family photos to walgreens to be printed and the prints looked horrible.  It's hard to describe, but the colors were not as bright as they are on the computer and there seems to be like a matte/hazy layer on top of the entire image.  

I sent the same images to shortrunposters.com and the prints came out as expected.  I'm attributing this to the capabilities of the printer used by a business?


----------



## Johan Elzenga (Jan 14, 2017)

mhalweg said:


> I took some of my heavily edited family photos to walgreens to be printed and the prints looked horrible.  It's hard to describe, but the colors were not as bright as they are on the computer and there seems to be like a matte/hazy layer on top of the entire image.
> 
> I sent the same images to shortrunposters.com and the prints came out as expected.  I'm attributing this to the capabilities of the printer used by a business?



More likely your color profile. If your images were AdobeRGB or even bigger, then a simple store like Walgreens will not handle them correcty because they assume (without verification) that every file is sRGB. It seems that shortrunposters.com know a bit more what they are doing, so they may actually read the color profile.


----------



## Denis Pagé (Jan 14, 2017)

Welcome to Lightroom Forums halweg,

The most likely cause is the color profile you used for export. If you exported with a ProPhoto profile and Walgreen do not take care about profiles (expecting sRGB) then they will print dull colours (like blues going toward violet). Then probably shortrunposters' printing software is taking care of the embedded profile so they print correctly as you intended. When exporting to print at Walgreen, try choosing sRGB as the export profile.

Your problem is the one that made me join Lightroom Forums (almost) ten years ago...


----------



## mhalweg (Jan 14, 2017)

It seems I am exporting in sRGB.  See attached.


----------



## Denis Pagé (Jan 14, 2017)

Then what come next is your monitor. Is it calibrated? But then, if it is, I wonder how Shortrunposter made a good job.


----------



## mhalweg (Jan 14, 2017)

No it's not calibrated.  is there free software to do it?


----------



## Denis Pagé (Jan 14, 2017)

Profiling your monitor is the very first step before trying to make any photo editing. Otherwise, how do you know that what you see is what you will get? See here: Color Management System, Services & Software from X-Rite

I choose a ColorMunki Photo and love it. It can also profile my different papers and printers. No more photo paper in the garbage!


----------



## Replytoken (Jan 14, 2017)

Labs often run color corrections without asking, and it is possible that the store's equipment was not properly calibrated.  And they often use dye sublimation printers for small prints, and that can have its own issues. Try another store in the chain and see the results.

--Ken


----------



## mhalweg (Jan 14, 2017)

roger!


----------



## Jimmsp (Jan 14, 2017)

Every so often, I'll run what I call test runs on local printers - Walgreen, Target, & Walmart - where people often take their everyday photos for 4x6 and 5x7 prints. I will send them a few photos, varying colors & B&W, sized properly for 4x6s.  I then compare them all see how they do. This is a pretty cheap test.
These stores change printers, calibration, etc, at random times so quality varies with time.
So if I give a photo away to someone to print, I can "recommend" where to take it.


----------



## mhalweg (Jan 14, 2017)

makes sense.  that idea came to mind.


----------



## Tony Jay (Jan 14, 2017)

I hate to be a bit of a party-pooper here but sending an image to be printed via a company using a non colour-managed workflow will give an entirely random result!
For many that may be acceptable but I would never waste my money that way.

In every large town and city there will be a printing company that has a colour-managed workflow and the prices should be comparable.
Ultimately, they are cheaper if one does not need keep reprinting because of bad results.

What a colour-managed workflow does however is put the onus on you to softproof images correctly.
This, in turn, means that you need to ensure that your colour management is good.
Monitor calibration becomes a crucial part of the process.
These companies will make their ICC paper/printer profiles available for download via the internet.
If one needs a bit of advice on the characteristics of the different papers they use these companies are well used to giving that advice.

Isn't it time we directed our business to companies who actually know what they are doing in this domain?


----------



## TexasPilot (Jul 15, 2016)

Good Morning;

Thanks to this forum I have learned a so much about getting great prints.   Thru this forum I learned about ColorMunki Display and calibration, using Costco effectively and accessing Dry Creek Photo for the printer profiles, and more.  Now, thanks to so many of you, when I control the process, I get great prints.

Where I need some advice as to export settings is when I need to give images to friends, relatives and associates who want to *"get some prints made"* from images I send them. They want to go to Walgreens, Sams, Walmart, and other retail photo outlets.  And I don't want to be in the print business.  I'll just give them a cheap thumb drive of disk or tell them how to download them.

What would be the best "export" settings for the images I send them so they can get this done on their own from the options available on the export box, in particular:

Quality:  (0 - 100)
Color Space: sRGB, Adobe RGB
Resize to?  (I'll be giving them JPEGs)
Resolution?
Sharpen for?   I want to consistently use just one (glossy, matte).  Amount?  High, Standard, Low?
Anything else?

In addition, knowing that they will probably use ones of these retail outlets, are there any develop module tips I need to know - especially in the Basic panel?

Once I get your feedback on this I'll just make a "Friends and Family" export preset.  I just want them to get a decent print.

Any and all advice on this will be appreciated.  If I'm making this too complicated, tell me that, too!

Ed
San Antonio, TX


----------



## Replytoken (Jan 15, 2017)

Tony Jay said:


> I hate to be a bit of a party-pooper here but sending an image to be printed via a company using a non colour-managed workflow will give an entirely random result!
> For many that may be acceptable but I would never waste my money that way.



When I am "Printing", I would agree.  But just like we use a cell phone for convenience when we need to take a photo when it is not necessarily artistic material, sometimes we need to use the local drug store for a quick 4x6 or 5x7 when IQ is not as paramount as convenience.  I have a drug store near my office that mostly does a decent job with 5x7's, so I use them for non-critical work that I need in a hurry.  But, I did send a more challenging image to them and the dye sub printer they used just could not reproduce the colors in an acceptable manner.  It was good to know their limits, but I still use them when I need a "quick and dirty" small print.  But everything else gets shipped off to labs that I trust will provide me with a product that meets my needs with respect to IQ.

--Ken


----------



## Victoria Bampton (Jan 15, 2017)

I don't know about in the US, but I just discovered our local Costco now provide ICC profiles. That was a nice surprise!


----------



## Replytoken (Jan 15, 2017)

Victoria Bampton said:


> I don't know about in the US, but I just discovered our local Costco now provide ICC profiles. That was a nice surprise!


I believe they have for some time in the US. There is some relationship with Dry Creek Photo.

--Ken


----------

