Photo printing is not dead, now is the best time

Editor's note: In the digital age of the moment, we produce a large number of pictures every day, many of which are shared with family and friends through various social media. Digital storage replaces the way of storing prints. The original photo album, the carrier of the beautiful moment, seems to have gradually faded out of our sight. Does this mean that printing has already declined? This paper analyzes and discusses this issue. In fact, printing has not declined. Thanks to the help of digital technology and the Internet, it may be a good time, because the quality of printing has been greatly improved. And, printing is an art that should not be forgotten.

In the present society, we produce more photos every day than ever before, and the total amount is getting harder to speculate. According to relevant data, billions of users who use smartphones this year will produce 1.2 trillion images. Many of them will be shared on social media, but more photos will be forgotten. Some self-portraits that you feel good may be left in your mobile photo album. In a free afternoon, when you open the mobile photo album and slide left and right, these photos may appear in front of you again. However, very few images will be printed and transitioned to the physical world around you.

There must be sufficient reasons behind this phenomenon, and we have no meaning to attack the progress of this technology, but at the same time we should not ignore the value of printed matter. We may not print every photo any more as before, but for printing it may be a good thing. Because now everyone is more concerned about quality, not quantity, so the photos we choose to print should show good results. Frankly speaking, thanks to advances in digital camera and inkjet printer technology, it is now a good time to print.

Printing has not declined - now is a good time

In the digital age of the moment, not just photography, it seems that many things are in a state of inhibition. Many people believe that the printing industry has declined, or is on the decline. In fact, some type of printing is indeed in decline, but this is not a tragedy. Previously, printing was the only way we viewed photos (except for taking slides and using the projector). At that time, we put the film in the print shop and then took the photo 24 hours later, not because the system was so good, but it was the only way at the time.

We tend to deal with prints in a romantic way, but in the past when print photos were normal, many photos were lost or even forgotten (some would be found again). Most of the photos are placed in albums or in shoe boxes, quietly in the corners, allowing the dust to accumulate slowly, waiting for the next time you are turned over. If there are fewer and fewer forgotten photos and photo albums, it is also because fewer and fewer photos are printed, and fewer albums are produced. After all, every time you print a photo, you have to spend money, so people naturally won't print so many photos. And, the meaning of printing (and the meaning of taking pictures) is to share this memory with others. However, now we don't need to print to achieve this effect, so it is understandable that people don't waste money on this, especially in the current situation where electronic sharing of pictures is so convenient.

But people still love printing. In recent years, with the strong recovery of instant imaging cameras, the “low-end” form of printing has once again recovered and developed again. For example, Polaroid has created its own brand new (Polaroid Originals) around instant imaging technology, with Fujifilm Instax cameras and film occupying six seats in Amazon's top ten photography products during the last holiday season.

To be sure, digital technology has really changed the way we print, and there is no turning back. Although this may be bad news for photo print shops, it is not the same as declaring the bad luck of print art. In fact, people can even argue that this has just improved the art of printing. At the other end of the world of instant imaging, thanks to the help of digital technology and the Internet, the number of independent publications has increased, and the quality of publications has been higher and more targeted. From design to photography to paper selection, all aspects have improved. Rather than lamenting the decline in the number of prints, let us celebrate the fact that digitalization has brought new technologies and new ways for us to produce high-quality prints. Now, our tools are able to provide us with print products that are of higher quality than ever before.

For example, with a $600 inkjet photo printer at home, you can print a museum-quality 13 x 19-inch print that rivals professional darkroom work. In the previous film era, to achieve this standard, a darkroom was required in the house. Of course, there are many professionals who do this now, but such “engineering” far exceeds the scope of most amateurs or family records. No one can deny that digital technology lowers the threshold for professional printing, allowing more people to enjoy the quality of professional printing (not to mention reducing water consumption and the amount of hazardous chemicals).

If you enter the world of DIY photo printing, you may find that this is another addictive hobby. Just like learning to cook or driving a manual car, learning prints may be a bit more difficult at first, but with the understanding, appreciation and ultimate enjoyment of the art of printing. But how do you feel if you just put the film in the print shop?

Printing may be safer than digital storage files

Even if you don't have enough wall space, printing can still play an important role in image archiving. The physics of light reflected from a piece of paper to your eye is not changed, but the way the computer reads the image file changes. JPEG has been the standard format for compressed images for a long time, but has now begun to give way to the new HEIF format. A disc like a DVD used to be the gold standard carrier for photo backup, but it has now disappeared. External hard drives have also undergone several different types of physical connections, from USB to FireWire to Thunderbolt, and each has undergone several generations of changes.

In short, you can't guarantee that tomorrow's computers will be able to read the photos you took today, unless you keep updating your digital files. Cloud services can help you do this, but again, you can't guarantee that these companies that provide cloud services will survive forever.

A file-level inkjet printer can serve for more than 100 years under proper storage conditions. It's not a replacement for digital backup, but for some important photos, printed products can at least provide you with a very good redundancy (usually referring to multiple backups to increase system reliability).

And at the end, printing is an artistic act. Printing for archival reasons is a very logical explanation of the motivation, but the real motivation for you to start printing should be for emotional reasons. When you follow the correct instructions, after you finish printing, it will be very fascinating to see the high-quality images you made. Looking at the printed products in your hand is far more satisfying than looking at the photos on the screen. Moreover, the printed photo is a tangible, tangible, and sustainable item, a monument to record your time and energy.

So, while generating trillions of photos now, billions of dollars are forgotten, but as long as you print a picture, put it in an album, embed a photo frame, or show it somewhere in your home, you’ll I am proud, and then I can't help but print two, three, or even more photos. I thought that the photo print was dead, but it is now a golden age.