shortcut key—command/control "P"
Clicking on Zoom to Fit might make this image fit an 8 x 10 format.
Once you’ve printed a photo in LR you will never want to print from any other program again! It makes printing so easy and allows you to do so many different things with printing. Click on the Print Module and whatever photo you are clicked on will show up in the print module window. Again, there are many choices to make and you need to read and check everything prior to hitting that Print button. Clicked on a photo hit the Command/Ctrl + P and you will be re-directed into the print module or simply click on print across the top right header of the software program.
On the left side you will see Preview, Template Browser, and Collections panels. On the right side you will see Layout Styles, Image Settings, Layout, Guides, Page, and Print Job panels. You will notice that the film strip is at the bottom of your print viewing screen, which allows you to print multiple photos from the same file one at a time if you choose to. It is possible to print a group of photos one after another by selecting them in Library module and then going to the Print module or using the filmstrip to mark multiple photos either with the command key to mark each one or using the Shift, holding down the beginning photo and the end photo.
You will see a button for Page Settings and Print Settings at the bottom left of the screen, just above the film strip. Every printer is different so it would be difficult to go into specifics about printers. In general, set the Page Setup as needed for your specific printer and the paper size you are printing on. Note this is paper size, not print size as that may be different. You can also set Orientation, but you can change that as needed, too, in the Library Module by clicking on one of the arrows at the bottom corner of the photo. I'd leave scale at 100% to ensure everything prints as you expect. In Print Settings you set the printer setting for the type of paper you will use; if you do not do this it will not print as you expected.
I will not be addressing the Identity Plate or Watermarking option in the Page panel in this article.
The Left Side Panels
Preview: In Preview the box at the top mirrors the set printing size that you see in the print window and the templates below the window if you run the mouse pointer over a template.
Template Browser: There are two types of Templates in the Template Browser, LR templates and user-defined templates. To create a user defined template, with a photo selected for printing, set up your printing options, then click on the + sign in the Template Browser and name the template and click on Create. This creates a new template with those specific instructions in the User Templates at the bottom of the Template Browser panel.
Collections: This is the same window that you see in the Library section, where all of your collections are displayed. See Working in the Library Module for more on Collections.
The Right Side Panels
Layout Style: You have three choices here, the Single Image/Contact Sheet, Picture Package, and Custom Package (Custom Package and the Cells panel work together). From the Apple manual, "Single Image/Contact Sheet layouts let you print one or more photos at the same size. Picture Package layouts let you print one photo in various sizes. Custom Package layouts let you print more than one photo at more than one size." If you working in the film strip you will find that each option acts differently. For example, in Single Image/Contact sheet you cannot pull a photo up from the filmstrip to print it. But, you can move through the filmstrip until you find the photo you want to print and as you move from photo to photo it shows up in the viewer window. In custom package you can pull any photo you want up from the film strip to fill one or more boxes that you create. In picture package you can pull a photo up from the filmstrip but only one and all photos, no matter what size, are the same one (like that school photo package many of us got in grade school).
The print mode standard is Single Image/Contact Sheet. Some of the options available in the various panels change with your choice of print mode, too, so be aware of that as you change modes.
Image Settings: In this panel you see Zoom, Rotate to Fit, Photo Border, Repeat One Photo per Page, and Inner Stroke, depending on the print mode you choose. In most cases, you will be using the Single Image/Contact Sheet mode so I'll use that print mode for an example. Let's say you want to create an 8 x 10 print and you have set your Page Settings for paper size to US Letter Size, which would provide your print with a margin around it. In image size the print may fill the entire 8 x 10 size or it may not, depending upon its digital size and if you cropped it in the Develop Module. If you have left the print at its original digital size it will not fit into an 8 x 10 format (it will be as long as 10" but not as wide), so you could click on the Zoom to Fill and see if that works out. If a hand appears when you click on the photo that means you can move the photo around a bit.
If you are in Custom Package you can click on Inner Stroke to control the spaces between photos. You can rotate the photo in a designated print frame grid or template by clicking on Rotate to Fit. In Repeat One Photo per Page you can fill a grid template or contact sheet with the same photo. You need to select your photos in the film strip first for template contact sheets and pull photos up from the film strip for templates with more than one photo. You can set a stroke border around your photos by clicking stroke border and setting the width and even a the color if you want that. If you click on the color and only see black or gray, click on the little rectangular box at the bottom right of the black strip and an eyedropper appears, move it up to obtain a color chart. Simply click on the color you want to choose.
On the left side you will see Preview, Template Browser, and Collections panels. On the right side you will see Layout Styles, Image Settings, Layout, Guides, Page, and Print Job panels. You will notice that the film strip is at the bottom of your print viewing screen, which allows you to print multiple photos from the same file one at a time if you choose to. It is possible to print a group of photos one after another by selecting them in Library module and then going to the Print module or using the filmstrip to mark multiple photos either with the command key to mark each one or using the Shift, holding down the beginning photo and the end photo.
You will see a button for Page Settings and Print Settings at the bottom left of the screen, just above the film strip. Every printer is different so it would be difficult to go into specifics about printers. In general, set the Page Setup as needed for your specific printer and the paper size you are printing on. Note this is paper size, not print size as that may be different. You can also set Orientation, but you can change that as needed, too, in the Library Module by clicking on one of the arrows at the bottom corner of the photo. I'd leave scale at 100% to ensure everything prints as you expect. In Print Settings you set the printer setting for the type of paper you will use; if you do not do this it will not print as you expected.
I will not be addressing the Identity Plate or Watermarking option in the Page panel in this article.
The Left Side Panels
Preview: In Preview the box at the top mirrors the set printing size that you see in the print window and the templates below the window if you run the mouse pointer over a template.
Template Browser: There are two types of Templates in the Template Browser, LR templates and user-defined templates. To create a user defined template, with a photo selected for printing, set up your printing options, then click on the + sign in the Template Browser and name the template and click on Create. This creates a new template with those specific instructions in the User Templates at the bottom of the Template Browser panel.
Collections: This is the same window that you see in the Library section, where all of your collections are displayed. See Working in the Library Module for more on Collections.
The Right Side Panels
Layout Style: You have three choices here, the Single Image/Contact Sheet, Picture Package, and Custom Package (Custom Package and the Cells panel work together). From the Apple manual, "Single Image/Contact Sheet layouts let you print one or more photos at the same size. Picture Package layouts let you print one photo in various sizes. Custom Package layouts let you print more than one photo at more than one size." If you working in the film strip you will find that each option acts differently. For example, in Single Image/Contact sheet you cannot pull a photo up from the filmstrip to print it. But, you can move through the filmstrip until you find the photo you want to print and as you move from photo to photo it shows up in the viewer window. In custom package you can pull any photo you want up from the film strip to fill one or more boxes that you create. In picture package you can pull a photo up from the filmstrip but only one and all photos, no matter what size, are the same one (like that school photo package many of us got in grade school).
The print mode standard is Single Image/Contact Sheet. Some of the options available in the various panels change with your choice of print mode, too, so be aware of that as you change modes.
Image Settings: In this panel you see Zoom, Rotate to Fit, Photo Border, Repeat One Photo per Page, and Inner Stroke, depending on the print mode you choose. In most cases, you will be using the Single Image/Contact Sheet mode so I'll use that print mode for an example. Let's say you want to create an 8 x 10 print and you have set your Page Settings for paper size to US Letter Size, which would provide your print with a margin around it. In image size the print may fill the entire 8 x 10 size or it may not, depending upon its digital size and if you cropped it in the Develop Module. If you have left the print at its original digital size it will not fit into an 8 x 10 format (it will be as long as 10" but not as wide), so you could click on the Zoom to Fill and see if that works out. If a hand appears when you click on the photo that means you can move the photo around a bit.
If you are in Custom Package you can click on Inner Stroke to control the spaces between photos. You can rotate the photo in a designated print frame grid or template by clicking on Rotate to Fit. In Repeat One Photo per Page you can fill a grid template or contact sheet with the same photo. You need to select your photos in the film strip first for template contact sheets and pull photos up from the film strip for templates with more than one photo. You can set a stroke border around your photos by clicking stroke border and setting the width and even a the color if you want that. If you click on the color and only see black or gray, click on the little rectangular box at the bottom right of the black strip and an eyedropper appears, move it up to obtain a color chart. Simply click on the color you want to choose.
Print created in the Custom print option and exported in the print panel.
Page: In this panel you can a page background color, which would act like a colored mat when printed; just click on the box next to the Page Background Color and then select a color from the box. If you click on the color and only see black or gray, click on the little rectangular box at the bottom right of the black strip and move the eyedropper up to obtain colors. If you click on Page Options you can include page numbers, photo info, and crop marks. Photo Info allows you several options to choose from, including file name: this comes in handy when you are printing a contact sheet or several photos and you might need to refer back to the photos on your computer. You can choose a font size for text printed using the Photo Info, Font size option.
Print Job: In this panel you make some critical decisions that affect the overall quality of your print, including resolution, bit output, and color management.
There is one choice that does not involve a printed piece, but which does allow you to print the photo as a JPEG. At the top, just under Print Job, is a line of text that says Print to: Printer and has two up/down arrows next to the word Printer. If you click on the arrows you will see that there is an option to print to a JPEG file. What I have learned in using this is the file size saved to a JPEG file depends upon the size of the paper you choose. So, smaller paper equals smaller file size and larger paper equals a larger file size. This can be used to save just one print in a specific size that contains a border or specific file information from the Photo Info option. I use this when I've formatted several photos using the Custom Package option and want to send them out in the formatted option via email. I always set the File Resolution to 72ppi for web use, ppi stands for pixels per inch, not to be confused with the printing term associated with non-digital printing, dpi, which is dots per inch. You also have an option to print at a certain file dimension when you print to JPEG. If you are using this option to render a file to send to an outside printer ask your printer what settings you should choose as they would be different than what I use for the web.
Draft Mode: This is simply a draft of your print that, when printing, does use as much ink. The print will be of lesser quality than a normal print. Use this for contact sheets, too. During Draft Mode printing the printer handles color management.
File Resolution: File resolution affects the overall quality of your photo and for most printing purposes should be set from 240 to 300 ppi. This will provide you with a correctly printed quality image (assuming other options are set correctly). If you print a large print, something closer to a traditional poster size, you can use a lower resolution, even as low as 150 ppi. You will notice if you click on the box next to ppi it offers no options, you need to set the resolution based on your expectations for the print. I recommend setting it to 300 ppi for prints from 4 x 6 inches to 12 x 18 inches or even somewhat larger. The Adobe Lightroom manual states that "240ppi provides a high enough resolution for a quality print." If you want to use the native resolution of the print (but not lower than 72ppi or higher than 720ppi per Adobe) then deselect the print resolution box.
Print Sharpening: If you click on this box there are three options. This sharpening is different than the sharpening you applied in the Basic Panel. You should choose an option, Low, Standard, or High. I generally leave it at Standard. Under Print Sharpening is a line of text that says Media Type: with options for Glossy or Matte, you set this to the type of paper you are using. Paper type is used to calculate print sharpening, according to the LR manual. If you want the quality of your JPEG photo to be high, which you most likely do, use 100%.
16 Bit Output: This box is only for Mac users using Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) or higher according to Apple. You must be printing to a 16-bit printer. Leaving the box unchecked is probably the best option as your printer will print slightly faster if it is left unchecked.
Color Management: Color Management is at the heart of the Print Job panel and helps you to obtain the quality result you want. Using the correct ICC profile, and thus letting LR handle the color management, will generally result in the best outcome. Each paper type sold on the market comes with a printer profile, although you should know that all paper companies do not create profiles for every printer. Be sure to check the companies ICC paper profile information prior to purchasing a specialized paper. I use an Epson Photo 1400 and Epson R3000 printer, so many of the Epson ICC profiles were available as an option to choose based on my choice of printer. It's always best to use a paper designed for your model of printer, so use Canon paper for Canon printers, and so on. If no profiles are installed then Managed By Printer and Other are the only options shown in the Profile area. This is on the line that says Profile: in the Print Job Panel. In that line of text you will see up/down arrows at the end: click on the arrows and choose Other. If you have ICC profiles available to you a box will pop up with those profiles listed. Click on the boxes by the profiles that you want to load into the printer panel and click OK: you should now be able to directly choose a profile when you print simply by clicking on the line of text and choosing the correct profile. I have installed ICC profiles for Epson, Red River, and Moab papers and special ICC profiles for Epson art papers. You will need to turn off color management in your print dialog box to use ICC profiles when printing. Be sure to check the Profile box each time you print to ensure a quality print and avoid the loss of paper and ink when you forget and print on the wrong profile.
When you purchase paper from Red River or Moab or any other paper company, go to their web site and download the specific printer profile for the paper you purchased. These printer profiles tell the printer how to lay the ink on that particular paper correctly. Most paper sellers now also have very good instructions on their web site about how to download these profiles and use them. Know also that ICC profiles are specific to types of paper, matte, gloss or semi-gloss. Your printer also needs to have the paper type set; this is in addition to the ICC printer profile setting.
Intent: You can choose perceptual or relative. These settings can affect the color of your print and have to do with out-of-gamut colors which I will not discuss here other than to say it is about the printer being able to re-produce colors. Leaving the option set on Relative may be the best choice for color reproduction.
Print and Contrast Adjustment: this button option was created because a lot of people complained that their prints came out too dark, darker than what they saw on their screen. This button only affects that print as it is printed and does not affect it in the Develop Module. It's a tone curve that is only applied at printing. I often have it set to plus 5% or 10%, both levers, to get a slightly brighter, crisper print. Once you set these two buttons they remain at that setting so check them each time. Adjustments do not preview on screen and you may find you do not need to use these buttons at all.
The art of printing, including color management, profiles and calibrated screens, is an expansive topic. If you have the correct paper for your printer, use an ICC color profile fitted to your specific paper, and check all the correct boxes in LR you have a pretty good chance of getting a quality print.
Print Job: In this panel you make some critical decisions that affect the overall quality of your print, including resolution, bit output, and color management.
There is one choice that does not involve a printed piece, but which does allow you to print the photo as a JPEG. At the top, just under Print Job, is a line of text that says Print to: Printer and has two up/down arrows next to the word Printer. If you click on the arrows you will see that there is an option to print to a JPEG file. What I have learned in using this is the file size saved to a JPEG file depends upon the size of the paper you choose. So, smaller paper equals smaller file size and larger paper equals a larger file size. This can be used to save just one print in a specific size that contains a border or specific file information from the Photo Info option. I use this when I've formatted several photos using the Custom Package option and want to send them out in the formatted option via email. I always set the File Resolution to 72ppi for web use, ppi stands for pixels per inch, not to be confused with the printing term associated with non-digital printing, dpi, which is dots per inch. You also have an option to print at a certain file dimension when you print to JPEG. If you are using this option to render a file to send to an outside printer ask your printer what settings you should choose as they would be different than what I use for the web.
Draft Mode: This is simply a draft of your print that, when printing, does use as much ink. The print will be of lesser quality than a normal print. Use this for contact sheets, too. During Draft Mode printing the printer handles color management.
File Resolution: File resolution affects the overall quality of your photo and for most printing purposes should be set from 240 to 300 ppi. This will provide you with a correctly printed quality image (assuming other options are set correctly). If you print a large print, something closer to a traditional poster size, you can use a lower resolution, even as low as 150 ppi. You will notice if you click on the box next to ppi it offers no options, you need to set the resolution based on your expectations for the print. I recommend setting it to 300 ppi for prints from 4 x 6 inches to 12 x 18 inches or even somewhat larger. The Adobe Lightroom manual states that "240ppi provides a high enough resolution for a quality print." If you want to use the native resolution of the print (but not lower than 72ppi or higher than 720ppi per Adobe) then deselect the print resolution box.
Print Sharpening: If you click on this box there are three options. This sharpening is different than the sharpening you applied in the Basic Panel. You should choose an option, Low, Standard, or High. I generally leave it at Standard. Under Print Sharpening is a line of text that says Media Type: with options for Glossy or Matte, you set this to the type of paper you are using. Paper type is used to calculate print sharpening, according to the LR manual. If you want the quality of your JPEG photo to be high, which you most likely do, use 100%.
16 Bit Output: This box is only for Mac users using Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) or higher according to Apple. You must be printing to a 16-bit printer. Leaving the box unchecked is probably the best option as your printer will print slightly faster if it is left unchecked.
Color Management: Color Management is at the heart of the Print Job panel and helps you to obtain the quality result you want. Using the correct ICC profile, and thus letting LR handle the color management, will generally result in the best outcome. Each paper type sold on the market comes with a printer profile, although you should know that all paper companies do not create profiles for every printer. Be sure to check the companies ICC paper profile information prior to purchasing a specialized paper. I use an Epson Photo 1400 and Epson R3000 printer, so many of the Epson ICC profiles were available as an option to choose based on my choice of printer. It's always best to use a paper designed for your model of printer, so use Canon paper for Canon printers, and so on. If no profiles are installed then Managed By Printer and Other are the only options shown in the Profile area. This is on the line that says Profile: in the Print Job Panel. In that line of text you will see up/down arrows at the end: click on the arrows and choose Other. If you have ICC profiles available to you a box will pop up with those profiles listed. Click on the boxes by the profiles that you want to load into the printer panel and click OK: you should now be able to directly choose a profile when you print simply by clicking on the line of text and choosing the correct profile. I have installed ICC profiles for Epson, Red River, and Moab papers and special ICC profiles for Epson art papers. You will need to turn off color management in your print dialog box to use ICC profiles when printing. Be sure to check the Profile box each time you print to ensure a quality print and avoid the loss of paper and ink when you forget and print on the wrong profile.
When you purchase paper from Red River or Moab or any other paper company, go to their web site and download the specific printer profile for the paper you purchased. These printer profiles tell the printer how to lay the ink on that particular paper correctly. Most paper sellers now also have very good instructions on their web site about how to download these profiles and use them. Know also that ICC profiles are specific to types of paper, matte, gloss or semi-gloss. Your printer also needs to have the paper type set; this is in addition to the ICC printer profile setting.
Intent: You can choose perceptual or relative. These settings can affect the color of your print and have to do with out-of-gamut colors which I will not discuss here other than to say it is about the printer being able to re-produce colors. Leaving the option set on Relative may be the best choice for color reproduction.
Print and Contrast Adjustment: this button option was created because a lot of people complained that their prints came out too dark, darker than what they saw on their screen. This button only affects that print as it is printed and does not affect it in the Develop Module. It's a tone curve that is only applied at printing. I often have it set to plus 5% or 10%, both levers, to get a slightly brighter, crisper print. Once you set these two buttons they remain at that setting so check them each time. Adjustments do not preview on screen and you may find you do not need to use these buttons at all.
The art of printing, including color management, profiles and calibrated screens, is an expansive topic. If you have the correct paper for your printer, use an ICC color profile fitted to your specific paper, and check all the correct boxes in LR you have a pretty good chance of getting a quality print.