Chapter 2. Displaying & Sharing Printed Photos

Ansel Adams once remarked "The negative is the score, the print is the performance". Everyone has always enjoyed great photographic performances of this kind and framed photographic prints have always been popular. In fact, the best selling photographer of all time may have been Wallace Nutting whose hand-colored early 20th century photos hung in almost every middle-class Victorian home. In the digital era, you can still frame prints for display or mount them in albums, but you needn't stop there. It's easy to use the computer to lay out illustrated books, calendars and other printed material and then print them on your own inkjet printer in full color. You can also use on-line and local services to print books of your photos and put them on t-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, calendars, cards, jewelry and cakes and cookies. You can even have them laser etched into glass, stone, and wood—giving new meaning to the terms "laser printer" and "archival materials". In this chapter we explore the many opportunities you have when you want prints from your images. Although some border on kitsch, they all offer creative opportunities for artists who can take them to the next step, or for people who just want to enjoy their images and share that enjoyment.

A large format hard bound photo album printed on paper from Red River Paper.