It is very crucial to properly set up your home printer for printing your passport photos because it doesn’t matter how expensive or how high quality printer you are using to print your photos unless you manage to set its settings to print things as per required. Any average costly printer can print your passport/ ID photos in high quality if you set the settings right and any high tech latest can ruin your photo if you are unknown to its settings. So, let’s head ahead to some of the most used and popular home printers categories that must be sitting right in front of you ready to print your passport/ ID photos at your home. We have included some five commonly available printers’ features and its default procedures to set for your passport/ ID photo requirements.
1.Epson Printers
People having Epson branded printers at their homes, follow these specific guidelines to set up your Epson photo printer for the passport photo right away. Starting with your saved digital image, you need to open your best chosen photo in any photo editing software (like Photoshop, CS, Picasa etc.). If you don’t have such software then your computer system has default photo viewer applications so find one and open the photo through it. Now you can find printer driver settings in the following dialogue boxes. Click Print menu from File menu of your application and discover Page Setup, Layout, Mode Settings in Print dialog box. There are three levels of Mode settings viz. Automatic, PhotoEnhance, Custom. We recommend you to stick with Automatic Mode Setting for now. Although professionals in these sectors know the advanced controls and may opt to go for it.
Next there is Media Type Settings in the Print dialog box. For best results choose these defined settings but according to your paper quality and printer conditions you may go other options too.
Plain Paper, 360 DPI, A4 paper size, EPSON Photo Quality Ink Jet Printer (A4), Matte Paper-Heavyweight
To make Ink setting in Color menu, choose Color option to print in color. While choosing for quality and speed of printing, recommended to choose quality over speed for best results.
For Photo Enhance settings, choose Standard option for standard image correction. Choose Portrait for the orientation of your passport photo. Do not reduce or enlarge photo settings while printing so keep it 100% available. Select a centered printable area and you are ready to print with Epson printers.
2. Canon Printers
For people having a Canon company printers at their homes, follow these default guidelines to set up your Canon printer for the printing your passport photo. Starting with your saved digital image, you need to open your best chosen photo in any photo editing software (like Photoshop, CS, Picasa etc). If you don’t have such software then your computer system has default photo viewer applications so find one and open the photo through it. Now go to the File menu option at top head and find print or print settings menu option. Some dialogue box must pop up with Printer’s name showing Canon and its model number. This is the window where you get to set your settings. Look for printer’s status to ready state and go to properties of printer menu. Some control menus may be different according to the system architectures from time to time but these procedures are applicable in default.
Generally you should find Media Type and Paper Source status there at first. Make sure the Media Type is Plain Paper, Source as Auto Sheet and Paper Size to be A4. You shall also find Print Quality and Color Adjustment options out there nearby. Set the Print Quality to High option if you have some 4 to 6 cartridges printer with you otherwise just select Standard. Set Color Adjustment to Auto because you don’t want to mess with random colors. If you find Gray scale Print Settings, it is better to turn it off. After these default settings right, find a plain loose paper to test the first print and observe the quality. When it’s good to go, choose a fine photo paper and get ready to print your passport photo.
3.Brother Printers
In Brother branded printers, you find a printer setting tool (for Windows). This tool is mandatory for the proper settings. And it is installed with the printer drivers. With Communication settings tool, you can change printer communication settings for only one Brother Printer or many printers. With this tool, the settings can be changed over the Wireless LAN connection too.
Firstly you need to open printers folder, find Brother Printer driver and open the Printer Preferences on windows. To do this you can head to Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers > Brother Printer. This applies in Windows 7 and lower versions. For Win 8 and higher, search for Devices and Printers in the start and search window bar.
Now in the Printer Preferences, you find three options Basic, Advanced and Print Profiles tabs. You just need to focus on two tabs for default settings. Usually the default is preset but it is always better to ensure with following guidelines about the specific preferences in Basic and Print Profile tabs.
First click the Basic tab and ensure these settings. Paper Size set to the one you are using. Mostly we assume you are using a standard A4 sized photographic paper. Orientation set to portrait as it is always for the passport photos. Copies options must probably must have a dropdown box indicating number of print copies you want to output. For now set the value to 1 as a test paper. Media Type set to Plain Paper. Resolution set to 300 dpi as default for almost the entire countries passport photo but still it is better to recheck your requirements and set as it is. Set the Print Settings to Graphics for photos.
Secondly click the Print Profile tab a step to right side of the dialogue box. Now this option just helps you to save time and moreover helps you store your custom preferences for the passport photo. A single print profile would store your customized print settings for once and apply it to all the other prints accordingly when you apply it. So creating a separate print profile and saving the aforementioned print settings especially for the passport photos is a good idea to get away with the future hassles and work.
Alternatively you could also download a mobile app from Play Store called “Passport Photo ID Maker Studio” that helps you to take your passport photo, save them locally at your phone memory and makes ready for the printing via USB tethering or wireless connection over the shared printers. So a single app in your smartphone could replace three things - digital camera, laptop and these print profile settings.
