Digital Image Publishing

Printing
Web
Optical
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This section provides more detailed information on several alternatives for image publishing. Digital images can be published via several methods to maximize their utility and insure their longevity.

Print publishing should always be first choice for image preservation. New pigment-based printing technology can extend the life of printed images to 200 years. Web publishing is ideal for worldwide image distribution while publishing on optical media provides the large storage capacity necessary for distributing image collections and video data.

Photo Printing

Color Printers

High resolution photo inkjet printers can produce images that are indistinguishable from their conventional photographic counterparts.

Epson offers a range of near photo quality inkjet printers that are ideal for printing and preserving digital images. The epson stylus photo line offers 2,880 x 1440 dpi resolution. Most use a quick-drying six-color ink palette to produce detailed prints. Images printed with special Epson ink and paper have a life of 25 years.

High-end Epson photo printers use pigment-based ink to produce archival quality images with a life of up to 200 years. They are capable of printing borderless, edge-to-edge photos on a maximum of 13-by-44-inch paper with a resolution of 2,880 x 1,440 dpi for black and color.

Photo Services

Several online photo services offer quick turnaround for digital prints. Kodak EasyShare Gallery, is Kodak's online photo service, Wal-Mart's service is available on the Walmart.com site.

Web Publishing

Many applications, e.g. Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Adobe Phototshop Album, and Picasa can generate static hypertext markup language (HTML) files that can be displayed on the web. This capability can be used to create content for a personal site.

Online photo management and sharing sites such as Flickr offer a range of services in addition to basic publishing.

Optical Disk Publishing

Optical media such as CD-R and writeable dvd are the preferred alternative for distribution of large image collections and video data. Writeable DVD disks are gradually replacing CD-R. They are the same physical size as CD's but with a higher data transfer rate and storage capacity. They can also store audio and computer data and will eventually replace the videotape, audio CD, and CD-ROM.

Slide Show Creation

Image managers such as Photoshop Album, IMatch and Picasa have the ability to create self-contained slide shows for CD or DVD.

DVD Creation

Windows XP is bundled with Windows Movie Maker, a basic video editor that lacks DVD writing capability. Commercial applications, such as the highly-rated entry-level DVD creation application, Sony Vegas Movie Studio offers additional features.