AZ Printing

There are many ways to print photos. For example you could download thephotos to your computer choose the ones you like burn them on a CD and takethem to a printing service. DPOF makes such photo printing easier – here ishow.

DPOF is a standard that was introduced by a consortium of camera and printermanufacturers. The goal of DPOF was the make photo printing easier andfaster.

DPOF stands for Digital Print Order Format. The goal behind DPOF was to makethe process of choosing which photos to print and printing them much easier andfaster. If your camera supports DPOF then you can choose the photos you wouldlike to print and the number of copies directly on your digital camera. Thisdata is also known as the print order and is saved in the cameras memory card(the same memory card where photos are saved) in special files. Later on youcan take the memory card with the photos and the DPOF data to any printingservice that supports DPOF and it would automatically print the photos based onthe DPOF print order data. Alternatively you could plug the memory card to aphoto printer that supports DPOF and print all the photos that you chose with asingle push of a button.

DPOF can do much more than just specify which photos to print and in howmany copies. You can also specify additional information such as a photo titletext, photo orientation, print paper size and more. Other useful informationcan be added: your contact information and your camera settings when taking thephoto. All that information can make printing easier – for example you can dropoff a memory card with any printing service and they can know exactly whichphotos to print, in how many copies on what paper sizes and in whatorientation. They also have your contact information where they can reach youwhen the prints are ready or if there is any problem.

Not all cameras support DPOF and the ones that do support DPOF vary in theirlevel of support. For example the simplest support would be for choosing whichphotos to print and in how many copies while more advanced support would be forenabling other data such as title photo title text, paper size, contactinformation and more.

DPOF was extended to support more than photo printing. Examples of newfeatures enabled by DPOF: you can choose photos to be emailed as fileattachment. The usage is very similar to choosing which photos to print butinstead of printing the photos when you plug your memory card to your computerspecial software reads the DPOF data and emails the photos you have selected tothe designated email addresses. Another feature is slide show or photoprojection: the photos you choose can be replayed as a slide show on a computeror be projected using a photo projector. For example you could plug the memorycard to a projector that supports DPOF and with one click play the slide showof your choice.

Some PC software allows you to define any custom action to be executed onthe DPOF data. For example the software can be told to “copy all chosen photosto the hard disk and discard the others” or to “print all chosen photos, copythem to the hard disk and then create a backup of them on a CD” – this is agreat way to automate some photo processes and can save time.

DPOF is not a must have feature but a good option if you want to save sometime and make photo printing easier. Many cameras support DPOF but most usersare not aware of it and are not using it. Check if your camera supports DPOFand learn how to use it to your benefit.

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