Printing photos using hplip and KDE
If you own a photo printer you might know the problem: printing photos in Linux/KDE is not as easy as you expect it to be and you waste a lot of expensive paper and ink with unnecessary tests. To avoid this I want to show you how to print photos or albums easily using KDE with digiKam.I do not want to cover other KDE applications or GIMP because documentation already exists at the hplip-website.
Of course this document might be useful for non-HP printers as well, but values, settings and paper size may vary.
What you need
- Install digiKam > 0.8.2
- Install lipkipi and KIPI-plugins
- Setup your printer and put photo paper in the photo tray
Step #1
First of all you need to run digiKam and make sure that the KIPI-plugins were loaded properly. Click Settings -> Configure digiKam and choose KIPI Plugins. All the KIPI-plugins should be loaded, but what you need is the KIPI Print Wizard Plugin:
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Step #2
After selecting the pictures or the album you have to launch the Print Wizard: Image -> Print Wizard.Now the wizard appears which will guide you through the printing process:
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The Wizard enables you to crop the image a little so it fits to the desired paper format. The red frame shows the printing area, you can move it with the mouse as you like it. If you have selected more than one picture you can click Next Photo to adjust the borders of the next photos as well.
Once you have cropped all photos you can continue by clicking Next.
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Step #3
Now the printer dialog pops up. Select your photo printer and click Properties.Important: Before you start printing you should always check if the settings in the Properties-dialog are correct!
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