This site is the online companion to my book/DVD, "The Macintosh iLife '05", published by Peachpit Press and Avondale Media. If you like this site, you'll love the book and its nearly three-hour DVD-Video disc. Learn more. Have news, tips, comments, or links? Send them along! How to contact me. Get an iLife. Get your own copy of "The Macintosh iLife '05". Patronize your local bookstore or buy from Amazon for just $23.09 (34 percent off). Learn more about the book and DVD. Find out what all the buzz is about: view samples of this beautiful book and watch QuickTime excerpts from the DVD. Upcoming Appearances June 21. Apple Store, San Francisco, 6 pm June 25. Northeast Ohio Apple Corps, 9 am July 23. iLife seminar, Santa Rosa, CA Photo gallery. I love the Flickr photo sharing service; here are some recent shots. (Newsreader users: To subscribe to my photostream, drag this link into your newsreader.)

Tips for Preserving Your Inkjet Prints

I’ve been printing a lot of photos lately. My printer is an Epson Photo Stylus 890 that I got a couple of years ago. It delivers gorgeous results, but I’m saving up for a replacement: Epson’s $1799 Stylus Pro 4000. Now that I’m shooting 5- and 8-megapixel images, I want a large-format printer, and the Stylus Pro 4000 can print a borderless 16- by 20-inch print. Sweet.

The Stylus Pro 4000 has another big advantage: it uses pigments instead of dyes, and therefore, its prints have a much longer lifespan.

If you do a lot of inkjet printing, the truth behind print permanence can be depressing. Here with more details is, well, me. Here’s an excerpt from the iPhoto section of The Macintosh iLife '04.

Preserving Your Prints
After all the effort you put into making inkjet prints, it may disappoint you to learn that they may not last long.

Many inkjet prints begin to fade within a year or two -- or faster when displayed in direct sunlight. Some printer manufacturers now offer pigment-based inks and archival papers that last for decades, but pigment-based printers are pricier than the more common dye-based printers.

If you have a dye-based printer, consider using a paper rated for longer print life. Epson's ColorLife paper, for example, has a much higher permanence rating than Epson's Premium Glossy Photo Paper.

Keep it protected. To prolong the life of any print, don't display it in direct sunlight. Frame it under glass to protect it from humidity and pollutants. (Ozone pollution, common in cities, is poison to an inkjet print.)

Drying time. Allow prints to dry for at least a few hours (preferably 24) before framing them or stacking them atop each other. For long-term storage, consider using acid-free sleeves designed for archival photo storage.

Don't skimp. Finally, avoid bargain-priced paper or ink from the local office superstore. Print preservation guru Henry Wilhelm recommends using only premium inks and papers manufactured by the same company that made your printer.

Is all this necessary for a print that will be tacked to a refrigerator for a few months and then thrown away? Of course not. But when you want prints to last, these steps can help.

To learn more about digital printing, read Mastering Digital Printing: The Photographer's and Artist's Guide to High-Quality Digital Output, by Harald Johnson.

Check Out Video and PDF Excerpts of "The Macintosh iLife '04"

It's shipping! Amazon.com is finally shipping The Macintosh iLife '04.

To celebrate, I've published some video clips and PDF excerpts from the book. Check them out and learn more about this one-of-a-kind, full-color book and two-hour instructional DVD hybrid.

If you've received the new book, drop me a note and let me know what you think of it. And stay tuned. Now that the book is out, I'll be revising and updating the rest of this site, adding a GarageBand resource page and much more.

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Really old stuff (before February 2003)

©2002-2005 by Jim Heid.