Printing and exporting
Before printing, check three things: the screen's brightness, how the print will look on paper, and whether the photo has enough pixels. Then make a test strip to confirm the exposure on paper.
1. Check your screen brightness
Most screens are much brighter than paper, so prints come out dark. Click Brightness check under the photo (on iPhone: View → Brightness Check) and follow its steps: if you can't see every dark grey step, or the darkest look too bright, adjust the screen first.
2. Preview the print on paper (soft proofing)
Use the Screen menu under the photo:
- Gloss, Lustre or Matte paper show the paper's real white and the deepest black ink can make. The surround turns white, as on a print.
- Load ICC profile… uses your printer and paper's own profile (from the paper maker's website) for an accurate preview. Perceptual squeezes all colours into the printer's range; Relative keeps colours that fit exactly.
- Gamut warning turns grey any colours the printer and paper can't reproduce.
Proof versions: correcting for the paper
Paper can't show what a screen can, so a print often needs small corrections. Make them in a proof version of the photo, so the Original stays as it is for screens. Proofs are marked everywhere with an amber PROOF tag.
- In the Version menu under the photo, choose New proof version for… and a paper (or Printer profile (ICC)… to load your printer and paper's profile).
- The view splits: ORIGINAL · screen on the left, PROOF · paper on the right, showing how it prints. The Edit panel shows the same amber tag.
- Use the sliders as usual (often Exposure, Darks, Blacks or Saturation) until the proof on the right matches the Original on the left.
- Export with Version: Proof · paper.
Switch versions in the same menu, or with Back to Original in the Edit panel. A photo can have a proof for each paper; library thumbnails show the PROOF tag. A proof keeps its corrections on top of the Original, so later changes to the Original carry through. Curves work like the sliders: change them in a proof and only the proof changes. Crop, mixer, film, masks and spots are shared by both versions. Delete This Proof removes it (Undo brings it back). Beside original under the photo shows the proof on its own or side by side.
3. Check the resolution
Under the histogram, the app shows the photo's size and how it will print at A4 (for example A4 Too small). Cropping hard reduces the pixels left. Making a photo bigger than its own pixels adds no detail.
4. Make an exposure test strip
A test strip shows how the photo really prints, whatever the screen's brightness, just like a darkroom test strip.
- Select the photo and press ⌘E (Export).
- Under Size, choose Exposure test strip · 297 × 105 mm.
- Choose what each patch shows: Same area (the same part of the photo five times, best for comparing) or Bands (one wide slice cut into five, like a darkroom strip).
- Choose the Step between patches: ½ stop (usual), ⅓ stop or 1 stop.
- Use the Area sliders to pick the important part of the photo, such as a face. The preview shows the strip.
- Export, then print at 100% (actual size), with no "fit to page".
The strip has five patches: −1, −½, 0 (as edited), +½ and +1 stop. Choose the patch that looks right on paper, then change Exposure in the Light section by that amount. For example, if +½ looks best, add 0.5 to Exposure.
Exporting
Press ⌘E (or the export button at the top right). Choose the photos, then:
| Setting | Choices |
|---|---|
| Version | Original, or a Proof for a paper (shown when the photos have one). |
| Size | As edited; A4 print or A3 print at 300 dpi, with each photo's own border from Crop → Border (no border: edge to edge); Long edge, Short edge, Width or Height in pixels, cm or inches; Megapixels; Exposure test strip (above). |
| Resolution | 72 ppi · Screen for screens and the web, or 300 ppi · Print for printing. Saved in the file. Not shown for A4, A3 and test strips, which are always 300. |
| Sharpen for | Auto (glossy for A4, A3 and test strips; screen otherwise), None, Screen, Matte or Glossy / lustre, with an Amount of Low, Std or High. |
| Format | JPEG (with Quality) or PNG (lossless). |
| Save to | On iPhone and iPad, Share sheet (the usual choice): when the export is ready, tap Share…, then Save Image to put the photos in Photos, or AirDrop, Messages or Save to Files. Downloads (the usual choice on a computer; several photos come as a .zip) or Choose where… (Chrome and Edge, including on Windows), which opens the usual Save As window so you can save to the Desktop, Documents, a USB stick or anywhere else. Several photos save as one .zip. |
Output sharpening is a final sharpen at the exported size, like Lightroom's. Prints need it because ink spreads into the paper, matte most of all; screens need only a touch. Only edges are sharpened: film grain, noise and smooth areas such as skin and skies are left alone, so they don't print gritty. Edges look slightly crisp on screen, which is right. If a test print still looks too sharp, choose Low (or None). It is separate from the Sharpening slider in Detail, which sharpens the photo itself.
Long edge and Short edge let you export portrait and landscape photos in one batch: every photo's long (or short) side becomes the same number of pixels. Width or Height fixes that side whatever the shape (useful for a website column). Megapixels makes every photo about the same total size, for example 12 MP, whatever its shape. Photos smaller than the target are left at full size unless you tick Enlarge smaller photos.
Resolution (ppi) doesn't change the pixels; it tells printers and programs like Photoshop how big to print them. At 300 ppi a 3000 px edge prints 25.4 cm; at 72 ppi the same file claims to be over a metre. To export for a print size, choose Long edge (or another side) in cm or in, and the Resolution sets the pixels: 20 cm at 300 ppi is 2362 px.
Exported files are sRGB with the profile embedded, so printers and other apps show the colours correctly. Hidden sections and hidden masks are left out.