There are a ton of different digital cameras on the market right now and it seems these days there are almost as many printers. The stiff competition among brands inspired PictBridge. PictBridge is a single printing format shared by a large number of major camera and printer makers. Basically, it provides you with the easiest way to print out your digital pictures.
For example, if you own a Canon camera and your HP printer speaks PictBridge, you can print pictures in a single step. All you have to do is plug one side of a standard USB cable into your camera and plug the other end into your printer. In most cases your camera will immediately recognize it’s connected to a printer and ask if you want to print. Then, you just have to press the print button on your camera, and out come the pictures.
Humor me while I plug Canon in yet another blog, but truth be told, the company makes over 90 printers that speak PictBridge. And virtually every major printer manufacturer makes a PictBridge printer. Keep in mind if the word PictBridge or Direct Print is on the box, your camera will speak directly to your printer, regardless of the brand.
THE CARD READER
This handy device is especially helpful when you just want to move your pictures directly onto your computer without using cables.
Take a look at your camera. It should have a little slot for a memory card, often called an SD card. SD cards are about the size of a postage stamp, and they can store up to 8 gigabytes of information, or a few thousand low-resolution pictures. The benefits of having SD cards is that they are more durable than traditional storage media, like hard drives. For example, studies show SD cards can be dropped from about 10 feet without damaging them, while hard drives break if dropped from more than 12 inches. What’s more, SD cards are readily available at just about every retail store and they are not that expensive. Typically, a 2GB card, which stores thousands of pictures, will run you about $35.
To transfer your pictures from your camera, just pop out the SD card and slide it into a card reader. (A bonus to this method is that you save battery life because your camera is never on when you download photos.) The card reader slides into the USB slot or “port” on your laptop. The computer will let you know when it sees it by flashing an image that looks like the card reader on your desktop. All you have to do then is click on the icon and you’ll see your pictures. The last step is to drag the pictures you want onto your computer. Simple and effective.
Related Articles:
Digital Photography 101: The Pros and Cons of Ultracompact Cameras
Digital Photography 101: Ready, Set, Shoot
Digital Photography 101: Photo Sharing
Digital Photography 101: Printing Footnotes
Digital Photography 101: More Printing Options
Digital Photography 101: Printing Your Pictures
Digital Photography 101: Picking The Perfect Camera
Digital Photography 101: Getting To Know Your Camera
Digital Photography 101: An Introduction
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