Digital Focus: Photo Printer Secrets for the Holidays, Connecting to a Serial Port

Turn your ink jet printer into a holiday gift-making machine; connect your camera to a serial port.

Dave Johnson

Best-Kept Photo Printer Secrets

Well, maybe they're not secrets--it's not like I got this list from a Navy Seal or the British Secret Service. But few people consider all the things you can do with a printer. Think about it: If your image editing software is your digital darkroom, then your $150 ink jet printer is like a full-featured printing service right in your den.

With the holidays fast approaching, you can turn all that desktop technology into a powerful ally as you plan gifts and parties over the next several weeks.

Enlargements as Gifts

Grandparents love big prints, and that's exactly what your printer does best. Make prints as large as 13 by 19 inches with a wide-format ink jet, or 8 by 10 inches with a standard printer. Be sure to use premium glossy photo paper and mount the finished print behind glass or plastic to protect it from fading. (Note that pigment-based inks are less subject to fading than dye-based inks.) If you have access to a beloved but scratched picture, you can scan the image, digitally repair the defect, and print a new and improved copy. That's a gift anyone would appreciate. And be sure to review my earlier newsletter about making enlargements.

Print Gift Bags

Holiday parties are fast approaching. Give your next get-together a unique look with gift bags personalized with pictures, text, and graphics. You can use the Printscape Personalized Gift Bag Kit from 3M. This package includes the software, paper, and instructions needed to print and assemble small paper gift bags, all for $10.99.

Print Holiday Cards

Armed with a greeting card design program such as Microsoft Greetings, you can make your own personalized holiday cards in a variety of sizes. The $24.95 program includes thousands of card templates that you can personalize and print on special greeting card paper available at any office supply or computer store.

Kids Love Magnets

Thought your printer could only print on ordinary paper? Well, you're wrong. Office supply and computer stores sell magnet kits such as Canon's $9.99 Magnet Sheets that let you print your own designs onto magnetic backings. In minutes, you can make classic refrigerator magnets, magnetic picture frames, and other graphical gadgets. And kids love them.

Create T-Shirts

T-shirts and gift-giving go together like wine and cheese or TV and popcorn. But now you can make your own. T-shirt transfer paper for ink jet printers--found in office supply stores--can be used to make any kind of wearable design, including sports uniforms. You can use a specialized program such as Hanes $29.95 T-Shirt Maker, or do it yourself in any image editing program, but you need to remember to flip your design into a mirror image before printing it on the transfer paper.

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Mini Review: World Trade Center Photo Sites

Until recently, I've avoided writing anything about the tragedy that occurred on September 11; for me, it is still far too painful. Even now, many weeks later, I feel an almost overwhelming sense of despair when I think about the loss of life that occurred that day.

Though I no longer live anywhere near the East Coast, I grew up in Jersey City, right in the shadow of the World Trade Center. I genuinely loved those gorgeous buildings, and I feel a tangible sense of loss knowing that my children will never know the thrill of standing on their observation deck.

That's why I went looking for some Web sites that celebrate the engineering marvel that was once the World Trade Center. If you never had the opportunity to see the towers for yourself, please visit these sites, look at the photography, and share in some of the pride of what we humans managed to achieve right on the edge of Manhattan Island.

Reader David Fales of Norwalk, Connecticut, recently submitted this excellent image for a Hot Pic of the Week. While it didn't win, I wanted to share this beautiful picture with all of you nonetheless.

Q&A: Decrypting Old Serial Connections

I just bought a Fujifilm DX-7, and I have a Pentium II-based computer that has two serial ports. One is used by the mouse, and the other one is larger--it has 25 pins. Can I use that for the digital camera? How? The cable only fits the mouse port.

-- Len Coburn, Fort Collin, Colorado

This is exactly why I am so glad that old-fashioned serial ports are virtually a thing of the past, largely replaced by USB. Most PCs have a pair of serial ports, also called COM ports. COM1 is usually a small, 9-pin port and is sometimes used by the mouse, especially on old PCs. The larger, 25-pin serial port is usually called COM2.

I'm surprised to hear that your Pentium II uses a serial mouse--my advice is to throw away the serial mouse and plug a new mouse into the empty PS/2 port. (PS/2 ports are round, 6-pin connectors used by most modern mice and keyboards--those that don't use a USB connection.) If you do that, plug the camera into COM1 and you're done.

If you want to stick with your existing serial mouse, run to a local computer shop and buy a 9-pin to 25-pin serial adapter. That'll let you plug the camera's serial cable into COM2.

Send your questions to question@bydavejohnson.com, and please be sure to let me know where you're from.

Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $10 and $100.

A gentle reminder, folks: We're disqualifying some really wonderful pictures every week because the submissions aren't following the rules. Be sure to include everything we ask for in the e-mail message, or your entry is wasted!

Here's how to enter:

Send us your photograph in JPG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels, to hotpic@pcworld.com. Entries at higher resolutions will be disqualified immediately. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo, along with a short description of the photo and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering please read the full description of the contest rules and regs.

This Week's Hot Pic:

Mantis by Stacy Niedzwiecki, Rockford, Michigan

Stacy says:

"I purchased an Olympus C-3040 about a month ago, and I was waiting for an opportunity to try the macro feature. I was in luck when I discovered a large praying mantis in my backyard! I really didn't do anything special with the settings, other than to use the macro feature to get in nice and close. I was amazed at the results. The mantis resembles some type of prehistoric creature, busy inspecting my 'camera of the future.'"