Fix iPhoto 11 print quality

Hello all,
My wife scrapbooks our photos, and has recently upgraded from her old computer to a brand new MacBook Pro. She is a big fan of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", so has been using iPhoto 6 on MacOS 10.4.11 on her old computer. She now has iPhoto 11 on MacOS 10.6.8.
The problem is when she goes to print a photo, the quality is much worse than it used to be. We are using the same printer, photo ink, and photo paper as before, and printing the exact same photo, on "Best Quality", and the comparison is laughable. The overall color is dingy/yellow/darker compared to the old print.
I'm hoping that there is some setting (or multiple settings) that were introduced or the default value changed inbetween iPhoto 6 and iPhoto 11 that is causing this difference. Can anyone tell me what I can change to make it print out good photos again? Or suggest things to try?
In the print dialog box, we have already tried changing the "Color Matching" preference from "Vendor Matching" to "ColorSync (automatic)" and that didn't make a noticeable difference. We looked over the options listed under "Real Life Digital Photography", but nothing seemed to jump out at us as a likely fix, and I am reluctant to keep printing out photo ink to try each setting individually.
The other option I considered is to try to uninstall iPhoto 11 and reinstall iPhoto 6. I have verified that it should work on Snow Leopard, but I don't know if the iPhoto Library is already modified such that iPhoto 6 will not recognize it. Does anyone know, or know of any other problems with going this route?
Thank you for any help you can give.
-Joe

but I don't know if the iPhoto Library is already modified such that iPhoto 6 will not recognize it.
It is. You will need a version of the Library in v6 format for that to work.
And it still might not... As well as jumping 4 versions of iPhoto you've also jumped 2 versions of the OS and there have been changes there too - not least in the Printer Drivers.
What printer do you have?
Regards
TD

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How can I change the print quality when printing photos through iphoto on my iMac? I am running OSX 10.7.2 I have installed my printer with the latest downloaded drivers etc. The printer is a HP photosmart 5510. I have gone into system preferences, then print and scan. From here I can see my printer but can't see anyway of changing the print quality. Similarly, if I go into print settings via iPhoto I have the same problem. I have been able to change the quality in Safari but can't see how to create a default setting for photo printing at the highest quality

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One way of assuring high quality would be to export the photo to the desktop (at highest quality) and then print from there.
In my own case, I find that when I occasionally print a photo from iPhoto, the quality is quite good.
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when ordering books, is there a print quality difference between using iPhoto and Aperture? or are they sent to the same lab?
it's possible i may have some setting wrong, but when i order a book using iphoto, i never really feel the quality is that great. it's good, i just feel it could be a lot better. the print quality sort of reminds me of newsprint, albeit high quality newsprint. similar sized prints made at home on my basic 3-in-1 printer look better.
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Previews are what you view on your display. When you import a photo into Aperture (and I'm pretty sure iPhoto as well), your computer automatically generates a preview for quick viewing. The original images are stored in your library, but it is the preview that you see.
In Aperture, you are able to set the size and quality of these previews. When sharing photos between Aperture and iPhoto, the process is as follows:
Let's say that your images are stored in Aperture, but you also want to be able to view them in iPhoto without taking up too much room on your hard drive. Essentially, if you were to import the originals into iPhoto as well, you would be storing two exact, yet separate copies of the same image on your hard drive. As you are aware, with large images (whether JPEG's, and especially RAW) this would put quite a tax on your storage capacity after not too long.
So, you have your images in one or the other (in this case Aperture), but you want to play around with them in iPhoto. What you can do, is open iPhoto, go to the File menu and then select, Show Aperture Library. This will open a window with all of the contents of your Aperture Library. You can then drag any images you want into iPhoto . The only thing is, you are not dragging the original JPEG's, but rather, the previews of those images. If you have those previews set to a lower quality (again for capacity concerns), you will only have lower quality and lower detailed images in iPhoto. These images might not be ideal, or even suitable for printing high quality prints. The previews that you generate in Aperture though can be adjusted to be extremely high quality with no size limits.
My thinking was that since you mentioned Aperture, it sounded like you had experience with working with it and with ordering a photo book through Aperture. I guess you were saying that you ordered via iPhoto, weren't happy with the quality and were wondering if Aperture created books were better.
Anyway, if this is the case, I cannot answer that for you. I have never ordered a book through Aperture. If the quality of your images is good, you should be able to get a decent product no matter where you order it from. There is not doubt that the materials used and the print shop that does the work makes a difference, but if your images are good, you should still get a decent product through iPhoto. Perhaps iPhoto isn't the way to go though if you have had poor experiences with them.
If you haven't used Aperture yet, I would highly recommend it though aside from the photo book aspect of this thread. It is a stellar product.
I hope this helps.
Message was edited by: macorin

Are there any presets in iPhoto '11 for print quality?

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Fix iPhoto 11 print quality

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