Are you sure you have your camera set to take photos at the highest possible resolution? Are you shooting in RAW mode or JPG mode? What is the average file size of an image you are trying to print? How large are you trying to print it...5 x 7, 8 x 10?

I am shooting in jpeg. My understanding is that if I switched to RAW that I would need different software to handle the pics. The camera is advertised at having decent jpeg pics. I have the companion book for the Canon EOS, but I don't see anywhere where it discusses changing resolution on the camera itself.

I am trying to print a decent 5 x 7 picture.

I am ignorant about file sizes.

You should get great results from that camera. Are you using the Canon Easy Photo Print utility? I use it with my Canon point and shoot camera and Canon ip4500 printer and get excellent results.

You need a program similar to Adobe Photoshop so that you can open your photos there and make modifications. If you have not adjusted the camera you are no doubt taking photos of 3 or more megabytes in size. However the 72 DPI (dots per inch) is totally unacceptable for printing, this seems the default DPI for all cameras so using photo editing software you can increase that to 150 or even 300 DPI.

With a PC there is a good choice of free photo editing software but not sure for Macs. Google it, there are over 2 million hits so perhaps find a couple of Mac forums and ask around. Or download and install a couple to try. There is a steep learning curve to photo editing unfortunately.

I tried to find some info on how to increase resolution but only found that the Mac sends pics in a certain dpi, but could never find out how to increase that to an acceptable resolution.

There's nothing inherent to OS X that would limit the resolution of an image. What software are you using to process your images?

I have iPhoto.

From what I have found (and been able to understand on the internet), computer screens only have 72 dpi and so that is what Mac sends photos in. If this is the case, how do professional photographers send photos over the internet?

And that to get a good quality print, you need to print at 300 to 600 dpi. But my printing program does not ask for dpi. It only asks for size of print and even then won't print that size. For instance, when I put in that I want a 5 x 7 print, it will print 4 x 7 and cut off a head in the picture as well!

I have the Canon MX870 series printer. And the manual is talking about PNG files, and I don't know what that is. I thought my camera only worked with jpeg or RAW files. I have learned that working in RAW files won't degrade the image on storing it like jpeg files do, but I would need to get new software. And this book I have says the jpeg files should be good enough for ordinary pics. And the manual is also talking about the camera needing to be a Pictbridge compatible device and I have no idea if the Canon 480 D is.

This is getting way too complicated for me. I wish I had brought my little Pentax with regular film on vacation with me.

People on another forum are advising me to upload pics to a Walgreen site and have them print them. But if the Mac only sends pics at 72 dpi, what good does that do?

And I have the camera set at the highest resolution of 12 megapixels.

Are you using the Easy PhotoPrint software to print the picture? You should be able to get studio quality photos up to 8 x 10 from that camera and printer. I'm not familiar with a Mac so can't help there, but you should be able to start Easy PhotoPrint and select the picture from wherever it is stored on your computer, select the paper then select the layout for the photo and print it.

Bob414, I don't think I am using Easy PhotoPrint. Is that something additional I have to buy?

According to this page it came with your printer. It should be on a cd or dvd that came with the printer.

Bob414, I found the Easy Photoprint on my hard drive. But when I try to use it I can't select pictures from iPhoto on it. When the camera uploads photos, it uploads them to iPhoto and not to the Easy Photoprint program.

I have been trying to get the Easy Photoprint program to select photos from IPhoto, but no luck. And I have not been sucessful in getting iPhoto pics into the Easy Photoprint program.

I think the Easy Photoprint program is not compatible with Mac computers.

Oh wonderful, I bought this great printer which appears to be useless to me....

I did a little searching and reading and it looks like you need to export the photo from iphoto before you can find it with easy photoprint. Can you export it to a folder or your desktop or an external drive so you can find it? It appears that iphoto stores all your photos as a single file and however it is getting the photo from the file to print it is resulting in a low resolution photo. If you export it you should be able to get the resolution you need.

Bob414, I can't thank you enough! I exported the pics from iPhoto to pictures, which the Easy Photoprint was able to access. Then I printed. The difference in the quality of the prints is very noticeable.

I never would have been able to do this without your help. I have to admit that after awhile, every time I said Easy photoprint myself, I started laughing hysterically. What a misnomer.....Hardest Photoprint Ever would be a more appropriate name after this!

Many thanks for your help.

I'm glad you got it done Barb. Computers can be frustrating.