- The Computer
- Resolution? I Resolve to Explain...
- Digital Cameras
- Scanners
- No Camera? No Scanner?
- Printers
- CD or DVD Writer
- But I Don't Have a Computer!
- Summary—What You Need to Remember
But I Don't Have a Computer!
No computer? I might wonder why you chose this book, but here you are and let's review some options. First of all, look around your neighborhood. Schools might offer adult computing classes, which help you learn the basics of using one. Then, you can go to the local library, or to one of the cyber-cafes that seem to be springing up like mushrooms all over the place. These computers generally have a word processor and some kind of graphics program. Use them to crop and edit your photos or to print out your titles and journaling entries, or buy a half dozen CDs and save each session to a CD-ROM until you're ready to go to someplace like Kinko's to get the final prints.
Kinko's and many similar shops let you rent a computer fully equipped with a scanner and printer and the basic text and graphics programs you need for only few dollars an hour. Be careful if you work on a public machine, though. Some might be infected with computer viruses, and if you save an infected file and then upload it to another computer, you will spread the virus. There's a good discussion of computer viruses and how to avoid them at http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus.
Finally, as you saw previously, there are printers that work directly with a camera, using a docking interface, whereby you put the camera on the printer and pictures are transferred and printed, using a cable, or removing the little memory cards and simply inserting the cards into the printer and printing the pictures you want. This is never going to be the most satisfactory way to do it, but you have digital pictures, printed, for your pages.