DPOF is a standard that was introduced by a consortium of photography equipment and printer manufacturers. DPOF was built the make photo printing easier and faster.

DPOF stands for Digital Print Order Format. The goal behind DPOF is to make the process of choosing which photos to print and printing them much easier and faster. If your digital camera has DPOF then you can choose the photos you would like to print and the number of copies directly on your digital camera. This information is also known as the print order and is saved in the cameras memory card in special files. Later on you can take the memory card with the photos and the DPOF data to any printing service that supports DPOF and it would automatically print the photos based on the DPOF print order data. Another option is for you could plug the memory card to a photo printer that supports DPOF and print all the photos that you chose with a single push of a button.

DPOF is capable of doing much more than just specify which photos to print and in how many copies. You can also specify additional information such as a photo title text, photo orientation, print paper size and more. Other useful information can be added: your contact information phone number and your camera settings when taking the photo. All that information can make printing easier ? for example you can drop off a memory card with any printing service and they can know exactly which photos to print, in how many copies on what paper sizes and in what orientation. They also have your contact information where they can reach you when the prints are ready or if there is any problem.

Not all digital cameras support DPOF and the ones that do support DPOF vary in their level of support. For example the smallest support would be for choosing which photos to print and in how many copies while more elaborate support would be for enabling other data such as title photo title text, paper size, contact information and more.

DPOF was extended to support more than digital photo printing. Examples of new features enabled by DPOF: you can choose photos to be emailed as file attachment. The usage is very similar to choosing which photos to print but instead of printing the photos when you plug your memory card to your computer special software reads the DPOF data and emails the photos you have selected to the designated email addresses.

DPOF is not a must have feature but a good option if you want to save some time and make photo printing easier. Many digital cameras support DPOF but most photographers do not known of it and are not using it. Check if your camera supports DPOF and learn how to use it to your benefit.