I keep trying to get my friend to join this board, she taught classes on photo quilts and could offer all sorts of advice. There are many different ways you can do it. Quiltingshorttimer has a great way! My first stop is often my office supply store where I can use the options on their copiers.
I'm not current with the differences between laser jets and ink jets and all that. There are papers and treatments and things that can be done for the home printer, and need to be done depending on your equipment. I had great results with my color ink jet -- I typically buy what I can at the office store, better prices in general than at the fabric store. Haven't done anything fabric related with my current laser jet but it's just black and white anyway.
You can copy your picture to a film that you run through your printer and then iron that on the fabric. Caution with that is reversing your image, to make words print correctly on the fabric, they need to be backwards. There are software programs that you can use, or again, you can reverse it on a copier.
I prefer to print directly on my fabric. You can buy prepared at the quilt store for $$, but being cheap I iron my fabric onto a backing of freezer paper which I then cut to my 8.5x11 size. Run it through the printer and peel off the paper, it was just to stiffen it up through the process. I'm typically printing on solids, but I've used prints too. I mostly use these for labels.
Depending on your printer you may have a path to open out for envelopes or stiffer stock, use that if you have it.
I did a lot of things with fabric for a number of years, tie-dye, and tea dye and over dyes, and batiks and bleach cast off and all sorts of things. My advice is to always start with prewashed fabric, you want to make sure your fabric is ready to take your treatment. I use a "free" soap so no scents or softener and no dryer sheet. We have really nice water here, other people may have some specific issues with alkalinity, hardness, etc. where there may be a needed additive.
In my trying new things, I've been using wool dryer balls for the last 6 months or so and I'm loving them. They seem to keep dryer loads of fabric from tangling as badly.