Choosing the Best Photo Printer

• the quality you are looking for;
• the size of the print;
• the quantity of images you want to print; and
• your budget

Bearing these four factors in mind, your choice of printer will fall into one of the following seven categories:

1. Prints for Home or Office


Do you want to print out your photos for hanging on the walls of your home or office? Then you need to choose a printer that can print up to A3 so that you can do your images justice. The HP Photosmart 8750 is a good choice in this range.

2. Ease of Use


Printers such as the Epson PictureMate Deluxe let you print out your photos without a computer making them extremely easy to use. This great little printer also allows you to edit your photos from the software that comes with the printer.

3. Portable

You can buy light-weight printers which print directly from a memory card or from your digital camera and which are light enough to take with you to special events such as parties, weddings, on vacation, etc. The Epson PictureMate Personal Photo Printer weighs just 5.5 pounds and makes 6x4 inch prints directly from memory card or camera plus the quality is still very high for its size.

4. Family Use


The best home photo printer for your family has to produce good quality prints and also be able to do text for printing out reports, homework and so on. This kind of printer is often fairly low in price, a good example being the HP Photosmart B8550 which is currently available from Amazon.com at less than half the manufacturer's recommended price.



5. Budget Priced


If budget is your top priority then make sure you buy a printer which is going to be low cost in terms of paper and ink. Printer manufacturers make most of their money by selling their machines at a low price and making their profits on ink cartridges. An economical printer in this category is the Epson Stylus Photo R200 which gives great quality prints without costing you a fortune through future hidden costs.

6. Printing Fabric

An ink-jet printer is the best choice for all round printing of photos, graphics or text. If you want to print onto fabric then a dye sublimation printer is a better bet plus you can use a dye sublimation printer for printing your photos. Follow the link to jumps down the page for an explanation of the difference between ink jet and dye sub printers.

7. Professional Photo Printing

Professional photo printers usually offer larger size prints and although they can be expensive, it is possible to find lower priced printers in this range which would suit a serious amateur.

In a nutshell, if you know which of the above seven categories your needs fall into, choosing a photo printer becomes a much simpler affair. There are other types of printers out there, but they are not suitable for printing photographs. However, if you buy a dedicated photo printer you might like to consider one of the following for printing documents separately as it is could be more economic in the long run.

Other Types of Printers

1. LASER PRINTERS

Laser printers produces an image by scanning with a laser beam. Dry ink particles known as toner are used for the printing process. Laser printers are good for fast, high quality text printing. Initial cost of a laser printer may be quite high, around $700, but in the long run they may be cheaper especially for black-and-white documents, as the toner lasts longer than inkjet cartridges.

2. THERMAL PRINTERS

Thermal printers produce images which are black plus one other color such as red. As such, they are great for printing invoices, labels and receipts but not suitable for photographs. Thermal paper is costly so it is necessary to find a supplier who offers a good price if you buy one of these machines. Thermal printers are usually lower in price than other printers.

3. DOT MATRIX PRINTERS

Dot matrix printers are a type of computer printer and have been around a long time. The paper quality was poor and although they are still available today, by and large they have been replaced by inkjet printers. Dot matrix printers are still used today in ATMs and cash registers. Dot matrix printers are actually quite expensive nowadays costing more than most inkjet and laser printers, however, printing costs per page are much lower.