Printers

With such a wide range of photo printers on the market today, printing at home is an even more appealing option for getting your digital images out of the camera and onto paper than it has been in the past.

Choosing the best photo printer for your needs may mean choosing more than one printer. We’ve come a long way from the one-size-fits-all office inkjets—with specialty photo printers ranging from fast and portable mini-printers for quick proofs and 4x6s to pro-quality, large-format printers for making frame-worthy display prints.

Here's a large-format inkjet photo printer (up to 13x19 inches) that offers excellent image quality, lots of control when you want it and simple operation. Producing dynamite digital photo prints quickly, the Canon PIXMA Pro9000 uses 6144 nozzles to distribute eight long-lasting dye-based Canon ChromaLife 100 inks in precise two-picoliter droplets—some 11 million of them per square inch-on a variety of Canon photo papers. The inks are in separate tanks, so when one color runs low, you need only replace that color, not an entire color ink cartridge.

I can't help but be amazed at what Epson has managed to put into a $99 (estimated street price) printer. The Stylus Photo R200 features excellent six-color printing, including tiny three-picoliter droplets, individual ink tanks, borderless printing and two USB connections (front and back) so you can connect both your desktop and laptop computers, plus direct CD printing. That's a lot of capabilities in a printer at any price.

Not too many years ago, the all-in-one printer and scanner was handy, but not particularly useful for the photo enthusiast. How that has changed! The Epson Stylus Photo RX620 is designed for some serious photo usage. Right from the start, the specs are impressive: 2,400 dpi scanning with 48-bit color, four memory card slots, a 2.5-inch color LCD for previews, 35mm slide and negative scanning, and six-color inkjet printing.

I was 12 years old when I created my first print. The small darkroom was filled with the red glow of the safelight and the strong chemical scent of fixer. I looked down at the developing tray, the liquid sloshing back and forth over the submersed white paper. Slowly, I saw it, the first hints of an emerging image. As I agitated the plastic tray, the moment I had captured with my camera came to life in front of my eyes.

When shopping for a photo printer, you'll probably consider physical dimensions, print speeds, resolution and droplet size, plus extra bells and whistles such as a built-in card reader and LCD, all of which are important. Some of these features enhance the usability of the printer, while others affect print quality.

While looking at a photograph on a camera's LCD or a large computer monitor is exciting, neither replaces the satisfaction of holding a quality print. Improvements in the stability of inks have led to inkjet printers producing archival-quality prints that resist fading for a lifetime. Enhanced ink-delivery systems have meant smaller and smaller ink droplets, creating seamless transitions of color and tone that are virtually indiscernible. And whether you enjoy processing your images first or prefer making prints fast and easy, printers feature advanced color management for optimal control and built-in software drivers for prints without a computer.

Printing on CDs with the Epson Stylus Photo R300 was quite satisfying. I enjoyed creating CDs for slideshows or a DVD of video footage and then printing a professional-looking label directly on the disc. The photo prints looked great, too, but the R300 was limited in size of prints to 8.5x11 inches. Thankfully, the Epson Stylus Photo R1800 came along. It offers quality printing up to 13x19 inches (13x44-inch panoramas), a new set of inks and even disc printing.

For more than a decade, inkjet printers have provided photographers with a relatively inexpensive way to produce high-quality prints at home. The speed and convenience of being able to print your own images at your desktop, whenever you want, along with the control that doing it yourself offers, makes home printing well worth the investment in a printer, ink and paper.