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Buying a Photo Printer

Author: Michael Stollery

Article:
As more and more of us have turned to digital photography there
has been a huge surge in demand for printers that can deliver
photo print quality reproduction that we have been used to with
a developer shop. With the development of improved technology
delivering a wider range of printing options you will find a
bedazzling array of photo quality printers to choose from so
here we shall give you some sound advice as to what you should
be looking for in a new photo printer.

Compact Photo Printers

These are portable and will connect directly to your digital
camera or PC as well as having a slot for the memory card to be
directly inserted into them and allow download and printing of
the photos directly.

A drawback is that they are limited in what they can produce.
The size of the photo print created is usually a lot smaller
than that of a desktop printer but they do print photo quality
prints faster.

Check the compatibility between the photo printer and your
camera to ensure they will operate together properly.

Desktop Photo Printers

These printers are capable of stand alone operation or work in
conjunction with your computer. They tend to provide a wider
range of print size options as well as they are larger and tend
to offer more paper handling options than their compact
brothers. You will find that they are more expensive but for the
extra you get higher printing resolution and a faster operation
speed than a regular desktop printer. Indeed, it is not unusual
to find that they have all the functional capabilities of a
regular desktop printer.

What is DPI?

DPI or dots-per-inch is the measure of a printers resolution
capability with a higher dpi meaning that there are more dots,
smaller in size and giving an image that is sharper as it is
more difficult to distinguish between the individual dots than
with a printer that has a lower dpi. For photo print quality you
will be looking for a dpi of 600 while typically a printer will
offer a dpi of anything between 300 and 3500 dpi. Aside from
dpi, the other factor you need to consider in producing good
quality reproduction prints is the quality of the paper that you
use and the number of colors the printer is using.

Color Management

Usually you will see a photo printer using three to six color
combinations to reproduce color prints. The more colors that the
printer is using the better the finished article as you tend to
get a blurring or fogging of darker colors if you use three
colors only. More color cartridges however means more expense as
a rule, so keep an eye on the cost of these consumables when you
are looking at buying a photo printer.

Printer Type

You have a general choice from two types of printer that are
differentiated by how they apply the ink to the paper. Laser
printers use heat to force the ink through the print head and
onto the paper but they produce dots of differing sizes which in
turn leads to a less sharp image being reproduced. An ink jet
printer will spray the ink onto the paper in a gradual series of
layers that results in a uniform dot size and a much sharper
image being reproduced. You will tend to find that the better
quality photo printers use ink jet technology though laser
printers are improving a great deal.

About the author:
Our company http://www.easyinkz.co.uk is a leading expert in printer ink A full range of our product can be found at http://www.easyinkz.co.uk where we supply cartridges for Epson, Lexmark, Canon and HP inkjet
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