Inkjet Photo Printer Buying Guide

What size are your pictures?

If you are in the market for an inkjet photo printer mainly for photos, be sure to think about the size of photo you’ll be happiest with. Inkjet photo printers that are dedicated to just photos, deliver photos sized 4x6 and 5x7. However if you want your printer to handle day to day text printing, plus deliver high quality photos, you’ll need to go full format size. The larger size inkjet photo printers deliver either 8x10, 11x14. Don’t worry though; smaller photo sizes can be printed as desired even with a large format inkjet. Just remember, larger format inkjet photo printers can print photos and graphics and text. Additionally, the larger format printers often allow for creation of picture collages.

Consider what else you’ll be printing besides photos. If you are just doing photos, it’s as easy as making a decision between the 4x6 size and 5x7 size. If you are also printing a lot of text, or only want one printer in your house, you’ll need to select a larger format inkjet photo printer. When it comes to technology, price is often top priority for most shoppers. Inkjet photo printers are inexpensive (starting at $60) and are designed for the home user, student or any user who doesn’t need to produce high-quality text. However, small upfront cost doesn’t mean a small on going cots. Consumers have learned the hard way that the lower upfront cost to purchase an inkjet printer makes a smaller wallet dent than the dent made by ongoing expensive ink cartridge replacement costs. Any way you slice it, ink isn’t cheap and is a factor for what ever you buy.

Print Quality

Inkjet photo printers print by spraying tiny dots of ink through even tinier holes onto the page. The more dots thrown per inch, the better the printout or resolution. Today, most inkjet photo printers have maximum resolutions of 4800 x 1200 dots per inch (dpi), which make it possible to print high-quality graphics and photos without having to rely on professional printers or photo labs. Many inkjet photo printers also include software that enhances photo quality by sharpening details or evening out color and tone. These enhancements can contribute to print quality as much as the printer’s resolution. In addition to dpi, how you get your images off your camera to the printer itself is another factor to consider. Printers may come with PictBridge, which allows you to bypass your computer entirely and hook your camera up to your printer or flash memory ports which accept the memory card directly from your camera. If you’re not concerned with editing your images before printing, PictBridge is a good feature to look for.

Ink Cartridge Replacement Cost

As we mentioned before, the upfront cost of your inkjet photo printer means less, in the long run, than the cost to operate it. The price you pay for ink is the best determiner of what the printer will cost you over time. Two key things to learn before you purchase any inkjet photo printer are how much replacement ink costs and how many pages each cartridge can print. Ink cartridges can cost as little as $10 (black ink only) and as much as $50 for a three-color cartridge. Usually, the less a cartridge costs, the less ink it contains. Ink cartridge page yields range anywhere from 300 to 1000, again, depending upon the primary print format (text, graphics, photos, or a combination of the three). Look for printers that accommodate separate black and color ink cartridges so that if you run out of color ink, you’re not throwing away good black ink and vice versa. Purchase ink in bulk for cost savings and familiarize yourself with your printer’s settings too—printing draft quality when that’s all you need saves money per page over the long haul.

Print Speed (or someday my prints will come)

Unless you need to print a high volume of prints at one time, speed is less of a consideration when choosing an inkjet photo printer (if you do need to print a high volume in a short period of time, you’re better off taking the images to a professional photo lab and it will cost you less in the long run). Inkjet photo printers are slower compared to laser printers, so if speed is more important than highest quality output for your non-photo jobs, you’ll want to re-examine your printing needs and evaluate monochrome and/or color laser printers. Printing speed is measured in pages per minute (ppm), but don’t be fooled by manufacturers’ claims: advertised printing speeds are faster than what users actually experience. The complexity of the print job—a black-and-white text-only versus an 8 x 10 color photo for example—is what ultimately determines printer speed.

Output Capacity

Most inkjet photo printers come with a single paper tray that holds standard 8 ½ x 11 paper. If you’ll be printing documents as well as photographs on a regular basis, consider printers that come with additional trays to hold the different papers you’ll be using. Inkjet paper trays typically hold 50-100 sheets, about the same number of prints you’ll get from the ink cartridge.

Need to know more?

• Digital Photo Tools Reviewed
  http://pcworld.about.com/od/photoprinters/Digital-Photo-Tools-Reviewed.htm
• Top 10 Ways to Save Money on Printers and Printing
  http://printscan.about.com/od/printerscannerhowtos/tp/savingmoney.htm
• Getting the Best Out of Your Inkjet
  http://www.tech2.com/india/topstuff/inkjet/getting-the-best-out-of-your-inkjet/11461/0
• PC World’s Top 10 Inkjet Printers
  http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128187-page,1/article.html
• CNET Video: Fine-tune your inkjet photo printer
  http://reviews.cnet.com/Fine_tune_your_inkjet_photo_printer_Good_paper_means_great_pics/4660-3132_7-6305698.html