Buying a photo printer.

Most photo realistic ink-jet printers are reliable, easy to use and low in price. These printers produce excellent quality prints. Developments in ink and paper quality have improved print longevity as well as the saturation and brightness of color. On top of the convenience of ink-jet printing, the quality of prints ink-jet printers can produce come close, and soon will exceed, the quality of traditional film prints.

The latest technologies enable a digital camera to be connected directly to a printer (without a computer). Some printers have built in multi memory card reader devices that support printing directly from an inserted memory card.

To ensure that a printer is compatible with a camera, attention should be paid to the following symbols:

PictBridge

This is the latest system in direct printing. Any camera and printer that bear this symbol will be compatible with each other, and can be directly connected to each other. This type of direct printing produces the fastest, high quality prints and provides extra options for print styles such as borders, paper, number of copies and cropping.

DIRECT PRINT

Any camera and printer with this symbol can be connected directly together. Prints can be made swiftly and easily.

BUBBLE JET DIRECT

Any camera and bubble jet printer with this symbol can be connected directly.

Exif Print

Exif Print (2.2) is a standard for communication between a digital camera and Exif Print compliant printer. All image data captured by a digital camera that supports Exif Print will be optimized. This produces a very high quality print.

DPOF

Digital Print Order Format (DPOF) is an extremely convenient feature for transferring or sending images via e-mail.

With the DPOF Print Settings in the digital camera’s replay menu, a direct print compatible printer will print the selected images and the number of copies as required, without being connected to a computer.
If you do not have a compatible printer, images in the memory card can be sent directly to a photo lab. Since DPOF print settings provide a function to select images, print styles and number of copies, there is no need to fill in any order forms.

Compact Photo Printer

Most of the compact printers are high quality dye-sublimation printers. They can print a variety of sizes from credit card size to 4”x6”, or even 4”x8”.
The Canon CP600 is an ultra lightweight portable printer that comes with a rechargeable battery. It is PictBridge compatible. This means prints can be produced anytime anywhere. This printer can print a 4”x6” photo in 63 seconds and weighs only 30 oz..

Ink-jet Photo Printer

At the moment, nearly all printers are either Direct Print printers or PictBridge printers. The most popular printers come with 4800x1200 or 4800x2400 dpi resolution, with at least six individual ink tanks. Print size can be as large as 13”x19”.

A number of manufacturers produce printers. The most popular brands are: Epson, Canon. Kodak and Hp. All these companies produce papers and ink as well as printers. For best results, it is recommended to use the same brand of paper and ink as your printer. Technology has shown that ink-jet prints are equal to, and can even surpass, traditional silver-halide photographic prints.

The Canon i9900 Photo Printer uses 8 individual ink tanks. This printer is PictBridge compatible. Print size ranges from 4”x6” to 13”x19”. It is capable of printing an 8”x10” print in 50 seconds. It produces gallery quality prints with a resolution of 4800x2400 dpi. The individual ink tank system helps save money and is environmental friendly, since only the empty ink tank needs to be replaced.