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Photo printers are essential for one of photographer’s most important activities: printing digital photographs. But how to choose the best photo printer for you? This article lists the different types of photo printers available. Printing Supplies One of the most important factors when choosing a printer is the type of printing supplies. The price is not the only factor to consider, choosing the right paper and ink cartridges will also help you to print the photos at the best quality. The paper and the ink that will be used to print the photos and how the price of these supplies adds up in the long-term is important. While ink cartridges made by a company other than the printer manufacturer may cost less, they will more than likely produce lower quality prints and can also cause photos to fade faster. Photo-only Printers Many printers can also be used for documents or other jobs, but those dedicated to printing photos alone are often much more compact and offer faster printing speeds. Another advantage is the small size of this printers this makes them highly portable. Usually, the dpi tends to be low on these types of printers, but the output quality is high due to the use of thermal-dye technology that utilizes primary printing colors in several hundreds of shades, so you do not need to worry about dithering. Print size is often limited to 4x6-inches but the quality remains high, and larger models do exist but they tend to be more expensive. Inkjet printers These printers usually provide a good combination between fast printing and print-quality printing, inkjet photo printers range in price from about 40€ to around 450€. Most of these printers offer good quality output for printing standard size photos, but not all inkjet printers provide good quality output for larger photos. When looking for a printer look for a high printing resolution, good printing speed, and extra-features like connecting your digital camera directly to the printer, or allowing you to print from memory cards directly (if you need them). Many photo printers use color ink cartridges to produce black and white, which can lead to photos printed with a colored tint, so choose inkjet printers that use black or gray inks if you want to print many black and white photos. Professionals photo printers Professional photo printers can produce quality images at much larger sizes compared to consumer printers. Depending on your needs, printers accepting paper sizes from 24-inches all the way up to 60-inches wide are available, but because they are targeted towards professionals, many convenient features such as printing from your digital camera will not be available on professional printers. If you want to create large quality prints of your photos, maybe even posters, then a professional photo printer may be the
choice for you, if you can afford it, because they are expensive. Standard Printers These printers are recommended if you need to use the printer for other jobs besides photo printing. If you do not need a printer for the sole purpose of creating prints of digital photos, and would like a little more freedom with printing, this might be a good choice for you. There are many printers available, standard inkjet and laser printers, all of which can be good choices if you are not too concerned about exceptional quality or do not plan to print a lot of photos. Both standard inkjet and laser printers can provide good quality photo printing even if they are not exclusively designed for it, but make sure to choose your printer carefully because photo quality can vary a lot. |
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