printers

which is the bst printer to have for printing photos

On 12 Oct 2004 05:59:59 -0700, nick_sutton4@hotmail.com (nick) wrote:

>>>which is the bst printer to have for printing photos

The one at the Kodak labs?? Seriously, what a highly subjective
question!

--
The Seabat

Some of the same questions come up as for the person asking for the best
home document printer, although your question is more specific.


First a few questions:

How many you need of each copy (1 of each, dozens, hundreds?)

How long you need them to last (a few months, a few years, permanently)
and how they might be used or displayed.

If cost is a main factor (cost of equipment and cost of consumables)

If speed is a main factor

Art


Then a few answers. The most commonly used color printing methods for
photographic results are:

Inkjet printers
Dye Sublimation printers

Lower quality but usually faster and less costly per unit image:

Color laser
Solid ink


In general most home photo printers use inkjet technologies. This
includes offerings mainly from Canon, HP, Epson, Lexmark and some other
companies selling these manufacturer's products under different names,
like Dell, Kodak, etc.

Canon, HP and Epson all offer a variety of printers which range from
about $100 up to about $1000 in carriage widths from 4" up to about 13".
More costly professional machines go even larger. Those three brands
all have advantages and disadvantages, in terms of ink permanence, water
resistant prints, speed, cost of consumables, etc. Personally, I have
found the least happiness with Lexmark, mainly in terms of the build of
the machines, and the ease of interfacing and using their drivers. They
also tend toward the cheapest to purchase, but some of the more costly
to purchase ink for.

There area lot of choices of inkjet printers. Consider cost of unit,
cost of consumables, speed of printer, permanence of print output,
warranty, etc. The quality of the results tend to be fairly even these
days between Canon, HP and Epson, with slight variations in one area or
another.

Art


nick wrote:

> which is the bst printer to have for printing photos