Color Photo Printer

Exploring 4×6 Photo Printers. Is Portable 4×6 Color Printing For Me?

info — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:30:14 +0000

In this day and age, digital photography has become one of the most popular hobbies that benefits from the advancements in computer, photo and printing technologies. One of the most exciting accomplishments in recent years is the introduction of the color 4×6 photo printer. These impressive gadgets are generally portable, lightweight and able to produce a 4×6 color photograph in as fast as 45 seconds. What makes the most intriguing though, is the fact that the newer models can be operated standalone, without the need to be connected to a computer.

Just simply attach your digital camera or insert Smart Media, a USB stick, or any of the other memory devices that the printer has the ability to read images from. Additionally, these latest 4×6 photo printers are able to connect to a camera enabled cell phone via Bluetooth technology. Generally the printer comes equipped with a color liquid crystal display (LCD) that will allow the photographer to view the images before printing them. There are also several built-in image editing functions that will allow you to do things like crop, eliminate red eye and print the photos border free.

The price range for a dedicated 4×6 photo printer ranges from approximately $50 for a low range basic model to $400, which will land you a full function color photo printing device. Evidence has shown that it’s the mid range units, about $150 to $200, that have the most popularity as they combine the portability and functionality as well.

The popularity of these photo creating gadgets seems to be their portability and ability to create stunning, impressive 4×6 photographs for people while on vacation wanting to see their photographs immediately. Since there’s no need for a computer to print the pictures many people have included their 4×6 photo printer as one of the items to pack when planning their trip. The sleek, lightweight design and also easy to use carrying handle makes it as simple as including your notebook computer when packing.

Another big advantage of the 4×6 photo printer is a cost savings realized when printing your own photographs as opposed to having them reproduced by a photo lab. It seems that the days of dropping off film or a memory device at the photo processing lab is becoming a thing of the past. Many people are opting to simply make their own prints and immediately start enjoying them. Next time you plan a vacation you might want to add your portable 4×6 photo printer to the itinerary.

Printing Photographs In The A3 Size. Do I Need An A3 Photo Printer?

info — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:19:26 +0000

For those wanting to elevate their digital photography hobby to a new level of professionalism, the amateur photographer may want to consider the purchase of an A3 Photo Printer. A3 refers to the size of paper that the printer can handle, 11 ¾ X 16 ½ inch in the case of A3. Despite this increased size, the A3 printer still includes all of the modern printing conveniences that mainstream color photo printers have incorporated into their design.
The major selling point for the A3 sized printing capability is the ability to create larger sized photographs than just simply an 8 ½ X 11 dimension. Another advantage to owning an A3 photo printer is the ability to print several, or multiple sized copies on one sheet of paper, much similar to how school portraits are distributed. Many amateur photographers enjoy this feature as it allows them to make different sized pictures available to give out to family and friends and also carry with them wherever they may go.
The A3 photo printers retell from an average price of $250 to approximately $600 for the inkjet style printers. The following are two examples of A3 photo printers and their corresponding prices:
Epson Stylus Photo 1400 – Low Price Range, $200. This lower-priced A3 photo printer is actually rated quite high on several tech review sites. The prints are reported to be long-lived as well as vibrant and striking color. The printer will handle several paper sizes including a three and it will also print CD and DVD labels as well.

Epson Stylus Photo R2400 – High Price Range, $600. Another great offering by Epson this A3 photo printer is on the higher end of color photo printing options. The main advantage of the more expensive printer, in this case is the 2400’s ability to print superior monochrome and black and white photos with better quality and vividness.

Generally, it’s best to have an A3 photo printer cabled directly to a computer or server as the increased image size that’s typically produced by them can be a drain on the network resources of a homeowner or small business. If an A3 photo printer is needed in larger, networked environment, then a higher-end solution might be needed to handle such intricate printing jobs.

For the amateur photographer, an A3 printer is an excellent complement to their home photography studio. Printing larger photographs in high quality, vivid resolution for hanging on the wall or displaying in photo albums are only some of the reasons for having one of these specialty color photo printers available. It may not be the best choice for all of your printing needs, but an excellent addition to your oversized photo printing needs.

Refill Ink Cartridge

info — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:49:54 +0000

Everybody gets a great deal shopping for inkjet printers. We’ve come to expect that. When the old printer stops working, off to office supply center for a new one. We’ve learned a bit about ink too. The old cartridges we bought will never fit the new printer, and the cost of replacement ink cartridges may be almost as much as the color photo printer itself.

The profit in low-end printers isn’t in the hardware; it’s in the consumables.

The best means to cost those consumable costs, refilling the ink cartridge. Standard ink cartridge refill kits cost as little as one third of the price of a new cartridge. Ink cartridge refill kits are available at office supply stores or may be purchased from vendors via the Internet. The basic steps are simple and outlined in the instructions that come with each kit, detailed tutorials and videos can be found online. Know what type of cartridge you have. Is the ink cartridge you intend to refill just a tank? Does the cartridge have a sponge head, or is the print head attached? Does the cartridge have a fill hole, or require drilling for an ink refill? Does your color printer have one, two, or four cartridges? Once you know your cartridges, wear rubber gloves, old clothes, and work over the sink. Almost anyone can refill an ink cartridge. For those who still feel daunted, take your old cartridges to an ink cartridge refill shop or mall kiosk. Swapping empty cartridges for refills can still save fifty percent of the cost of new ones.

There’s another reason why ink cartridge refill is worth considering. It isn’t just about money saved in an economy where we’re all cutting costs. It’s the green solution for a disposable product. Shouldn’t technology enhance our environment, not clutter landfills?

HP A526 Photo Printer

info — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:36:16 +0000

No need to have a PC to print your photos anymore. The HP A526 Photosmart Compact Photo Printer futures a large 4 inch LCD display. It is one of the larger screen compact photo printers in the market today. Just simply place your memory card and enjoy the easy to use navigation menus on the LCD screen to select your photos. You have the option to review your photos before easily start printing them.

You may not understand how all these wonderful futures can fit in such a small compact form but HP have managed to engineer this product to be very portable and compact. You can fit it almost any space in your office.

Another cool future that HP A526 Photosmart Compact Photo Printer offers is the ability to multitask. The waiting game is over. While the A526 is printing your photos you can use the LCD screen to browse and pick the next image to be printed. Is your pictures are on your mobile device? You don’t have the means to download them to a computer? Bluetooth technology is your friend. A526 has a built in Bluetooth technology that enables you to print your photos from any Bluetooth device wirelessly.

Lets say you were at a party where you’ve taken many great photos but unfortunately the lighting was not so picture snap friendly. Of course you ended up with red eye on one of your favorite picture of the night. Don’t worry HP A526 has the ability to remove the red eye from your photos with a touch of a button.

The need of a PC for photo printing is the thing of the old. You have the complete control over how you want to make your photos to look with no assistance from a PC.

Photos makes your memories live longer. By printing your own photos with professional lab quality futures like durability, fade resistance and high gloss at a fraction of the price and the convenience of your own space will be one of your great memories. Don’t cut edges or or trim the borders of your photos. HP A526 Photosmart Compact Photo Printer will print your most memorable moments borderless.

At the price range little over $100 the HP A526 Photo Printer is a great color photo printer for those who wants a small photo lab at their home or office for quick photo printing.

Video Review – Canon Pixma PRO 9000 Mark II

info — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:16:08 +0000

Video Review of Canon PIXMA MX860

info — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:47:54 +0000

Video Review – Canon Pixma PRO 9000 Mark II

The Top Ten Color Photo Printers For 2010

info — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:55:11 +0000

Quality Photo Printing Without The High Pricetag.
The current crop of top rated color photo printers for 2010 includes several different offerings from five of the top printer manufacturers in the industry today. This group of 10 features printers of varying styles and features and covers most of what people are looking for in a photo producing solution. The following are a listing of the 10 best-selling color photo printers’ as of January 2010:

Canon PIXMA MP560
Wireless Inkjet All-In-One Photo Printer. Canon actually has the most entries on this list as they have proven themselves to be an up-and-coming producer of printing technology. The Canon PIXMA’s most enticing feature might be its sub $100 price, a great deal for a small, but quality photo printer.

HP Photosmart D7560 Premium All-in-One Printer
Hewlett-Packard has long been a top the list of color photo printers. The HP Photosmart all-in-one printer has been a steady performer for the office machine giant. This multi-function wonder makes it to the top of our list due to its ability to please small businesses and homeowners alike.

Polaroid CZA-10011B PoGo Instant Mobile Printer
This amazing, pint-sized color photo printer is a welcomed addition to the top 10 club. Polaroid has made great strides in recent years to produce some amazing photographic and printing products. Small in size, but not on photo quality production ability makes this nifty portable printer a definite recommendation.

Canon PIXMA iP100 Mobile Photo Printer
Another admission that qualifies as a mobile color photo printer, is the Canon PIXMA IP100. Canon has definitely wrote the book on photo printers with their PIXMA series as this mobile photograph printing stalwart sets the bar for quality and speed. Price is the only issue making this portable photo printer rate lower than its Polaroid counterpart. At over $200 the average photography enthusiast might opt for the lesser priced model, but the Canon PIXMA IP100 is definitely worth the price.

Epson Artisan 50 Color Inkjet Printer
Coming in at fifth place is our first entry from Epson, The Artisan 50. This reasonably priced, ($110) color photo printer is a good bargain with its ability to produce excellent photographs and everyday printing as well. A functional printer, the Artisan 50 makes good use of ink cartridge technology to reduce the cost of ownership as much as possible.

Epson Picturemate Charm Personal Photo Lab Inkjet Printer
Another solid entry from Epson is their Picturemate Charm Personal Photo Lab. This is another portable type color photo printer that comes with a convenient carrying handle and case design that’s excellent for someone printing photographs on the go. We especially liked the built-in LCD picture viewer and the ability to print off photos in various types and sizes, like wallet, black and white and borderless.

Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Color Inkjet Wireless All-in-One Printer
Brother has long been a staple in the fax machine business. With their MFC-6490CW Professional Series all-in-one, brother has shown that they have the ability to produce a solid, mainstream photo and office printer. For the homeowner, this model makes for a great opportunity to automate a home office or just enjoy the functionality that a business type printer would offer.

Canon Selphy CP780 Silver Compact Photo Printer
Yet another entry from Canon is their Selphy CP780 model that comes in under $100 and also qualifies as a portable photo printer. The nice thing about this printer is that it takes advantage of the excellent Canon technology to make high-quality, and durable photos.

Epson R1900 Large Format Photo Printer
We round out our top 10 list of color photo printers with a couple of higher priced models that are sure to please even the most discerning photographer. The Epson R1900 Large Format Photo Printer costs around $500 and is the solution for those wanting to print high quality color photographs in a larger format. This award-winning color photo printer will produce top-notch images up to 13 inches wide.

Canon Pixma PRO9500MkII Inkjet Photo Printer
This outstanding color photo printer from Canon is actually a professional grade printing solution that if a person were going to spend $800 price tag for, would make an outstanding addition to their photography studio.

Hewlett-Packard Color Photo Printer Tips

info — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:24:08 +0000

How To Produce The Best Photographs At Home And Work.
Hewlett-Packard has long been a pioneer in business and home document production and in the world of color photo printers; it’s an accepted notion that the HP models are essentially the best choice for your printing needs. Year after year, customer satisfaction surveys have produced the same result; HP is hands down the best option when satisfying your printing requirements. In recent years, many people have discovered a flare for the amateur photography hobby. One of the basic requirements for producing excellent results is choosing the best high quality, color photo printer to purchase.

There are many options available, but don’t allow yourself to be fooled into purchasing a lower quality printer. Hewlett-Packard sets the standard and should be what you compare all other choices to when deciding on a printer to buy. Currently the two best selling HP photo style printers are the OfficeJet and PhotoSmart models. Let’s examine some of the essential features that both offer so you can get a better idea of what to look for in a photo printer.

All in one capability. Both the OfficeJet and PhotoSmart offerings are all in one type printers, meaning they have the ability to print, scan and fax all from the same device. This feature is increasingly becoming the norm in smaller model printing technology. For small businesses and the homeowner alike, a printer that features all in one capability is the most desirable as this eliminates the need for separate machines to do the individual tasks.

Advanced connect ability. Gone are the days of connecting a simple, dumb printer to a computer via a parallel port and struggling to get accurate and timely print jobs completed. Both of these Hewlett-Packard printers offer multiple advanced methods to connect to either your computer directly or through a network. Options like WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, smartcard and regular category five network cabling all make the modern-day HP printer a snap to integrate into your home or office network.

Enhanced print resolution. The ability to print more than just plain old black-and-white copies is a necessity in today’s business environment. Both the OfficeJet and the PhotoSmart printers possess the ability to produce the high quality color photographs, charts and graphs and vector images that you want to place into your finished document.

High printing speed. The HP OfficeJet and PhotoSmart have the ability to consistently maintain print speed of 32/33 pages per minute (PPM). For a smaller printer class this is a good PPM and should be able to keep up with a homeowner or small business’s printing speed requirements.

Onboard memory capability. This is a feature that is available in the OfficeJet printer and not the PhotoSmart. Internal memory is a printing feature intended for larger volume production, generally the business market. Internal memory in a printer makes it more able to handle a higher volume printing queue and image intensive documents.

It’s plain to see that Hewlett-Packard, with two of its best-selling color photo printer models, has both the small business and home owner document producing needs covered. Choosing an HP printer is probably a wise decision and will satisfy your printing needs long-term.

How to choose the best photo printer paper

info — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:19:17 +0000

Choosing The Best Color Photo Paper For Your Digital Photography Hobby.
One of the more enjoyable things to do with a home computer is to wrap yourself up in the amateur photography hobby. Many people, since investing in a home computer, have also purchased a digital camera and high quality photo printer to make creating their own lab quality photographs possible. Many home photographers spend a lot of time, money and effort into choosing the right equipment to satisfy their needs but unfortunately don’t realize that one of the most important elements of producing great pictures at home is the selection of the paper that your photos will be printed on.

In order to print the type of pictures that come from a commercial developer, you’ll need to choose the right color photo printer paper to go with that high quality photo printer. Generally, the paper is sold in either 8.5 x 11 or 4 x 6 sizes, although other dimensions can be purchased. The 8.5 x 11 size is perfect for producing wall hanging type photographs and the smaller would be for a more traditional snapshot picture.

Generally, color photo printer paper is produced by the major printer manufacturers as well. Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Canon and Epson all have excellent paper offerings to go with their printers. In fact, most printer manufacturers will recommend that you use their paper in conjunction with their printers, although this is not necessary at all.
Some of the features to look for when selecting color photo paper are:

Weight and thickness. Typically, a standard weight for photo paper will be 240 gram and the thickness should be about 10 mils with a 97% capacity. Anything lower might produce an inferior result.

Finish and texture. Most times, color photo printer paper will be offered in either high glossy, glossy or semi-glossy textures. Which to choose would depend upon how you want the finished photographs to appear or when viewed by the naked eye. Also the higher the gloss of the photograph the more durable it will be and resistant to damage when being handled.

Some other miscellaneous features to consider when choosing your color photo paper might be smear resistance, water resistance, quick or instant drying and the ability to work with many different types of printers. Also, you’ll want to look for a photo printer paper producer that offers better bargains for buying in bulk or by case quantity. This is generally the norm but those offering the better deal for buying in larger quantities might be your choice if you plan to use a lot of paper.

Creating and saving your own keepsake photographs is a wonderful hobby to have as advancements in digital photography make it possible for anyone to produce some excellent results. Choosing the right color photo printer paper to produce your pictures on might be the last step in the process but certainly not the least important. Take the time to research and test out what paper you want to use for your photographs and what works best for you so the finished product will be a more pleasing one.

Inkjet Color Photo Printers & Handling All of Your Printing Needs

info — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:27:12 +0000

There are many different aspects to consider when in the market for a printer. First of all, what are your needs? Are you looking to print text, photos, and/or graphics? More often than not, you are going to want a printer that can print clear, bold and finite text, fast.When you have any graphics or photographic images you would like to print out, you are going to desire a print quality that is true to tint, hue and contrast.

One normally seeks a printing device that on a constant and consistent basis never fails to produce products rich and detailed in color in a smooth fashion. If you want all of this and more you are going to want to purchase an inkjet color photo printer. Inkjet color photo printers are relatively quiet in operation and are more cost efficient than many higher-end printers, like laser printers for example. Many offices and businesses are inkjet printer users, and often rave of their simplistic operation and outstanding performances. What brand to choose may also be a determining factor.

Does it matter to you that your printer has a name brand behind it like Kodak, Canon, Epson or Hewlett-Packard, or are you comfortable without that label? It is all about personal preference. Prices for color photo printers have a great range. Some cost as low at $30, while others can be priced upwards of $700. It all depends on certain features. For example, are you looking to have a mini-media center with a scanner, fax, copier and printer all in one? Or are you looking for just a printer, or a smaller combination of those features?

Another important aspect to consider when contemplating the purchase of a new color photo printer is the amount of use you anticipate this printer receiving. If you are planning on operating the printer frequently, it would be a wise decision to make sure you purchase a color photo printer that is capable of withstanding higher-volume production, otherwise you will burn the printer out fast. When you do decide on an inkjet color photo printer that suits your needs, be sure to purchase inkjet paper. Inkjet paper has an especially fine design and quality and will perform best when combined with a color photo printer. Inkjet color photo printers are well known for having a great amount of desirable features, all in one product.

No matter what your printing needs are, chances are an inkjet color photo printer is a great match for your needs and price range.