Buyers Guide and Overview |
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 Photo printers allow you to turn your home into a photo processing lab, enabling you to print out top quality photos without leaving your house. But there are so many models to choose from that picking the best one for your needs can be a nightmare. Here we offer a simple guide through the mysteries of choosing a photo printer. |
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You can pick up a perfectly good photo printer for under £100, so only pay more if the extra features you are getting, for example an ability to print out larger images or portability, are really important to you.
When it comes to choosing a photo printer there are seven main areas you need to assess before making your selection: |
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| Quality |
The only real way to tell how good a printer's output will be is to see it, but there are some markers that can help you to tell.
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 The number of inks a printer uses gives a clue as to the spectrum of colours it will be able to reproduce - the more inks, the wider the spectrum.
Most photo printers use between four and six inks, which is more than adequate for most people. Some use many more, such as the HP Photosmart 8750 with nine inks, but again these aren't really necessary for non-professionals. |
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| Price |
You can pick up a perfectly good photo printer for under £100, so only pay more if the extra features you are getting, for example an ability to print out larger images or portability, are really important to you.
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| Media size |
This refers to the size of photos you can print. The typical photo that you will be used to getting from a high-street lab would be 6x4in, but you can get printers that can handle A4 or even A3 size prints and a whole range of different sizes in between. If you just want an alternative to a trip to Snappy Snaps then opt for a compact model that can only print 6x4in; if you want a more flexible model that may be able to print a bit of text too then an A4 printer might be the best bet. A3 printers are aimed more at semi-professionals and hobbyists and you will pay a lot more to get this size of print, so only go for this if you really need it.
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| Size of the printer |
 While most of us are happy to house our printers on a desk, some people might want the flexibility offered by a portable printer.
These offer you the chance to pick up your printer and take it to a friend's house, where they can print out pictures direct from their camera or memory card.
The drawback with portable printers is that they cost more and you can usually only have one size of print – 6x4in.
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| Easy of use |
More high-end photo printers can be baffling for beginners. With lots of settings and complicated software they can easily confuse anyone without technical expertise, so buy with care and be prepared to spend some time setting up your printer to get the best results.
At the other end of the scale are the printers aimed at technophobes where you don't even need a computer to use them. You can just pop in a memory card or plug in your camera and you're away, but these offer far more limited photo editing capabilities.
In between these two extremes are basic photo printers that connect to a computer, these allow you to use either supplied software or your own products, so give you a lot more control over the final output, without blowing your mind with professional features.
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Speed
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Take manufacturers speed claims with a pinch of salt. These are measured in pages per minute (ppm) which is pretty self-explanatory, but the quoted speeds are often far faster than what you will actually achieve. That said, if you want to do home photo printing patience is a virtue and sometimes it's worth waiting for top-quality prints.
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| Cost |
 The purchase price of your printer can often be small in comparison to the cost of consumables, in other words glossy photo paper and ink cartridges. Look at the cost of both of these elements before buying and to save cash opt for a printer that uses separate ink tanks so you can replace each one as it runs out, rather than having to replace the whole thing when just one colour has run out. One tip is that the more you use your printer the better value you will get from your inks, as when they are left idle inks can quickly dry out. |
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