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Are Photo Printers Worth Buying?

A photo printer is a printer that is used specifically for small, photo sized prints, such as three inches by five inches or four by six inches. Photo printers were first introduced in the early 1990s. Originally they used dye sublimation to print photos. Currently, most photo printers use ink jet technology. Photo printers produce vibrant, high-resolution photo prints.

Photo printers come in a wide variety of sizes to serve multiple purposes. Some photo printers are extremely small, making them ideal for travel. You can take these printers with you wherever you have you camera to print photos on the spot. Most of these portable photo printers bypass the need for a computer. They connect directly to the camera itself, so that you can print out your captured memories at your convenience.

Photo printers can be classified into three categories. The first is an inkjet photo printer. These are usually standard text printers that offer a photo-printing feature. They usually cost between $50 and $400. While these types of printers produce high quality photos, they are costly and print at a slower than normal page per minute speed.

The second category is the dedicated photo printers. These printers are limited to printing photos; they are not usually utilized for printing text documents. Dedicated photo printers cost anywhere from $150 to $400. These printers usually print the photos on glossy paper. These dedicated printers can be inkjet or use dye sublimation. Inkjet photo printers rely on cartridges with six color varieties, including black, yellow, magenta, cyan, light cyan, and light magenta. However, dye sublimation works by melting ink onto the pages to create a photo.

The third category of photo printers is professional printers. These types of photo printers are a bit more costly than the other two categories. They start at $500 and are usually significantly large printers. However, they boast faster print speed, productivity, and outstanding picture quality. Professionals or serious amateurs primarily use these photo printers.

If you like to have immediate access to tangible copies of your photos, then a photo printer is probably well worth the hassle. When buying a photo printer there are a few key factors to consider. To begin with, make sure you find a printer that will be able to print photos at the size you need. Photo printers are available that are capable of printing pictures anywhere from wallet size to full posters.

You should also consider the types of paper that are available for the photo printer and its cost. In addition you should check the prices of the cartridges that are required by the printer so that you can accurately calculate the average cost per page of operation the printer.

You should also select a photo printer that has a high resolution. Resolution is generally measure in dots per inch or dpi. A dye sublimation photo printer should have a dpi of at least 300 by 300. An inkjet photo printer should produce a dpi of 1,200 by 4, 800.

Photo printers are convenient easy to use devices. They have the advantages of offering on the spot, high quality photos. They can be taken with you and connected directly to your computer or use the digital media card.

Despite its obvious benefits, photo printers do have a few disadvantages as well. To begin with they are significantly more expensive than a normal inkjet or laser printer. They also are slow and may not print normal text documents well, if at all. In fact, the average photo printer takes one to four minutes to print a five by seven inch glossy picture at the highest quality settings.

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SolveYourProblem.com : 2008

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