There has been an explosion of photo printers in the last few
years, and with that has come lower prices for these machines.
The majority of photo printers are going to cost between
$100-$300, although you can find machines either higher or lower
than those prices depending on what you are looking for.
Printer manufacturers know that when it comes to photo printers,
they must do something to make their models stand out among the
ever-increasing crowd and make it seem like they have the best
photo printer. The way that they do that is by giving names to
their ink and their technology. So you will see things like
Epson UltraChrome, HP Vivera and Canon ChromaLife. The truth of
the matter is that is probably very difficult for the average
eye to spot differences between these three types of printer
ink. Ink is ink. If you are a professional looking to sell or
exhibit your work, then you may actually have a combination of
one manufacturer's ink and paper that gives you noticeably
better results than others. For the common user just using
standard photo paper to print pictures for themselves or family
and friends, the difference between types of printer ink
probably does not mean that much. We have found, though, that
there is a difference between results on normal paper and on
photo paper. So if you are going for the best results, invest in
the best photo paper.
One important thing to remember is that if you purchase an HP
Photosmart printer that does not feature their individual ink
cartridges, you could be in for some inconvenience if you print
the same types of colors over and over. For instance, if you
only print pictures of people's faces, then odds are you are
going to run out of yellow first. Therefore, if you remember
always using one color more than others on your previous
machine, then maybe an HP isn't the best photo printer for you.
