Photographs are meant to be viewed, and not solely on computer screens. In fact before the digital age, it wasn’t actually a photograph until it was printed. However, in the digital age there are several ways to view a photograph without printing it, and this is often how we see many images these days. Yet, a print is still special for us. A print is still the true final form of a photograph. We will discuss how to obtain affordable and high-quality prints. Obviously, the printer is integral to this process. There are various types of printers that will suit anyone’s needs.
Compact Photo Printers
Compact photo printers require you to plug the camera directly into the printer (or to insert the memory card), and enable you to print quickly from either the camera or card. In some respects, due to the speed with which you can take a photo and then print it, compact photo printers have replaced the Polaroid for a nearly instant print. These printers range in resolution from 300 dpi to 9600 dpi, and provide excellent detail. The main drawback with a compact printer is the limitation in print paper size. They’re basically dedicated to make top-notch 4” x 6” snapshots, perfect for the holidays and family gatherings. These printers are remarkable for the compact size and affordable price.
Four Color Inkjet Printers
There are numerous types of inkjet printers that you can use to make hard copies of your digital photographs. Most four-color inkjets are budget printers, but they are fine for 4” x 6” prints and you can get away with 8.5”x 11” prints as long as the source file has a high DPI and overall resolution. The photo quality won’t be so great, however it will be acceptable for most casual applications (like passing images to friends or making greeting cards). Four-color inkjets use a dye-based ink that fades faster than water-soluble inks, so the archival quality of four-color inkjet prints is less than ideal; even with the best paper. Most four-color inkjets can produce laser-quality documents for every day printing, so there is that bonus to using these printers. Four-color inkjets are a good purchase for your first experiments with photo printing.
Six Color Inkjet Printers
Once you get past the budget four-color inkjet printers, the next step up is a 6 color inkjet printer. These inkjet printers give you excellent image quality, because they break down the printing process into individual color layers (usually cyan, magenta, orange, green, yellow and black). These colors can be controlled by your printer software and image processing software (i.e. Photoshop). The additional inks allow for more detailed color reproduction and smoother/deeper images, as these machines can have resolutions that exceed 4800 dpi, which is more than enough to give you outstanding prints. Many of these printers come with a special printing tray that enables you to print right onto inkjet-printable CDs/DVDs for a professional-looking product. Most 6 color inkjet printers can easily handle digital prints from 4”x6” to 8.5”x11” with accurate color reproduction, smooth tonal transitions and acceptable contrast. 6 color inkjets enable you to expand your capacity to create high quality images that will stun most viewers. You’ll want to get one of these if and when you are most serious about the quality and durability of your digital photo prints.
Wide Format Inkjet Printers
The next level up in digital printing quality are the wide-format inkjet printers. These exceptional quality, professional printers typically have at least 6 and up to 12 ink cartridges. The additional inks are black inks of various tonal degrees and styles (matte, glossy, 25% black, 75% black, etc.); the importance of these is to more effectively render the subtle differences in the tonal range of the print; especially with Black and White images, but the additional inks are necessary for high quality color images that have a high dynamic contrast range. The black inks also come in matte and glossy styles; giving you an option for kind of finish you want on your prints. These printers output images on a wide variety of high quality paper in sizes 4”x6” up to 13” x 19”), and use panoramic rolls of paper (glossy, matte, fabric, archival), that produce images with an effective life of 80+ years. The image won’t fade and is therefore suitable for fine art printing and applications.
All-in-One Printers
All-in-one printers are packed with features and capabilities – you have a printer, a scanner, wireless and Ethernet networking, a fax and a copier. These machines can enhance the capabilities of your small office or small business. Because these machines don’t specialize in any one type of activity, they aren’t as robust as dedicated machines (i.e. a stand alone copier). However, they are strong enough in all the areas they do support that you’ll be satisfied with this multi-purpose machine; for instance many can send and receive color faxes. The scanner usually has the least “power” of all the features in an all-in-one printer, because a high quality scanner requires a higher resolution for image capture; and that usually exceeds the capabilities of such a “jack-of-all-trades” device. Most color all-in-ones provide good print quality, but not as fine as a photo-quality inkjet printer (which is quite exceptional for printing photos). However, with an all-in-one you can obtain decent images on papers sizes from 4”x6” to 8.5”x11”. If you do use a color all-in-one, you’ll find that the available color inks aren’t archival, so you’ll be making temporary photos that might only last a few years before you begin to see fading.
Conclusion
When considering a printer, you’ll want what’s most flexible for the kinds of work that you’re doing. If you’re looking to do fine art photography, you might want to opt for a high-end inkjet that takes rolls of paper (not just sheets). However, if you’re just looking for lesser quality photos to go into documents then the four-color inkjet could be ideal. Determine what your needs and budget are, and get a printer that meets that need. You might even find it best to own several different printers.
