A digital _*photo printer*_ is a printer that prints high-quality photos on photo paper. This type of printer has grown in popularity due to the increase in the number of people who use digital cameras. Some photo printers even give people the convenience of printing straight from a memory card, without the use of a computer.
Before you buy a photo printer it is a good idea to familiarize, review and compare the collection of different types and brands that are available. This is to ensure that you pay the right price for the right quality, and that you don’t end up purchasing something that won’t actually meet your needs. This article serves as a guide to help you gain a better understanding of what you are looking for and what to expect in a photo printer.
Types of Photo Printers
There are different types of digital photo printers available to buy. The main three types will be briefly discussed below.
* An inkjet photo printer: This type of printer adds liquid dye-based or pigmented ink through nozzles onto the photo paper. Top quality inkjet photo printers come with extra colours, for example light cyan and light magenta, for extra definition and clarity. Most inkjet photo printers have a resolution of 2880 dpi. The most popular brands of inkjet printers include HP, Canon and Epson.
* A Dye sublimation photo printer, also known as a dye-sub printer or a thermal-dye printer, is the most popular choice after an inkjet photo printer. A dye sublimation photo printer has a CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) colour ribbon. The printer works by the heating of this ribbon, and the transfer of colour onto the photo paper. Dye sublimation printers have a higher resolution than inkjet printers, and therefore print faster and better quality photos. The most popular brands of a dye sublimation printer are a Kodak, Olympus and Canon photo printer.
* A laser photo printer uses a rotating drum to electrostatically transfer the image to the photo paper. They print faster and their ink lasts longer than inkjet printers. This makes them a very good option to consider if you will be printing a lot of photos.
Before You Buy
Before you buy a photo printer, you need to be aware of the factors that a good, quality printer will have. You first need to establish what your needs are, especially in terms of quantity (how many photos, on average, you plan to print over a specific period of time) and quality of the photo prints. Once you have decided this, you will be able to know what range of photo printers you are looking at, for example a home or a top of the range, professional photo printer. If you don’t need your photos printed at an exceptionally high quality, you can consider purchasing a “multifunction printer”:http://cartridge.co.za/articles/43-the-multifunction-printer with a photo printing function built in.
In terms of the quality of the photo print, this will be mostly be reflected by the resolution of the photo printer. Resolution refers to the number of dots that the printer can print into a square inch (dpi). The greater the resolution, the more dots per square inch, and the better the clarity and sharpness of the image. For photo printing, you would need a photo printer with a resolution of at least 1200 dpi.
Maintaining Your Photo Printer
Once you have purchased your photo printer, let Cartridge take care of all your cartridge needs. We can supply you with any type of photo printer cartridge, including inkjet, generic, remanufactured and toner cartridges. Cartridge is a leading cartridge supplier in South Africa, and we offer good prices on a variety of brands, including Canon, Samsung, Lexmark, HP and Epson. Do an “online cartridge search”:http://cartridge.co.za/ now, or “contact us”:http://cartridge.co.za/pages/contact, to find the right cartridge for your _*photo printer*_.