As more and more of us have turned to digital photography, there has been a huge increase in demand for printers that can offer photographic print quality reproduction that we are used to with a developer shop. With the development of improved technology offering a wider range of printing options, you'll find a dazzling array of photo quality printers to choose from, so here are some good tips on what to look for in a new photo printer.

Compact photo printers

These are portable and will connect directly to your digital camera or PC, as well as having a slot for the memory card to be inserted directly into them and allow you to download and print photos directly.

One drawback is that they are limited in what they can produce. The size of the photo print created is usually much smaller than that of a desktop printer, but they print photo quality prints faster.

Check the compatibility between the photo printer and your camera to make sure they work together properly.

Desktop photo printers

These printers can stand alone or work in conjunction with your computer. They tend to provide a wider range of print size options, as well as being larger and tend to offer more paper handling options than their compact siblings. You'll find they are more expensive, but for the extra, you get higher print resolution and faster operating speed than a regular desktop printer. In fact, it's not unusual to find that they have all the functional capabilities of a normal desktop printer.

What is DPI?

DPI or dots per inch is the measure of the resolution capability of a printer with a higher dpi, meaning that there are more dots, smaller in size and giving a sharper image, as it is harder to distinguish between individual dots than with a printer that has a lower dpi. For photographic print quality, you will be looking for a dpi of 600, whereas normally a printer will offer a dpi of between 300 and 3500 dpi. Apart from dpi, the other factor you need to consider in order to produce good quality reproduction prints is the quality of the paper you use and the number of colours the printer uses.

Colour management

Typically, you will see a photo printer using three to six colour combinations to reproduce colour prints. The more colours the printer uses, the better the finished article, as darker colours tend to fade or smear if only three colours are used. However, more colour cartridges mean more expense as a rule, so keep an eye on the cost of these consumables when you are thinking of buying a photo printer.

Printer type

You have a general choice of two types of printers that differ in the way they apply ink to the paper. Laser printers use heat to drive the ink through the print head and onto the paper, but produce dots of different sizes which, in turn, result in a less sharp image being reproduced. An inkjet printer will spray the ink onto the paper in a gradual series of layers that result in a uniform dot size and a much sharper image being reproduced. You will tend to find that the best quality photo printers use inkjet technology, although laser printers are improving greatly.

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