A guide to photo printers

Canon CP730 ($239) is an easy-to-use snapshot dye sublimation printer that produces great 4x6 inch prints at 300 x 300 dpi. It comes with a 2 inch screen, a retractable USB cable, and heaps of connectivity options, like Bluetooth, so you can print photos directly from your smart phone.

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Printing photos at home isn't for everyone but Reuben Schwarz investigates the best ways to go about it.

It's best to come right out and say it – printing photos at home isn't for everyone. Per print, it's usually cheaper to go to a photo shop or use an online service.

But printing photos at home straight from your PC or camera is convenient. And if you have a decent photo printer, you can play with the photo's colour balance and contrast until you get the final print looking the way you want.

There are several different types to choose from. If you only want to print a photo occasionally and aren't fussed about the quality, then a regular colour inkjet should do fine.

There are also multi-functional printers that usually offer better resolution that are jazzed-up inkjets with a scanner on board, which are great if you want to scan old prints into your PC or run a home office. The professional kit, while expensive, does produce fabulous results.

Dye sublimation printers are dedicated photo printers for producing high-quality prints. The prints usually cost more but last longer, especially if the printers put a protective coating on the photos after printing, as many dye-sub printers do. These are photo-only printers, so you'll need a laser or inkjet for everyday printing.

Snapshot printers are dye-sub printers made for printing the regular size, four by six-inch photos. They're small and portable.

The quality of a print is measured in dots per inch (DPI). What sort of dpi you need depends on how professional you want the end product to look. Dpi of 4800 x 1200 (always horizontal by vertical resolution) or greater will be fine for inkjets; 300 is good for dye sublimation. You can't compare the dpi of dye sub printers and ink jets because the dots are produced differently.

A lot of the cost of owning a colour printer comes in paying for the ink to run it, and in general the higher the dpi, the more ink you'll use and the slower it'll print.

Most printers will list the average cost of ink per photo. Remember to add the cost of your paper to get the final cost.

Low-end photo printers will usually have a black cartridge and a colour ink cartridge, while better ones will have cartridges for cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

The quality of your print will also depend on the ink and paper you use. Photos with good ink on premium paper won't fade as quickly, especially if you keep them away from UV light and polluted air.

You can get an idea of the quality of the paper by looking at the "grams per square metre" (gsm) number. The bigger the gsm number, the heavier and thicker the paper, so it'll stand up better to being handled. Low-quality photo paper is 100gsm, and expect to pay about $20 for 100 sheets.

The thickness of paper is called the calliper number. Good photo paper is usually 7 to 10ml. In general, the whiter the paper, the better.

Special photo paper also comes in gloss or matte finishes. Glossy photos will be shiny, with bright, rich colours. Matte photos will be more muted with less contrast.

Make sure your printer can handle the thickness and type of paper you're looking at before you buy.

- © Fairfax NZ News