I guess the printer on the desk is a typical scanner and printer integrated machine. It may even have the name "photo printer". I also guess you read this comment because you want to upgrade to a more professional photo printer. You are considering some ways to improve the quality of printed photos.
Your all-in-one machine may print occasional photos well. But it is almost certainly not the best photo printer to meet your photography needs.
A photography studio may have a professional photo printer. There are also professional portable printers or printers that print from iPhone. If you want to know what is the best photo printer for more frequent photo printing, please continue reading.
As I said, you will get good print quality from most all-in-one inkjet printers for occasional photos. However, there are usually some shortcomings. Perhaps the most obvious is ink.
It is more common to find a special photo printer that uses a refillable water tank instead of an ink cartridge. This makes sense if you want to print photos that consume a lot of ink. I have an aging Canon PIXMA photo printer. XL ink cartridge contains 2 1 ml ink. Compared with Canon's Megatank photo printer, the capacity of refill bottle is 60ml.
All these photo printers have USB interfaces. Some support USB 3 to improve speed. All rooms have wireless internet connection. Some have Bluetooth, which is useful for printing photos from mobile devices. Some rooms are also equipped with Ethernet. If you want to enjoy the printer on the office network, you may need to consider this.
You will find up to ten different inks and all the best photo printers. Sometimes, this allows you to use different black ink for photos or normal printing. Others use gray ink to improve the quality of monochrome photos.
What's the difference between dye ink and pigment ink? Dye-based ink works better on smooth media because its droplet size is smaller. Pigment is more suitable for matt paper or plain paper. This is why some of the best photo printers reviewed here have black pigment ink for plain paper, and the color is dye.
pogotskyihk(Depositphotos.com)
This review looks at the best photo printers in roughly ascending price order. All these provide printing resolution, which will produce proud printing.
Epson expression photo XP-8600 is an American letter/A4 photo printer. Epson emphasizes its compact shape and calls it "small integration". But its small size is full of many functions.
Touch screen is a very convenient supplement to access control. You can print from an SD card or via USB 2.0 or Wi-Fi. The scanner allows you to scan the cloud storage card directly. Epson Smart Panel application turns your mobile phone into a printer controller.
Using the back paper path, you can print on special media, including DVD. Both the input and output trays are electric. Strictly speaking, this is not a portable printer. But very compact.
In addition to the paper feeding channel at the back, there are two tapes. You can keep plain paper on one piece of paper and photo paper on another. It's really helpful if you find yourself printing letters and photos in roughly the same size.
Epson's Claria Photo HD ink is particularly good at preserving the subtle details in highlights. It depends on the light red and light cyan inks. There is no separate non-photo black ink cartridge. However, the printing of text documents is still impressively rich and clear.
The printing speed is not the best, but Epson expression XP-8600 provides a great set of functions. If you are looking for reliability, it may be the most suitable photo printer for you.
Canon Pixma TS6320 has five independent ink cartridges, which can provide a good balance between printing documents and photos. Black pigment ink can meet your document requirements, while dye-based color ink can handle photos.
TS6320 puts plain paper in the inner paper box, and you can put photographic paper in the back paper box. This keeps the paper path flat and helps to avoid incorrect insertion. When the printer is turned on, the output tray will open automatically.
The integrated scanner allows you to scan or copy paper up to American letters /A4. The OLED screen provides information about the printer status. You can connect to a mobile device and even control the printer with Alexa or Google Assistant.
Canon Pixma printers always impress people with the best photo quality, and this time is no exception. It combines quality with good printing speed. This is also an issue to consider if you want to keep the flexibility of all-in-one printers and scanners.
You refill the 60 ml bottle with Canon PIXMA G620 MegaTank ink. This reduces the printing cost to about 10% of the ink cartridge printer. If you print a lot, the money you save on ink will cover the upfront cost of the printer.
The six ink cartridges are composed of CMYK plus gray and red. Filling storage tanks can be a messy process. Canon bottles don't need to be squeezed to stop flowing when the fuel tank is full. They also have nozzles for suitable fuel tanks.
The scanner allows you to copy and scan. There is no touch screen, but there are LCD readings and user-friendly buttons.
The printing quality is very good, especially on glossy paper. There are printers with better printing speed, from Canon and other printers. But the operating cost of G620 is very low. If you find yourself eating ink cartridges and bank balances, Canon PIXMA G620 MegaTank should be near the top of your list.
Epson's emoticon photo HD XP- 15000 provides a larger print volume than XP-8700. But it doesn't have the more expensive rolling paper feed option of SureColor P700. The printing speed is also impressive.
It is also another printer. It can recognize that there may be no room for two printers on your desk. Therefore, it has an internal carton and a rear carton. This means that you can combine standard office paper into one and use feedback as photographic paper. It can also handle media up to 0.9 inches thick.
Canon PIXMA PRO-200 is similar to Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300, but the price is cheaper. Compared with PRO-300, it has only one feeder. It is a photo printer based on dyes, which can hold eight kinds of inks. It adds two gray ink cartridges to a black ink cartridge, and its monochrome gloss output is particularly impressive.
Like its more expensive cousin, you can download ICC profile to get a series of professional papers. Like its cousin, the heaviest weight you can use is 380 gsm. Therefore, you can do some serious gallery quality printing. Printing fast means you don't have to wait all day.
You can think of Epson Ecotank ET-8550 as an integrated product of steroids. It provides decent photo printing and normal printing in one unit. It has six cartridges, which can save you a lot of ink.
Ink cartridge means that according to Epson's calculation, the printing cost is 10% of that of the ink cartridge photo printer. Besides, it is good for the environment. The disadvantage is that this is not a cheap printer. It's almost as much as Canon imagePROGRAF's comments here, slightly higher than Epson's own SureColor P700.
Calculation is whether the compromise involved in production integration is worth it. The life and death of a special photo printer depends on its photo quality. Here, Epson makes these compromises seem worthwhile. It can make limited ink work. Color and black-and-white prints are rich and full of vitality.
Because you can print a panoramic view up to 2 meters long, you begin to understand why people may choose ET-8550. There are two paper magazines. One of them allows paper up to 300 gsm. The device at the rear allows printing paper with a thickness of 1/20 inches (1.3mm). At higher quality, the printing speed is a bit slow.
Low operating cost and overall flexibility make Epson Ecotank ET-8550 an interesting proposition. For example, not everyone has the space to use a separate scanner. Or two printers, one for photos and one for regular printing. In this case, it is definitely worth considering.
Epson SureColor P700 has some attractive features. For example, there is a clear panel above the print head, and you can see the printing progress. It has a reel feed attachment, which allows printing nearly 33 feet (10 meter). Paper up to 1000 gsm is allowed in the paper tray.
You can set the printer to use light gray ink cartridges to help balance the gloss. ICC profiles can be downloaded from manufacturers, such as Hahnemuhle. Although Epson only provides personal data for his thesis. Some experiments are needed to determine which profiles are suitable for non-Epson paper.
The quality of printed matter, whether in color or black and white, is impressive. At the best quality, the printing speed is quite slow.
One possible reason for the complaint is that the initial setting will consume almost a whole set of ink. Most photo printers have a stingy initial ink supply, but this is a complete set. It is related to the path from the container to the print head. A set of refills will cost you about $300, so this is a major consideration.
Canon Image PROGRAF PRO-300 is a serious color photo printer. It uses pigment inks, including two blacks, six colors and one gray. The tenth ink is the "chroma optimizer", which will cover the surface coating when printing on glossy media. This ensures that no color is more lustrous than other colors to obtain a smoother and more professional surface treatment.
There are two inclined paper feed boxes on the back of the printer. You can use paper up to 380 gsm, including the best gallery quality paper. You can also print DVDs and even nail stickers.
ImagePROGRAG PRO-300 won't break the record of printing speed, but you are unlikely to buy it for it. Its advantage lies in printing high-quality color and monochrome prints on various media.
Epson SureColor SC-P900 is the sister product of P700 we evaluated above. It uses the same ink cartridge array. Four kinds of black or gray inks can produce rich and deep monochrome printing. The service life of black and white printing is 400 years, and that of color printing is 200 years.
The maximum size 17 x 22 "can print printed matter that will not be thrown on the wall. You can download ICC profiles of many professional papers. Paper with a thickness of 1/20 inches is loaded through a completely flat front path.
The printing quality of SC-P900 will not disappoint, whether in color or black and white. But this is another example of the initial installation cost of the printer. This is a very expensive photo printer. It won't be long before you spend about $300 to replace the ink.
If you consider these costs and are looking for additional printing sizes, Epson SureColor P900 will provide exquisite exhibition quality printing.
You will expect to get top-grade printed matter at this price, and this Canon will easily produce exhibition-grade printed matter. An ingenious feature is that the paper is firmly fixed on the platen through the vacuum system. This overcomes any slight curl in the medium. Perhaps surprisingly, such a huge printer can't produce longer horizontal printing. If this is an important part of your job, then it may not be for you.
There is a price difference of 1000 USD between the cheapest and most expensive printers in this list. The main factors you choose are budget, overall printing demand and printing quantity.
With the expansion of the price range, you will find more ink, larger paper size and higher print quality. At the same time, the scanner will disappear and the daily printing function will take a back seat.
For top-level printing, Canon image PROGRAF PRO- 1000 is a good choice. Excellent print quality, chroma optimizer and construction quality make it one of the best photo printers with professional effects. The only drawback is the lack of panoramic printing.
If you want a printer that can still be used for letters and flyers but has excellent photo printing function, Canon PIXMA G620 MegaTank is a good choice. Ink cartridges and flexible paper handling are huge rewards.
Like all photography, the best photo printer for you depends on many factors. It usually involves compromise. Any photo printer in this review will provide you with excellent printing results. You just need to decide which one suits your needs and budget.