Missmarchetti Loc: South Portland, Maine

Me too, both in terms of longevity if I’m lucky, and my walls if my pictures are wall-worthy.

kmielen Loc: Eastern NC

I'm with you. I sat in on a Roberts' Zoom call last evening where Canon reps were discussing their current printer line-up. Beautiful results but between printer cost, ink/pigment, and paper, I could not justify. The occasional, third party, dye sub looks like it will work for me. But then maybe I just don't have GAS.

Missmarchetti Loc: South Portland, Maine

Yes, you are correct. I do want a printer for photos from my cell phone and from my camera.

al lehman Loc: San jose, ca.

Was in Greenville, Maine in Sept. For fall colors and moose photography. FANTASTIC!

John Hicks Loc: Sible Hedinham North Essex England

Epson Claria ink is minute droplet ink I have had two printers that use Claria ink so much so I print my own photographs where as before I went to a professional print house.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

For quality photo prints there are several options.

And how fast you want to print? The typical inkjet will take two minutes or longer to make a print. Maybe closer to a minute for a small 4x6". There are much faster dye sublimation printers available, but those are more expensive and make very limited print sizes. The largest practical size is 8x10 and those are among the most expensive dye sub printers. More typical and affordable are 6x8", 5x7" and 4x6". There are no inks in dye sub printers, instead you buy two rolls to use in them... one is the paper and the other is a ribbon with the colors that will be transferred via a thermal process to make the image on the paper. Typically these are able to print a 4x6" in under 15 seconds... probably 6X or 8X faster than inkjets. However, again, dye subs are pricey for the sizes they can print and only able to print in quite limited sizes. (Note: These are NOT color laser printers, which are fast but are nowhere near photo quality.)

Most people opt for an inkjet instead. It's slower, but a lot more versatile. So, let's concentrate on those, instead.

To print quality photos you need at least 6 colors of ink in an inkjet printer. This immediately rules out a whole lot of "office" printers that are fine for charts and letters and such, but lousy for photos. There are variations, but often a 6 color inkjet will have black, cyan, light cyan, magenta, light magenta and yellow inks. From there, many 8, 10 or more color printers will add a gray or two, or might have a matte black or an "optimizer" that's a clear coating used to control the reflectance from different colors of ink.

Next you need to decide how large you want to print.... common inkjet printer sizes are:

8.5" wide (typical print size 8x10, 8.5x11)
13" wide (typical print size 11x14", 12 x18", 13x19")
17" wide (typical print size 16x20", 17x22")
24" wide (huge prints)
30" wide (huge prints)
44" wide (huge prints)

Someone mentioned, and it's true, the cost of ink is a big consideration. One 8.5" 6-color inkjet I used cost around $75 for a full set of inks. The 13" wide 8-color printer I mostly use now costs $125 for a full set of pretty small ink cartridges. Another 8-color 13" printer I use has much larger cartridges that cost around $40 each or about $320 for a full set. This is actually more economical because each of the cartridges in this 13" printer hold about 5X as much ink as my other 13" printer.

There are third party inks available at lower cost than the printer manufacturer's OEM inks. Some are available in bulk for use refilling cartridges yourself, while others are refilled cartridges ready to use. It sort of depends upon the printer. Some "smart" printers use ink cartridges with chips in them and need to be "fooled" into working with refillable cartridges or pre-filled 3rd party cartridges. The concern with 3rd party inks is always whether or not they will produce as good quality prints with the same permanence as the OEM inks and whether they might cause problems such as clogs. Shop around and get reviews before buying 3rd party inks... But also keep in mind if you think you'll want to use them, when shopping for a printer. They may not be available for some printers, especially models that have just recently been released, for which 3rd party inks haven't yet been developed.

Do you want to print black & white? If so, look for a printer with at least one gray ink cartridge... maybe two. If a printer only has black it will not be able to render the tonal gradations of B&W prints.

Some have mentioned there are two types of inks used in inkjets: dye based and pigment based. This used to be more of a concern because dye based were prone to fading in relatively short time (I've had some prints that were exposed to a lot of sunlight fade very noticeably in under a year.) Pigment inks promised a much longer life span. Today it's much better because most photo-quality dye inks for inkjets have much more fade resistance and longer life expectancy. For example, Canon's dye inks are rated to last 125 years with reasonable cared, while their pigment inks are rated to last over 200 years. You'll find similar in most of the OEM ink brands.

I find there's is some difference in appearance of dye and pigment inks, too. Personally I prefer using dye inks on gloss, semi-gloss and luster papers... but for matte papers I switch to pigment. (This is why I have two 13" wide printers... Both are 8-color, but one uses dye inks, while the other uses pigment based.) My "fine art" prints are always done on 100% rag, archival matte papers, while for everything else - including all black & white - I prefer low gloss/luster type papers. For specialty processes like printing on canvas or glass or metal or whatever, I send out the job and don't try to do it myself.

All that said, quite frankly, I'm sorry to say now is a terrible time to be trying to buy a printer. They are in short supply... back-ordered many places. I don't know why... maybe there are problems manufacturing them or importing them due to the pandemic. At the same time, the prices have risen dramatically. This time a year ago you could buy a Canon Pro-100 (13", 8-color, dye) for about $150 after a mail in rebate. And it even came with a full set of inks and a free pack of paper (50 sheets, 13x19", which currently sells for $59 separately). A couple years earlier I got my Pro-100 w/inks & paper for free bundled with the purchase of a camera.

Today the Pro-100 has been replaced by the Canon Pro-200 (13", 8-color, dye-based) that's selling for $600, including a full set of inks, but only includes a small sample pack of 5 sheets of paper 8.5x11" (the same sells for $19 in 50 sheet packs... so you get $1.90 worth with the printer). I don't know of an equivalent Epson printer. The XP15000 is the most similar, 13" wide and using dye-based inks. However, it's only 6-color and is selling for $350 with a "starter set" of inks.

The Canon Pro-300 is a 13" wide printer that uses 9-color pigment-based ink set costs $900. This is the model that recently replaced the Pro-10, which was selling for around $600 last time I saw one available. I think the Epson P700 is the closest equivalent, 13" wide, 10-color pigment inks, costing about $800.

Some printers are able to handle heavier paper stocks through a special feed from the back. This is most common on 13" and larger printers. Other printers can handle rolls of paper and make extra long prints. This is more common in 17" and larger printers.

You might be able to find a Pro-100 or Pro-10 for significantly less than the new Canon models. They are very good printers, but in spite of possible savings I'm not sure I'd recommend buying either of them now. I'm concerned that Canon will stop supporting my Pro-100 and it will be difficult to get inks for it or have it repaired, if that's ever needed. This happened to me with my HP B9180, which is a great printer (13", 8-color pigment inks) that no longer has any support from HP. Might be able to get 3rd party inks, but lets hope nothing wears out and needs replacement. Even before that, I had similar experience with a couple Epson printers. Once they're replaced by a new model, it's only a matter of time before the manufacturer stops supporting them! It's safer to buy a current model, since it may have some years on the market before being discontinued, and then at least a few years of support after that.

Something that Epson did a lot in the past was sell printers with a "starter" set of inks.... that were about half full. I don't know if they still do that. The only Canon printer I've bought came with a full set of inks.

Another thing the ticked me off with Epson, that I don't know if they still do, is one of their printers I used a lot had a "page counter" and shut itself down after a certain number of pages, giving me a message that "printer is worn out and must be replaced". This was utter BS... It was pre-programmed obsolescence! I found a little app online that hacked the printer to reset the page counter so the printer would function again. Which it did for another couple years until the page count hit Epson's preset limit again! So I reset it again and it continued to work fine for another couple years. I even reset it a fourth time, but it eventually started having problems feeding paper that cleaning didn't solve, actually seemed worn out and in need of replacement. Again, I don't know if Epson is still doing this to their printers, but it pissed me off at the time and was part of why I started looking at other brands to buy instead. I had only used Epson up until then (two different 13" models and several 8.5").

All the above are 13" wide printers. If you'd prefer smaller 8.5" or larger 17", you're on your own! I just don't know much about what's available right now, but can give some general advice.

Same as with wider printers, for quality photo prints look for a minimum of 6-colors, regardless whether dye or pigment inks. (Most likely with 8.5" printers, only dye inks will be avail. If so, be sure to check the ink life expectancy rating. Should be at least 100 years.)

Also avoid any printers that don't have individual ink tanks. When all the ink colors are all in one or two cartridges, that ends up being wasteful because you have to replace several colors when any one of them runs out. Usually there's still ink in the other colors, but no way to use it. This is very common in the all-in-one printers too, tanks that combine colors. Individual ink tanks are the best way to go... the most cost effective in the long run.

There are no photo quality "Eco Tank" or "Mega Tank" printers I'm aware of. For office work they can be great thanks to extra large ink tanks or, in some cases, user-refillable tanks. But those are only 4-color and as a result photo print quality will be poor.

I also don't recommend "all in one" printers that combine a printer, a copier and a scanner. Most of those are 4-color, so will not make very good photo prints. Also, they usually aren't all that great scanning or copying, either... fine for office work, but nowhere near sufficient resolution to scan film or prints. Besides, if one aspect of the multi-purpose printer fails, you end up with a partially functional, marginal quality printer or scanner... or have to replace the whole unit and start all over.

Finally, some printers have user-replaceable print heads. That's the most likely part to wear or get clogged, so this can be a useful feature.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

"amfoto1" covered a lot of good information, including inks. One minor point is the cost of inks. In my case I had an Epson with inks costing in the twenties each and went to the Canon Pro 1000 and inks are about $70.00 each but, the cartridges are maybe 7 to 10 times the size. Point is cartridge cost is not simple as just price.
As a side point you will have a lot of us say use aftermarket inks and save money. I lookout it as I m spent thousands on equipment and the final product is your print so why cut corners on oink or cheep paper. The printer make a printer and engineers a program to give you the best picture they can with the exact inks the supply and id the aftermarket red the same in a Canon or Epson or what ever brand. Probably not so the color program is not perfect. ( my choice of Canon Pro1000 was because I went to a show and Canon was making prints for the people and using a Pro 1000. If that was the one they used to show people I would get it)

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

A second hour Canon pixma. Used them for years.

Murray Loc: New Westminster

Agree completely

Richard Spencer Loc: Evansville, Indiana

Not quite enough information but here is my personal experience. I am not a professional but do insist on a quality print. In my lifetime I have used a goodly number of printers. I'm 93 yrs old and have been printing almost all my own photos including calendars for some businesses. I have had a few in museums and hospitals.
Almost every printer I ever owned was either a Canon or Epson of one variety or another. My present printer is an Epson XP-7100 that I have been using for about a year and have printed well over a thousand 8.5 x 11 prints. It does a beautiful job and has been absolutely trouble free. By far it is the best I have ever owned.

M from NF Loc: Niagara Falls, NY

Check Hunt's in (I think) Malden, Ma. Check their website first then give them a call. Sometimes on the Canon printers there are rebates available. It's possible that one of their reps who's a member of this forum could see this thread and contact you.
Michael