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Hi,

What is a good printer to print pictures with? My laptop can not support my new software that I got to download my pictures. Any advise? Thanks


Thanks
Ann

PhotoArtsLA Loc: Boynton Beach

The Epson Photo Series of printers are very much a standard in professional photography. I have six of them up to 44 inches wide.

The ones ending in "880" are the prime photo printers. They will astonish you in their photo quality for color and black and white.

Check out

http://tinyurl.com/3ckwax6

And note the PHOTO printers.

Big Epson Photo Printer

drbarrymary Loc: No. Carolina, Florida

I have an older Epson R-1800 and am very happy with it. It prints up to 13" X 19" Al of the inks seem expensive to me.

Randyb1969 Loc: Armpit of California

I have an Epson all-in-one and the ink can be costly, but we were using it for everything. I since upgraded to a laser for most of my printing, but still have the Epson for scanning but I have been thinking about getting some good ink and making some prints at home.

As for your laptop software problem, sounds like you've only got two options. Either you can look for older versions of the software that have lower requirements or you can upgrade your computer.

myts10 Loc: SE Ohio

I wish I could afford one of those Epson printers, but until I win the lottery cheap will have to do. I use a Canon Pixma iP3600. You can get one for less than $100, ink is cheap if you shop around. I have found that paper and printing with ICC profiles makes a BIG difference in the quality of prints. I have hanging 8x10's that look better than any store bought art. Check Red River paper, you can buy a box of sample sheets for $13 well worth the time and cost to experiment with.
Anything larger than 8x10 I send via e-mail to WalMart. A 14x11 cost me $8 delivered. Never have to leave the house to get it done.
BTW I am just an armature making do with what I got. And, at times, I do very well thank you.
Good luck Ann,
Gary

Landschaft Mahler Loc: Nebraska

It all depends on what you want from the printer. Are you planning on selling the prints, do you want them to have a long life, are you concerned about archival issues? If any or all this is you, then get an Epson 880 series and have full control of amazing finished prints. If they are for your own enjoyment then go to Wally world and hang them till they fade.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I agree with Epson being top dog. They are fine, fine printers and reasonably economical to operate compared to some others. I don't know what price range you're looking for but I use an Epson Stylus Photo 1400 with Claria Hi-Definition Inks. It can do borderless 13X19 because it is considered wide-carriage. I rarely use that size but it's nice to have the option.

I paid $200 for mine at Office Max. I've seen them around for $175 to $225. Costco had them although you'd have to check if they still do. The prints from it are exceptional to my eyes.

It uses (6) independent cartridges so if one runs out you don't have to replace all inks, just that one. I had a Canon printer like that years ago and I found the approach appealing to keep ink costs down. Different colors definitely are used heavier than others so independent cartridges are the only way to go.

I also feel good about using WalMart for prints if you have something you want to make 10 copies of and it would suck away all your ink. Not everything you shoot is a work of art, so why waste your expensive printing supplies? Contrary to critics, WalMart uses serious quality Fuji and Kodak commercial machines that are not inkjet like we are accustomed to. It's the same quality of machines that were used by camera stores back when camera stores were the only place to have prints made and then examined visually for color correctness by part time high schoolers who didn't know what the colors were supposed to be anyway.

Information about print life from those machines are available, either from the machine manufacturer or maybe even from the WalMart print center manager. In the past, commercial machine print life was considerably longer than home-grown prints but as home printers have evolved, 100 year print life isn't uncommon now - if you use Epson paper and Epson inks with an Epson printer or Canon paper with Canon inks and a Canon printer to create a "system" approach. Some people don't think there's a difference in inks from one manufacturer to another but there is. There are very technical white paper reports available online that prove print life is directly dependent on the paper and ink combinations.

beegal Loc: Pennsylvania

I have the epson 1440. I can print up to 13x19 prints. I used to own a UPS Store and this is the printer that we used there. It print quality prints. The ink can be pricey but you get what you pay for.

condor

One of my club members just told me that if you use a Mac to edit your photos then download them to a disk or flash drive it always gives you 3 print resolutions and the printers always default to the lowest one (used for email)so you should always specify which one you want. Anyone know anything about this?

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

It may be true that Mac does that as a convenience to you but I don't use Mac. A printer that is meant for use on any USB computer, whether it's PC, Mac, or anything else, should not be picking anything for you. You choose which photo to open and then tell the printer you want it printed and what size to print it. I'd have to say your club member is off base.

PhotoArtsLA Loc: Boynton Beach

I have never seen this on any of my Macs. It might be a function in a non-professional software, but in photography, some variation of Photoshop is the standard. In Photoshop, YOU set the standards for your resolution. If you want multiple resolutions, just start with (and save) your high resolution master, then do a scale to a lower resolution, perhaps to make an 8x10ish print (and save that VERSION under a NEW name) and then scale again, to 72 dpi, for your Web version, and "save for Web" under yet ANOTHER name.

The "Save as..." command is the tool for the above saving ritual, which I do all the time, basically just the highest unaltered resolution, both in LAYERED mode, and one in FLATTENED mode, and then load the flattened high res and scale IT to the Internet, and "Save for Web" that one.

The flattened high resolution image always is save as a TIF. When I need to make an enlargement for 24x36 inch printing on my BIG Epson, I send the full res TIF file to PhotoZoom Pro 4, which is an excellent enlargement utility.

I also use PhotoZoom Pro 4 when I'm doing publications work and find sent-in files to be too small for publication. This happens more often than you can imagine, and Photo Zoom Pro saves the day, most of the time.

Find it here:

http://www.benvista.com/photozoompro

Now, as to day to day printing versus photo printing...

I agree, inks are the bane of our lives, as they are costly. Yet, a 24x36 inch print specs out at less than $1 for ink and paper. Still, I think ink is expensive when ONE color cartridge costs $120, and the machine takes a BUNCH of them.

The smaller Epsons have proportionately scaled ink costs, so it's still a pricey thing. Oh, well, it is still MUCH cheaper than a lab (which I used to own) and it delivers the same, and in fact often, BETTER quality if only due to Photoshop magic.

That said, if you have a lot of day to day printing, and the Epson seems expensive to handle photo and everyday tasks, the trick is: buy a day to day printer and save the Epson for your photos.

The day to day printer I use is a Xerox color laser. These are professionally intended printers and are amazingly fast printing color and black and white, or just text pages. I recommend Xerox color lasers mightily. You almost immediately appreciate the move to corporate level printing. As many Xerox color lasers are Pantone Certified and all are CMYK, you can do magazine proofing on them... yay!

Good printing, everyone!

This file's name has "_1K.jpg" at its end to indicate 1000 pixels max dimension

condor

Beautiful shot, is that an actual sunset or just a mural?