OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

I'm just wondering what people's experiences have been when it comes to printing photos. Now I'm not taking about professional prints or for that matter, really large images. Rather, I'm talking about printing photos for everyday use.

As for myself, I've been a long time fan of Epson printers, for a couple of reasons. To start with, my first trip to Japan, back in 1982, was when our company formed a partnership with Seiko. I was part of the team that spent a week in Tokyo negotiating the terms of the deal where they would become the exclusive supplier of our CAD/CAE/CAM software in Japan. That was when I learned that Epson was one of the divisions of Seiko and was one of the early adopters of our software within the Seiko organization. Over the years, I tended to buy from companies that used our software to design and manufacture their products. Hence, my long term use of Apple computers, Seiko watches, GM automobiles and Epson printers/scanners. And more recently, my wife's purchase of a Mercedes C300.

Anyway, getting back to photo printers, I went through a couple of Epson photo printers, the last being an Epson Stylus Photo R2000 large format ('B' size) printer. I used it for about five years, but it eventually started to be a pain in the butt. The cost of ink, when I could even find it, was very expensive. And because of that and the fact that it wasn't all that fast for everyday print tasks, I opted to use another Epson printer for those everyday print tasks. Besides, I liked the all-in one features of the Epson WorkForce printers. They were faster, could send and receive FAX's and could copy and scan documents. We're currently using an Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4820.

But getting back to my Epson photo printer, one of the longer term problems was once we added one of those Epson WorkForce printers to our setup, we started to use the photo printer less often, which led to the problem of the ink tending to dry out and gumming-up the works. I tried using one of those cleaning kits but even then, it was often the ink cartridges themself which clogged-up and since this printers had 8 ink cartridges, at around $23/cartridge, it was just costing an arm and a leg. So I finally dumped it (it went to the recyclers). One feature that I miss is that the Epson R2000 allowed you to print labels directly on to 'printable' CD's. I now use Avery labels printed on the Epson WorkForce printer.

To replace the Epson photo printer, while it only does 4 x 6 prints, I went on ebay and bought a used Canon Selphy CP900 printer. Now this printer uses the dye-sublimation, four-pass process (Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Clear) but it works well when you need a few prints quickly. And the quality is very good (dye-sublimation produces very clean, high-resolution prints). Granted, it would be expensive to make a lot of prints using this device, but for the occasional everyday use, it's very handy, like when my wife needed to get a new passport, this was perfect for printing the passport photos that we needed to submit with the application. Now if I need something larger than 4 x 6, or I need a lot of prints, while I used to go to Costco for that, since they've pretty much gone out of that business, I now upload them to Walgreens and get my prints there.

Also note that the Canon Selphy printer is very compact and came with its own travel case. I've taken it on a couple of trips where it was fun handing out quick prints to friends and relatives after some activity. Granted, we offer to upload digital images but for some people, often a 'snapshot' is more appreciated.

The only problem that I have with the Canon Selphy is that Canon on longer provides software that supports wireless connections, at least not for our MacBook systems. So I use a 'sneaker net' (USB memory sticks) to upload images to the printer.

Bill_de Loc: US

Thanks for letting us know how you are getting along.

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PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Ex-lab guy here. I spent three decades working for large school portrait and yearbook companies in various people and project management roles. I grew up with a darkroom in my parents' basement, was an AV producer for eight years, and managed various departments in both a film/optical lab and a digital lab. So here's my take:

Epson and Canon make great photo inkjet printers. Their technology is different. If you want the very widest color gamut and maximum print longevity, Epson has that. Canon comes close, but with the additional benefit that their hardware is less likely to form ink clogs in the printheads. If you print A LOT, and OFTEN, Epson is probably the better choice. But if you print infrequently and in small batches, get a Canon.

That said, DO NOT buy a home printer to save money! Personal inkjet printing is for:

> PRIVACY — If you have sensitive photos of subjects that are not meant for public consumption, don't even think of sending them to a photo lab. If you're a spy, or a private investigator, or you make nudes of the people in your life, print them at home.

> IMMEDIACY — If you need an image a few minutes after you photograph it, inkjet or dye sublimation is great. If you're an event photographer, printing on site is best done with roll-fed dye-sub printers.

> QUALITY — If you want to print on archival papers, cotton rag papers, canvas, art board, or baryta base paper, inkjet can give you the widest color gamut, the highest dMax, and the longest print life of any photographic process. Use a pigment ink printer with 8 to 12 inks. Connect your computer directly to the printer. If you print from Lightroom Classic, conversion from raw file to internal bitmap at 16-bits in wide gamut color happens first, then conversion directly from that to the ink/paper/printer profile happens at print time, with no intermediate file (TIFF or JPEG) to reduce the quality.

This is the way high end art museums, celebrity photographers, ad agencies, gicleé service bureaus, and top art schools print. It can cost five to ten times as much as traditional silver halide wet process chromogenic photo lab printing, but it is worth it in some situations.

> CONTROL — If you are a true control freak who wishes to tame color and tone, use a high-end pigment or dye ink inkjet printer. It takes a bit of study, practice, skill, and money for printer and supplies to get to a point where what you see on your monitor is what comes out of the printer, but you can get there if you are patient and smart.

IMHO, if you don't need these things, you will be better off using a lab for most printing. If you are a working pro, in MOST instances you will be better served by using a professional color lab that can do both traditional silver halide chromogenic printing AND inkjet printing. Understanding and practicing good ICC color management is a necessity for professional results in either case, so get some education in monitor calibration and ICC color managed workflows.

For enthusiasts, there are many websites that offer image storage for free, so long as you use their lab for printing on a regular basis. You can even share images with others via their sites, and let friends and family order prints and other products from those sites. This can be a very efficient solution! The better you manage color on your end, the better the lab output will be, which is why I cannot stress enough the importance of proper, hardware-and-software-based, monitor calibration and profiling. It really is the key to "what you see on the monitor is what they deliver on the print" results.

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

Thanks for the comments. From my post, you can see that I'm already basically following your advice, but I have to admit that for several years I tried to do all my own photo printing, at least up to 'B-size' prints. However, I've given all that up and the only true photo printing that I do on my own is using that small Canon Selphy dye-sub printer, because it's quick and easy, but if I need quantity or larger sizes, I opt for a lab.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

Look at Precision colors for your ink and icc profiles

Dean37 Loc: Fresno, CA

I gave up printing with inkjet printers, though if they had one that had 6 to 8 colors and the cartridges wouldn't dry out, I would reconsider.

I use my color laser printer to print what I call proofs (they are to me). Then anything I really want for a printed photograph regardless of size, I send out to a photo lab. The good ones know what they are doing and I get the prints I want. Friends and relatives get my photos emailed to them.

It works for me.

dannac Loc: 60 miles SW of New Orleans

This was great ... thank you !

Ez78211 Loc: Texas

I have been printing with an HP envy 4500 since it came on the market. Never had any issues with them. Sometimes it will sit for weeks. The ink never dries or clogs. Very pleased with the scans and printouts. Colors are lifelike. I tend to be a very picky person.