I ran an inkjet printing department in a portrait lab. We *never* printed borderless prints. We ran our Epson 44" printers day and night in peak seasons for three months in the Spring and five months in Fall and Winter. We ran them enough the rest of the year to keep the ink moving. They were quite durable, and the quality remained consistent for years. We did a head alignment when needed, which was rarely.

Wide format pigment printers need frequent use, because the pigment settles out of the ink to the bottom of ink lines that feed the heads from the cartridges mounted on the side of the printer. Ink will precipitate if mixed with certain third party inks. When that happens, you need new heads, lines, and ink! That gets expensive. I use and recommend OEM inks for all brands of printers.

`laser or inkjet — INKJET for photos. LASER for office documents. Laser prints don't last! Photo inkjet inks can last 100-400 years!
`minimum dpi — 1440x720 or close to that. The larger the print, the lower the resolution required.
`brand — Epson or Canon printers made for PHOTO printing.
` cartridges or tank ink — Tanks, if you can get a true PHOTO printer with more than four ink tanks
` print speed — It is what it is. The higher the resolution, the longer it takes. Double the resolution and it takes four times longer to print!
` quality vs quantity — Most inkjet printers have several speeds. The trade-off is speed versus resolution. Worry about quality FIRST.
` best place to purchase — B&H, Adorama, Roberts, or similar LARGE online retailers. NOT Abe's of Maine or 42nd Street Photo.
` wifi ? or cable hook up — The vast majority of printers sold today offer WiFi, wired Ethernet, and USB connections. Pick your poison.
`compatible with both Mac and windows — Not usually an issue. But if you buy any model older than four years, Mac compatibility may be limited. You want a newer model to get NATIVE Apple Silicon driver support. Apple's Rosetta 2 Intel processor emulation will go away in a few years.

I would look at the Canon Pixma Pro 200 and the Epson ET-8550. They're dye ink models.

For maximum print longevity, look at pigment ink printers (Epson P-Series). Be prepared to pay more for printer and inks.

If you get an Epson pigment OR dye ink printer, print at least one 8x10 per week. Epsons thrive on constant use.

Don't believe any claims about borderless printing! To print borderlessly, the printer has to spray ink BEYOND the edges of the paper. That ink collects on internal printer parts, and transfers from those parts to subsequent prints. That causes smudging, especially if you make a borderless 4x6 and then print something larger. Just accept the fact that printing on a slightly larger paper will save you money in the long run.

13x19 printers are for 12x18 and smaller prints.
8.5x11 printers are for 8x10 and smaller prints.

If you print from Lightroom Classic (HIGHLY recommended), you can design package print layouts, or put several different images on the same sheet of paper. This can help you make the most of your media.

I am a Lightroom Classic subscriber and use it at least monthly processing photos. Photography is my hobby not profession. I attended a workshop where Smart Photo Editor was quickly demonstrated. The cost (best recollection) was $29 for a stand alone and $49 to link with Lightroom.

I’m wondering if anyone else on this forum uses Smart Photo Editor and what you think of it. The demo was awesome, but I’m wondering if it’s just another type of GAS. I seem to take a lot of photos that I never get back to process in Lightroom, I’m wondering if this might help address that issue.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

I am looking at upgrading from my MacBook Pro 15 2015 Model. It really stumbles when trying to edit photos.

I have looked at a Dell XPS 15 and the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 and would like to know what you think?

The last years model of XPS is priced competitively. About 1K less than the Apple however that changes daily. Also you have to send the trade, wait for evaluation and then the credit. The Dell still seems to have a problem with the fan running extremely high when doing any type of intensive processing. I’ve had many Dell products over the years for business and they can be noisy.

Growing up I remember singing the refrain to the song “ Make me a blessing”.
It went something like this:
Lord, make me a blessing to-day,
A blessing to someone, I pray;
In all that I do, in all that I say,
O make me a blessing to-day.
What does it take for someone to snap a couple shots…2 minutes of your time. Just think, you were a blessing to someone who will remember you each time they look at the picture you took. No it wasn’t professional but your time and the results were appreciated.