8 Best Photo Printers 2021
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It’s true that just about any inkjet printer can print your photos nowadays. But if you’re a budding photographer who wants top quality, you can benefit from a dedicated photo printer. If you prefer your photo printer to pull double-duty in your home office to print other documents, we found some great all-in-one printers that still produce excellent prints. Read more below about the types of printers to consider, what features you should look for, and more tips for how you can get the best prints from home.
Types of Photo Printers
Near-dedicated photo printers: Aimed toward amateur photographers, these photo printers offer more professional quality and can usually print up to 13 by 19 inches, also known as A3+ or 13-inch printers.
Snapshot printers: These are designed to print only small photo prints, including 2 by 3 inches, 4 by 6 inches, or 5 by 7 inches, but won’t support letter-sized paper. Compared to all-in-one printers, they’re fairly compact and portable.
All-in-one printers: These inkjet printers can do more than photos, including regular text documents as well as scanning, copying, and faxing. Some inkjets come with more than just cyan, magenta, and yellows inks, though, which make them better for photo printing.
Dye vs. Pigment Inks
We interviewed UK architectural photographer Keith Cooper, who has been testing printers and color management kits for over 15 years, for his advice on how to decide between dye versus pigment-based ink printers.
Pigment inks can produce prints that are considered archival quality, which is important if you’re selling fine art prints, but may not be worth the additional expense, compared to dye inks, for you. “If you are interested in black and white printing, then pigment inks are invariably better,” says Cooper. Pigment inks also often have a wider color gamut, and pigment ink printers may come with extra ink colors like grey, which produce better black-and-white photos. However, in addition to generally being more affordable, dye-based inks can produce superior results for ultra glossy prints, so your decision depends on your photo printing needs, if you want your photos to last over a lifetime, and your budget.
With all inks, it’s also important to stick with the ink by the same brand as your printer to ensure compatibility and quality, instead of cheaper and lower-quality third-party inks.
How to Print the Best Photos From Home
Cooper also provided tips for photographers looking to improve the quality of their prints from home, besides investing in a quality printer. For one, he recommends learning the basics of color management, such as using printer profiles and calibrating your computer monitor.
The quality of photo paper you use is also just as important as the printer itself. But Cooper recommends to not “get carried away trying paper after paper to search for ‘better printers’ until you have mastered a few basic paper types.” If you’re new to photo printing, start with a few basic papers and experiment with printing test images to learn the process. In the end, “learning to print is a wonderful way of improving all aspects of your photography,” according to Cooper.
That being said, if you print infrequently, the price of the printer and its associated maintenance may not be worthwhile for you. Amateur photographers who want the occasional professional print are better off going with a professional printing service, and those who just want occasional family photos on standard 4 x 6 glossy paper can go to the local drugstore printing service. A good rule of thumb is that you should use your printer at least every two weeks to help extend its life and prevent ink from drying, so be realistic about the type of equipment you really need before investing in one of these printers.
How We Selected
In addition to consulting with photography printing expert Keith Cooper, we researched six expert sources including PC Mag, Digital Camera World, and Tech Radar to determine the best photo printers. We considered a variety of printer and ink types, including pigment and dye-based photo printers, all-in-one inkjets, and portable snapshot printers, so we’re confident one of these printers will meet your needs no matter what type of photos you want to print. In addition to expert reviews, we also considered consumer reviews from sites like Amazon to determine how user-friendly and reliable these models are.
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