Important Considerations when Choosing a Printer for Digital Photography
August 20, 2010 by admin
Filed under Digital Photography Tips, Featured
Although digital technology allows people to display and store their images using various media which are reputed to last for centuries, there’s still something to be said for having an actual photograph in your hands. Displaying digital images using various types of high-tech equipment can be a bit expensive. Because of this, many people still prefer to showcase their digital images using the conventional picture frame. For this reason, many people like buying printers for digital photography.
Because of the demand for digital photography printers, many companies are scrambling to build products. Each company produces a different kind of digital photography printer and then goes all out in proclaiming it to be the best. Isn’t it just frustrating? Imagine for a moment, that you were a person who wanted to buy a new digital photography printer. To make things easier for you, you decide to choose the best one available. So you go into the store and tell the person at the counter that you want the best digital photography printer available. And then you get hit by this question: what do you mean?
What, indeed, does the term “best” mean when you are selecting a digital photography printer? As with most of things in this life, the term “best” is relative. What’s best for you may not be the best for somebody else. In order to minimize your confusion, here are some standards you should use:
1) Cost – many people actually try to choose the best digital photography printer based on the cost. Of course, most people will claim that quality is expensive. Hence, the most expensive thing on the store must have the highest quality. Others define “best” as being the cheapest. They believe that if they find the lowest-priced digital photography printer available, they would have found the best product for them.
It is important to remember, however, that companies often take customer psychology into account when they are pricing items. Some deliberately price items low in order to encourage sales. Others deliberately price items high in order to give buyers a sense of prestige.
2) Design – some people go by the looks when they are choosing a digital photography printer. Because of this, many companies today hire top-notch artists and designers. People want equipment that looks good. They want to buy a digital photography printer that lets them express themselves through its sleekness and overall appearance.
Design isn’t all about looks. Design is also about function. Many companies today design their digital photography printers to be more appealing functionally to people. They often design digital photography printers to be compact in order to encourage people who, today, think that small is always better.
3) Features – nowadays, people want a digital photography printer that does everything. This is understandable; of course, since having such equipment means that you have to do less work. Many people today like to buy printers which only need miminal peronal supervision. Some of the digital photography printers available today are so packed with features that people come to expect that they should also automaticaly edit out photo blemishes and create works of art.
Just remember, however, that sometimes having fewer features can be an advantage. This is especially true if you are looking for a digital photography which can perform one function well. The best thing a printer can do is provide you with the quality of picture that meets your needs.
Determine now if you want a printer that will cost you he least amount over time for ink and maintnenance. Maybe you want a printer that will always produce high color, brilliant prints of your photos. In this case you must also consider what kind of paper you will be printing. Or you could be someone who enjoys the artisitic look of black and white photographs. In this case you will need to find a printer that can properly display the subtle variations of grays and blacks that will bring your photos to life.
What ever your desires are for printing your photos make sure to be clear about them before you start your search for a printer. It will save you the time and hassle of discovering later that you bought a printer that a salesman wanted you to have and not the one that printed best for you.




Gene, Thank you for your comments. We are considering adding a page to our website containing links to more detailed user reviews of both camera’s and equipment for the very reasons you’ve listed. We are in the process of gathering those resources and making sure they provide the information we know our readers desire. We will post them as soon as we can.
Maybe my expectations of this article were unrealistically high, but these considerations seemed pretty generic to me. I was hoping for something a bit more specific, such as pros/cons of a pigment style printer versus other ink-jet versus laser; maybe what type of printer digital photographers prefer these days and why, the relative merit of a separate ink cartridge for various colors, especially black; pros/cons of more versus less discrete ink cartridges, etc.; a list of web sites, books or other articles on this subject. I know this is an aggressive list of topics for a short article, but pointers to more in-depth treatment of at least some of these resources would have been more useful to me personally (transitioning from a high level amateur digital photographer to professional freelance editorial stock photographer). Thanks for the article AND the opportunity to comment.