At the present moment one can find a variety of photo paper for printing at home. There are also a great number of amateur and professional digital cameras which give photos of exceptional quality due to the huge resolution power of their matrix. Therefore an amateur photographer sets the problem to find not only a good photo printer but photo paper of the best quality for day-to-day printing and art photo exhibitions as well.

Photo paper represents paper specially designed for photo printing, graphic presentations and illustrations. It is a dense paper with multilayer surface meant for the improvement of mixing of inks to impenetrate the paper. Photo paper also has a special superficial layer that protects the image from external actions. Thanks to a special structure, the photo paper provides a high resolution of image. Photo paper is also distinguished by high density, to prevent the printing of an image on the other side of paper. You can purchase photo paper in various formats. Depending on the character of special covering, photo paper can be Semi-gloss, Glossy, High-gloss and Matte. You can find double-sided paper such as Glossy/Matter and some other variations.

The glossy photo paper is characterized by high density and the presence of glossy layer on its surface. This layer prevents washing-off and discoloration of inks from the paper surface. It is usually used for printing of photos with soft halftones and bright sceneries. The glossy photo paper is also good for portrait photos and some other types of printing that requires rich color rendition and high reflectivity. The disadvantage of this type of photo paper is the following: you can not use pigment inks for printing as they are easily obliterated. If you want to print photos on paper with glossy effect by using pigment inks, in this case you should apply super glossy paper that has a special layer that prevents the physical tear and wear of a photo.

The matte photo paper can be of various densities. The matte paper with less density is mainly used for the production of the printing produce such as booklets, leaflets, presentations, etc. The matte paper with higher density is used for the printing of high quality photographs for exhibitions and photo albums. As distinct from glossy and High-gloss paper, the matter one goes very well with all types of inks such as water, sublimation and pigment ink. The matte paper is ideal for images with many details, for such photos where it is more important to render small parts rather than halftones. The advantages of the matte paper are characterized by its low cost and its steadiness to mechanical failures such as scratches and fingerprints.

There are also a variety of specialized photo paper such as self-adhesive and textured (canvas) paper, heat transfer paper and many others. You can use both water and pigment ink for these types of photo paper as it is mainly used for the needs of printing industry.

As regards the durability of photos printed at the inkjet printers, the type of paper covering plays a very important role. The photo paper covering meant for inject printers can be swelling or porous. The swelling covering consists of synthetic and natural polymers that swell when getting into contact with water or ink. Once the printing dries up, the dye stuff is airtightly fixed in the paper covering, and this prevents the contact with the air and its admixtures. The photo paper with porous covering dries faster than that with the swelling covering. However the photos printed on the paper with porous surface fade under the influence of the air, therefore such photos should be kept under the protective glass.

Photo paper is produced for inkjet, laser and sublimation photo printers. It is produced in various formats from A3+ (Super A3) to wallet cards for printing of photos. The characteristics of up-to-date high quality photo paper for inkjet printers are characterized by lightfastness and steadiness to discoloration. A photo can preserve its initial state in the course of approximately 20 years if you will keep it under glass and in the course of 15 years without keeping it under the glass. It is recommended to keep printed photos in a cool and dry place with relative humidity no more than 80 %.

Not the least of the factors is of course the price of photo paper. The most expensive photo paper is the original one such as Epson, Canon, HP, etc.

Canon PIXMA iP8500 is one of the best photo printers. Canon has found an original idea – to add red and green colors in the standard palette of the cartridge set. Due to red and green ink, Canon managed to achieve the exceptional quality of printing of “natural” photos. All the inkpots are placed separately, so you will replace only an empty ink cartridge, instead of the whole cartridge set.

HP PhotoSmart 8453. If you do not consider yourself to be a professional photographer but still you want to enjoy high quality pictures, in this case this photo printer will be a perfect option for you. HP PhotoSmart 8453 is an inkjet photo printer with eight colors.

The printer uses the standard color set of a printer with six colors such as blue, yellow, crimson, sky blue, light-pink, black. As the need arises, you can supplement this color set with three black color gradations (light-grey, grey and photo black). It is worth mentioning that this photo printer copes with the elaboration of the smallest details perfectly well. The thing is that the photo printer actively works on the smallest lines and contrasting variations using its grey palette. Consequently you get more saturated photos.

PhotoSmart 8453 is supplied with various technical features: 2.5 inch LCD, card reader that supports all the popular memory cards (Secure Digital, MultiMedia, Sony Memory Stick, SmartMedia, xD-Picture, Compact Flash I and II), multi-keyed keypad that allows managing of the printer without your computer. This model meets the requirements of an up-to-date home photo printer.

Canon PIXMA MP800 is printer with five colors. In spite of small number of colors from the main palette, the photos turn out very realistic and perfectly worked through. Taking into account the high quality of pictures, Full-Photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering feature plays a very important role. The combination of the accuracy of the printing process and high quality ink and photo paper considerably improves the quality of photos.

The scanner of Canon PIXMA MP800 works with both paper forms and films. This device is able to recognize your film photo collection and digitize it. The photos from the films can be not only scanned but printed as well.

Lexmark Photo All-in-one P6250 is perfect for photographers who highly value good quality pictures. The pictures turn out even and the colors bright and rich. The printer does not require the definite choice of paper.

Lexmark P6250 comes with colored LCD, card reader and keypad.

The Japanese company Canon has launched an inkjet photo printer Canon PIXMA iP2702. Its price makes up about $50. You will be pleasantly amazed by the unique and compact design of this unit. The model PIXMA iP2702 is distinguished by well-engineered design and therefore it is the best choice for people who need a simple and convenient unit for home usage. It is devoid of control panel having only power and cancel/resume buttons.

The new product is supplied with cutting-edge software, including the package Auto Photo Fix 2. The given package lets the photo printer of entry level to print pictures of good quality. The superset of software includes also Easy-Web Print Ex. The applications in the form of the Solution Menu and My Printer simplify the managing of Canon PIXMA iP2702. By the means of the function Easy-Photo Printer you are permitted to create calendars and album pages.

The proprietary technology Canon implies the photolithographic making of ink nozzles. Thanks to this technology the black ink which is created on the basis of pigment let you to print not only clear pictures, but texts as well. For instance, 2 Pico liter droplet lets you to receive pictures without any grain with the resolution 4800*1200 points in an inch. If you use original photo paper Canon and ink Canon which are created on the basis of innovation technique ChromaLife 100+ your photos will be resistant to discoloration.

Of course one of the main disadvantages of Canon PIXMA iP2702 is its speed. However this minus is explained by the low price of the photo printer which represents just entry level. For example, the time, needed for a photo laboratory printing of a photo, which is 10 x 15 cm in size, makes up 55 seconds.

It should be taken into consideration that the standard-size cartridges for this unit are not that cheap. For example, black will be sufficient for 220 pages and it costs $15, 99. The unified color cartridge will do for 244 pages and its price is $20, 99. A page which contains all 4 colors will cost you 15.9 cents.

Although all-in-one printers now substantially outsell single-function machines, there are several reasons why you might not want to go the multi-function route. Single function printers, like Canon’s PIXMA iP4700 reviewed here, are smaller than equivalent all-in-ones and quite a bit cheaper to buy, too. It could even be that you already have a scanner, so wouldn’t need to buy a printing device with one built in.

The PIXMA iP4700 (more…)

If you’re buying an entry-level all-in-one, you might expect a lot lower spec than when buying in the mid or high price ranges, but in many cases the core functions, like printing and scanning, will be much the same from machine to machine and it’s only the feature set which differs. Canon’s PIXMA MP490 is one of these.

Over recent launches Canon has reduced the size of its machines, so they look less like harmoniums and more (more…)

So you thought there wasn’t any room left for innovation in the realm of printers did you? Well that makes two of us. Two of us who are equally wrong it turns out because Canon’s latest, the Selphy ES40, will
you through the process of touching-up and printing photos. Clever, no?
As per a number of other Canon printers, image editing facilities are provided on the ES40, so that photos can be tweaked and printed direct from a camera or memory card, (more…)

- Canon announced a new compact Selphy printer this morning that talks to the user. The ES40 is a $150 photo printer that includes a 3.-5 inch screen and a voice guidance system that talks the user through the process of printing photos.
The Selphy ES40 is a compact photo printer that measures just 8.9 by 8.9 by 5.4 inches and includes a carrying handle. It can produce prints at up to 4 x 6 inches, and Canon claims that it can produce a print in (more…)

You’ll be struck by how similar this printer looks like a handbag when you first take it out of the box. But, at just under 3kg, the ES3 is a little too heavy to be entering into the aforementioned carry-all territory, instead relegating it to its intended use — a compact photo printer.
, a lower-specification model which we also reviewed, the ES3 is a dye-sublimation printer that uses paper and ink combined in the one unit. With a bigger (more…)

In many ways this all-in-one is the business equivalent of the PIXMA MP520 we looked at last week. Both have very similar purchase prices and where the MP machine includes memory card readers, a colour LCD display and a second paper tray, this one includes an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) and fax facilities.
The PIXMA MX320 has the now familiar design with an angled surround at the top, into which the control panel is set. In the middle of the (more…)

- Canon has announced the Selphy CP790, a new portable inkjet printer which comes in a storage bucket that holds ink, paper and the power cord. When stored, the printer is the lid of the bucket.
The idea is that the user can put all of the supplies they need to print into the bucket and then easily take it on a trip and create prints without a PC. Memory card slots for SD/SDHC, MemoryStick and CompactFlash cards are included, as well as a USB port (more…)