As a digital photo came into being, the approach to the process of photographing and printing underwent great changes. Nowadays there is no need to go to the nearest photo lab, to add a new photo in your photo album. You can do everything at home; sometimes this process does not even presuppose the use of a computer. The main thing is to choose the most appropriate photo printer for home use.

It is considered that an ink-jet photo printer is a good solution for home use. In this regard the ink-jet photo printers have inevitable advantages such as

· smaller size by greater functionality;

· they are cheaper than laser printers;

· better quality of printing;

· the ability to choose a model with the appropriate design.

These advantages incline home users to choose namely ink-jet printers. As regards consumable materials prices, this issue is not very fundamental as the volumes of home printing do not exceed 10-20 pictures per month. Before buying a photo printer for home use it is very important to pay attention to the main technical characteristics that include number of colors, printing resolution, speed parameters, cartridge resources and cost of services, price, supported types of photo paper, etc.

· Number of colors

Modern photo printers support both the monochrome and color printing. In the first case one needs a cartridge with the black ink and in the second case the colored one. Depending on the manufacturers and their adherence to technologies, a printer may contain 3 (Canon entry-level models), 4 (Canon, Epson and Hewlett-Packard entry level models), 5 (Canon), 6 (Epson, Hewlett-Packard), and 8 (Epson and Hewlett-Packard). The more colors a photo printer has, the more naturalness a picture acquires. However, this rule does not mean that 5 color Canon printers print worse than 6 color Epson printers. The thing is that different printers use different technologies that favor the improvement of the picture quality. It is also worth mentioning that the more cartridges a printer includes, the more cost and size it will have.

· Resolution of Printing

As regards the resolution of printing, one must know only one rule: the higher resolution is, the better quality of a photo is.

· Speed of printing

The speed of printing becomes of great importance for home users only in the case, if s/he plans to print a great number of photos and documents every day. By ink-jet printers the printing speed of monochrome documents is higher than that of colored files.

· Cartridge resources and cost of services

Before choosing a photo printer it is very important to clarify volumes of monthly printing. If these volumes are not so high, you should choose a printer model with smaller volume of cartridges and correspondingly with smaller cost of consumables. However if you plan to use a photo printer to the maximum degree it is not recommended to economize on it.

· Supported formats of photo paper

Many people choose A4 photo printers for home use. When choosing a photo printer you should pay attention to the printer paper tray. It is better if a printer has two paper trays: one for photo printing and the other one for documents. The capacity of the main tray in modern models of printers is usually the same and it is meant as a rule for about 100 sheets.

· Additional Parameters

Integrated Display: a built-in display in a photo printer is a handy device control. It is used to view photos, to edit photos, etc.

Support of wireless interfaces: the wireless communication has a great advantage as you can set your printer in any room of your house.

Card reader: people who value mobility can pay attention to the printing directly of card readers, USB Flash or telephones (PictBridge).

Here is the selection of the most asked-for photo printers for home use

Canon IP6700d

The device comes with the practically maximum number of cartridges (6 pieces), extra-large 3.5-inch color LCD. It is distinguished by the superb resolution of printing (9600 х 2400 dpi). The printer also has a card reader (7 in 1) and the ability to print on CD/DVDs. The user can connect Canon IP6700d not only with the help of the standard USB-cable but by the means of the wireless connection as well (Bluetooth and IrDA). Canon IP6700d costs about 200$.

The printer model uses FINE technology and ChromaLife100 system for vivid and wonderful photo printing. To print out a 4 x 6 inch borderless photo you will need 47 seconds.

Epson Stylus R390

The printing abilities of this printer impress by the availability of six cartridges and speed of printing. The speed of printing by this model is practically twice is high than by the previous model. Epson Stylus R390 comes with 3, 5 inch display and it supports printing directly of USB carriers and 6 types of memory cards. The user can make a connection to a computer with the help of Bluetooth. The main disadvantage of this printer is its high cost that is 40$ more expansive than Canon IP6700d. However the cost of a full-format colored picture makes up approximately 18, 3 cents.

Hewlett-Packard Photosmart D7463

This photo printer has 6 colors available. It is distinguished by 3, 5 inch touch-sensitive display and built-in Ethernet-adapter. According to the user’s choice you can turn Hewlett-Packard Photosmart D7463 to a network printer. The other technical parameters include PictBridge support, 5-in-1 card reader, and appropriate speed characteristics.

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.

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.

Some people hesitate in the choice concerning a new photo printer. The crux of the matter is that at the present moment in the world market there is a considerable amount of photo printers, which differ in constructional properties as well as in concrete specifications. Before making the right decision on either a laser or inject printer one should examine the individual properties of these types of printers each taken separately.

As far as laser photo printers concerns, their principle of operation consists in putting the matt toner on the paper. If one takes into consideration the structure of a picture, it is notably that it will remind you of a printed photo in newspapers. On its closer examination one notices, that a photo, which was printed by a laser photo printer, consists of tiny black circlets. Therefore, the quality of printing is determined by the size of the given circlets. If a printing resolution is of high quality, in this case the circlets will be less noticeable. Thus the picture will be qualitative in tote. Currently, laser photo printers allow you to get pictures which are very close to the quality of photos. However, good quality also means high price. Laser photo printers that are cheaper are at disadvantage, concerning the quality of printing. Among the other properties of laser printers, one can single out high speed of printing.

The inject technology of photo printing enjoyed wide popularity over a long period of time. The inkjet printing presupposes the formation of a picture by the means of liquid ink, which is thrown off by a printing head under pressure. It is noteworthy that inkjet photo printers create halftones, by throwing tiny drops of ink on the paper. The drops are put over each other. In the following way a picture gets its tint and color saturation. A picture, printed by the inkjet printer also consists of definite circlets, and each of these circlets has a definite color. These color circlets are very tiny; therefore they are sightless by human eyes. In the issue, a printed picture looks like a continuous one. Different colours and tints are created by the means of the screening process. The given process implies mixing of points of different colours in a single matrix. It should be taken into consideration that screening reduces the resolving capacity of an inkjet photo printer. For all these reasons, the manufactures use different ways of rasters’ applying.

One of main disadvantages of an inkjet photo printer is the streakiness of pictures; however the latest technologies practically have eliminated this disadvantage.

Inkjet photo printers also means good quality of picture printing, their durability and a wide choice of photo paper of different types.