Olympus Printer

photo printer?

please can someone advise me about buying a photo printer. i would like to know what specifications im looking for, as i dont know much about this stuff. i love taking photos and have just shelled out on a new digital camera. i have an epson all in 1 scanner copier and printer, which is fine for printing documents etc, and for some reason photos look ok on ordinary plain paper but lose quality on glossy photo paper(sounds mad i know). i also have a compact photo printer by hp which gives better photos, but they still nowhere near the quality of a proper photo(is this even possible?)and can only do 6x4 prints. if you can reccomend a printer thats good but can some1 explain what features i need to look for please. aha yes, my printer gives me options of paper types-plain papers, epson matt epson ultra glossy etc etc but will not allow me to choose any other than plain papers, is this cos somehow it knows that the paper is not epson branded? computers are just too clever for me!

Public Comments

1. When printing on special paper, you'll want to make sure and set your printer properties so that the driver knows it's printing on special paper, otherwise it won't look as good. You may need to consult your manual, or the website of the printer's manufacturer to find out how.
2. the all in one epson is fine but if you want to print photos on glossy paper you'll need a photo cartrige... you can buy one at a computer shop
3. Canon makes a good one. But so many are all good these days. Don't need to spend a lot. Just talk to the salesperson at the store and he'll point you in the right direction.
4. Do you really want to print your own photos? I did for years, but I have found it's cheaper and I get better results using a pro-lab. But heres what you need to look at: High resolution 9600x2400 or higher, more nozzles = higher quality, ink droplet size, ink intensity, # of ink cartridges, longevity of ink, finished print size. Hope it helps.
5. The Epson printers are definitely the best quality photo printers that are out there. I have an Epson Stylus Photo 2400, which is about $1000 (I'm a photographer). It prints perfect photos as long as you use the Epson paper. I've found that using the correct paper, the one that's recommended by the maufacturer, makes a huge difference to the quality of your photos. But, that said, before I got my expensive printer I had a cheapo HP photo printer that was like $200 and it worked really well for any casual photos I took, as long as I was using the "photo quality" ink for it. I would still suggest an Epson if you want to get the best quality, they have photo printers from $90 and up. The more you pay, the better resolution you'll get and the larger photo you'll be able to print. For the paper quality thing, you'll only be able to choose various paper qualities if you're printing a high quality photo. On the Epson you have to choose "photo" or "best photo" an then it'll let you choose the photo paper quality.