Andrew said:
From what I heard, inkjet printer can produce good quality color photo,
even better than the thermal printers sometimes. I hope this is true.
Yes it's true, good inkjet printers produce excellent photos. But if you
intend to print hundreds or thousands of photos over the next few years,
a photo lab is usually cheaper.
If you want to refill your ink cartridges, you can reduce your costs to
the same or less than a photo lab though.
Anyway, I need a good quality color printer for home use. It should be
dependable, good quality, manageable ink suplies and papers.
I can spend $200-$300 if that is what it demands.
Do you need card readers, LCD display screen, or networking features?
These greatly influence the cost of various printers. If you don't need
those options, look at the "all purpose" printers. They can produce
excellent photos as well, but are not labeled as photo printers because
they don't have the extraneous features that make it LOOK like a photo
printer.
As for specific models, I used to recommend Canon, but after hearing of
printhead failures, and then experiencing it today on my own 16 month
old i850, I can not do that anymore. I'm disappointed in Canon quality
once again, and may have to go back to recommending HP.
No matter what you get, I suggest you look at the midrange priced
printers. That seems to be the "sweet spot" where you get a decent unit
with a nice selection of features, and good performance. A friend just
picked up the HP Deskjet 6540 after a few days of comparisons, and it
seems to be a great printer. Four or six colour printing, optional gray
cartridge for B&W prints, fast, quiet, and works flawlessly. I'm
thinking about getting one myself.
