Print Picture-Perfect Images At Home

It's been a long time since I've taken film to be developed. In fact, I can't remember the last time I bought film. I've been using digital cameras for years, printing photos on inkjet printers.

The experience just got better thanks to Hewlett-Packard's PhotoSmart 7550. This relatively expensive ($399) inkjet printer doesn't exactly match what you get from a photo lab, but it's very close.

The secret is in the inks. HP is using a six-color (actually five colors plus black) ink-printing engine, which gives you more shades or gradations than standard four-ink printers. The printer has other nice attributes as well, including slots to insert just about any type of memory card and the ability to connect directly to an HP PhotoSmart camera, allowing you to print without even using a PC.

You don't have to spend nearly $400 to get quality pictures. HP makes several less expensive printers that use the same technology and inks, starting at $149. Each of these printers uses three cartridges of ink — one black, one color and one especially for color photos. The big difference between this version and the others is that you can have all three ink cartridges in the printer at once. The less expensive models only accommodate two cartridges, so you have to remember to swap one out when you switch between printing photos and regular black text.

There are other differences that may or may not matter. HP's least expensive six-color model, the DeskJet 5550, doesn't have slots for memory cards or a way to directly connect a camera. Personally, that doesn't bother me a bit, because I like the ability to store photos on my PC and use photo-editing software to crop them or adjust brightness, contrast or tint. The 7550 has a small color LCD screen that lets you preview your photos and make some adjustments, but you don't have nearly as much control as you do if you edit them on a PC before printing.

The least expensive entry in HP's newly revamped line of printers is the $79 HP DeskJet 3420. There actually are cheaper models on the market, but this one comes with a separate black and color cartridge that I highly recommend. Some low-cost printers render black by mixing colors, which looks worse and is more expensive than using black ink. The 3420 is reasonably fast (black printing up to 10 pages a minute in draft mode) and the photos look OK. For $20 more, you can buy the 3820, which has twice the print resolution and is about 20 percent faster.

I also tested the Epson Color Stylus Photo 890, which, like HP, uses a six-color ink system. The quality of the photos was also quite good. I found the HP to be a better overall printer, especially if you plan to also use it to print standard text pages. I prefer the way HP handles paper. Epson, like Canon and Lexmark, feeds paper from the top in an almost vertical position. HP has a horizontal paper feed, which is less prone to jamming, though no printer is completely immune from jams.

One nice thing about the Epson is that it supports rolled paper, which can be a convenient way to print smaller photos. Also, in the hands of an expert, the Epson is capable of marvelous quality. My neighbor Patrick Cashmore (www.pcashphoto.com), who is a professional photographer, produces stunning photos with his 890, using a high-quality matte, 100 percent rag paper. Epson has recently replaced this printer with another six-color model, the $349 Stylus Photo 960, but I haven't yet tested it.

Like a lot of technology companies, Hewlett-Packard has had its financial troubles lately, but the printers represent a very profitable niche for the company. Printer manufacturers don't make much money on the printers themselves but on supplies. Although it's theoretically possible to use other companies' ink on an HP printer, most people stick with genuine (and expensive) HP inks.

All printer companies market paper designed especially for their printers and they'll all argue that their paper is perfectly matched for their inks. Personally, I'm not convinced. I've gotten some pretty good results by substituting other papers, including those from other printer manufacturers as well as from companies that make generic inkjet paper.

If you print a lot of black and white text documents, you should consider a laser printer, mostly because they're cheaper to use. An inkjet will typically cost you between 4 cents and 5 cents a page for ink, compared to about 2.5 cents per page for a laser printer. You can now get personal laser printers such as the HP 1000 or the Samsung ML-1250 for about $250.

I have both a laser printer and an inkjet. I use the laser printer for all my routine black printing and the inkjet for photos. My kids sometimes use the inkjet for their school reports because they like adding color.

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By Larry Magid