Tutorial > Comparing Printers

Choosing an Inkjet Printer – Developing Criteria

Canon, Epson, Hewlett Packard and Lexmark are the most common inkjet printer brands in the U.S. Each company markets many different models. When shopping for a new inkjet printer, think about your needs and build a criteria list to help narrow the choices.

Functional criteria - here are some things to consider when building your criteria list:

• Will the printer only be used for printing photos? Will it also be used for printing general text and graphics?
• Do you want to print photos that are larger than 8x10?
• How long do you want your prints to last? Is long 'display-life' important to you?
• Do you want to print on special or heavyweight papers such as canvas or watercolor paper?
• Do you want a built-in camera memory card reader?
• How important is print speed?
• What is your price-point for the printer and the consumables?

Making the connection - All current inkjet printers have USB ports to connect the printer to the computer. Some printers have both USB and parallel ports. Be sure that your computer has a USB port and that your operating system is WIN 98 Second Edition or Mac O/S 8.6 or newer before you purchase a USB-only printer. Also, check whether the printer manufacturer's web site to be sure that there is a printer driver for your operating system. Inkjet printers usually do not come with cables, so you will need to purchase the correct cable.

Printer cost - Printer prices range from under $100 to almost $700. Most letter-size printers cost less than $400. Printers that accommodate larger papers generally start at around $400. For a given paper size, more expensive printers generally print faster, operate more quietly, offer more features, may have sturdier construction, and may use 6 (or 7 or 8) inks instead of 4 inks. Also, printers that use pigment-based inks are generally more expensive that printers that use dye-based inks.

Cost of operation - Over a printer's usable life, the cost of ink cartridges and paper – the cost of operation – will usually be much more than the original price of the printer. Keep the long-term perspective. A price difference of $50 to $60 between printers is equivalent to the cost of one set of ink cartridges. You may find that such a small difference in price will buy a big increase in printer quality or print speed or some other factor that is important to you.

4-inks or 6-inks - Printers that use 6 inks (Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta, Yellow, and Black = CcMmYK) generally produce slightly smoother-looking photos than 4-ink (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black = CMYK) printers. If the quality difference is noticeable, you will most likely see it in the lighter regions of the image or in flesh-tones. Most current 4-ink printers will do a reasonably good job making photographic-quality prints. Generally, 4-ink printers use less ink than 6-ink printer. If you will use the printer for general text and graphics as well as photos, a better quality 4-ink printer may be a good choice based on the long-term ink costs. If the printer will be used strictly for printing photographs, the additional quality offered by a 6-ink printer may be important to you. Look at sample prints from both types of printers to compare quality.

Paper width - letter-size printers print on paper up to about 8.5" wide. Tabloid (or B-size) printers print on paper up to about 12-13" wide. Often manufacturers will sell letter-size and tabloid versions of what is basically the same printing system – printers that use the same print head and inks. The tabloid models usually cost $100 to $150 more than the letter-size siblings. Since tabloid-size printers will print letter-size as well as poster-size paper, they offer more flexibility. However, tabloid printers are physically larger than letter-size printers. If your space is restricted or if you do not care to print images larger than 8" x 10", choose a letter-size printer.

Archival issues - ink jet prints fade. Print fading is a property of the inks and the paper. Some combinations of ink and paper have much better fade resistance than others. Some manufacturers claim 20-, 50- or even 100-year 'display-life'. It is important to understand that all display-life testing is done in controlled, accelerated laboratory conditions on particular combinations of paper and ink. Usually the testing is done on images which are mounted under glass and reasonably well protected from humidity. The laboratory data are extrapolated to estimate the display-life in one particular, standard, "real world" situation – which may have very little to do with how you will store or display your prints. Read the conditions on all display-life claims very carefully. Some useful data may be found on the Wilhelm Imaging Research web site, although it is not updated very frequently. Wilhelm Research has recently begun to include testing that simulates storing inkjet prints in photo albums.

Feed path design - Some printers have relatively straight paper feed paths. Others have tightly curved feed paths. The advantage of a straight path is the ability to feed thicker or stiffer papers – such as watercolor paper or canvas – more easily. See the diagrams in the Definitions page for simplified illustrations of typical paper feed paths. If you want to print on heavy papers, choose a printer with a straight paper path.

Features and print speed - often companies sell 'families' of printers which use the same print technologies and inks, but have different feature sets or print speeds. As examples: some printers can print directly from digital camera memory cards; some have color LCD displays to preview pictures; etc. Extra features always cost extra money, so it is worth considering whether the features will be useful for you.

Printer driver flexibility - different manufacturer's printer drivers offer more or less control over resolution (drops per inch), choice of paper, color balance, amount of ink, custom page sizes, centering prints, etc. Printer driver flexibility is important if you want to experiment with printing on a variety of different papers. If you are satisfied with the assortment of papers that a printer manufacturer markets, printer driver flexibility will probably be less important to you, because the settings for the same-brand papers will already be built into your printer driver.

Sample prints - many store displays include actual sample prints. Usually the images are very high quality, very high resolution, professionally-taken photographs, which are very carefully chosen for content and then carefully adjusted to show off the very best quality a printer can possibly produce. Homemade prints from consumer digital camera photos will not look as good. Sample prints can be useful to compare different models and brands of printers. You may find, for example, that you prefer the colors produced by one printer over those from another printer. Or, you may prefer the look and feel of one brand of inkjet photo paper. Look at sample prints; enjoy them; learn from them; but, always remember that they are carefully constructed marketing tools

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