Printer for Photos + All purpose color printer

Hi all.

My wife would like a color printer. She would like one that would be good for general use (my wife is over the youth organization in our local church) and we would also like on that would do a decent job on photos.

Do they make such a beast? Is it better to get one that will do just one or the other?

Any opinions are appreciated!

Nathan

A lot of printers now do "a decent job" on photos, but there's a big difference between "a decent job" and "print for sale". If you want to sell your prints, you really shouldn't be looking at anything other than a pigment-based printer like an Epson R800, R1800, 2400, or 3800 (8.5" for glossy, 13" for glossy, 13" for mixed photo printing, and 17" for mixed), or one of the new Canons.

If you just want to print for yourself, dye-based printers are pretty nice and tend to have more flexible features.

It is amazing what you can get for under $100. We have an HP inkjet for general purpose printing. It is really fast with text, including color, but my R800 does a better job on photographs. I have occasionally used the R800 for text, which it prints very nicely, but it is slower than the HP. Photos on the HP are certainly "decent." If you can accept the fact the your prints might not last forever (what will?), an inkjet might be a good compromise.

Pete D.

Great advice. Thank you Les and Pete. I would not be using the prints for sale at this time...mainly just stuff for me and printing shots of family.

Nathan