# Printer advise



## Swampguy (Feb 9, 2006)

Any recommendations on a good color printer that does good photos? I need one for my personal use and my wife's photography.


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## BobVigneault (Feb 9, 2006)

My favorite is the Canon that comes with a cartridge for each color. It is probably the cheapest ink. Remember when you buy printers the price of ink is more significant than the price of the printer. Lexmark practically gives away their printers but the ink is the most of expensive of all of them. I have a Canon i560 and I have been pushing those for about 2 years. I love em.


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## Swampguy (Feb 9, 2006)

I just did a review search and your right about the ink and Canon. The new ip4200 looks promising. Thanks, Tim


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## Puritanhead (Feb 9, 2006)

I know some color printers are so expensive after the first cartridge is used... you should just toss the printer and buy a new one.


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## Joseph Ringling (Feb 9, 2006)

My wife uses an HP photosmart 8450. She seems to like it a lot.




[Edited on 2-9-2006 by Joseph Ringling]


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## fredtgreco (Feb 9, 2006)

We have an Epson CX6600. It works very well.


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## Semper Fidelis (Feb 9, 2006)

Tim,

Explain a little for me your wife's requirements in terms of what types of photos, how often, and how large her prints will be as well as for what use.

You'll want to get a printer that you can use a refill kit with and get good results. Consumables (as mentioned above) are where the printer manufacturer makes money. 

I've owned an HP Photosmart 7150 for a few years now. Technology has improved but that produced very good prints. I've used ink refill kits that reduce the per print size to a reasonable amount. I've found good sources for Ilford matte printing paper. I also have good recommendations regarding a rotary cutter.

That all said, I don't print too much of my own stuff as much any more for one simple reason: Time. In order to save money you have to refill and, it's not unusually cumbersome, but more work than I want to invest sometimes. Frankly I print almost exclusively at online printing services like DotPhoto. Even Costco has such a service. These services even have downloadable ICC profiles to colormatch your workspace and get consistent results. Finally, the archive quality is much better because most inkjets suffer from color loss over time.

Frankly, the time lost waiting a couple of days to receive your prints in the mail after you upload and pay for them is minimal compared to the convenience.

If you want my real recommendation, it's nice to have a good color printer for the occassional must have color capability but I use my color printer now for printing out documents and rarely print photos any more.


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