Picture This!

Home Printers

Laser Printers

Laser printers are designed to print text, charts, and graphs. They are not to be used for printing photographs.

Inkjet Printers

Inkjets are by far the most popular of home printers. They print quickly, are inexpensive, and may include other features such as copying and faxing. Inkjets emit droplets of ink onto photo paper using ink cartridges. Prints often come out damp and need to dry before they can be handled. Ink can and will smudge and prints are ruined by liquid and long exposures to heat and light.

Ink tanks vary by printer. The best color reproduction comes from having individual color cartridges. Photo paper designed for inkjets range in paper weight, surface, and size.

Printers can be purchased in office supply stores, wholesale warehouses, camera shops, and computer/electronic stores.

Pricing:
You can purchase the HP Custom 95 Series 100-Sheet Photo Value Pack for a HP Photosmart C4180 printer. It includes 100 sheets of 4x6 photo paper and a multi-colored ink tank for $32.99. That's 33 cents per print however, you still need to buy the black ink separately for $23.99. Now you're paying 57 cents per 4x6 print.

I'm not even going to attempt the math on a printer that has 6 ink tanks.

However, the Canon PIXMA iP4600 takes 4 different inks. You can buy the multi-pack for $47.99 then buy paper. Get the Photo Paper Plus Glossy II package of 100 4x6 sheets for $18.99. You're now spending 67 cents per print to produce 100 pictures.

Dye-sublimation Printers

Dye subs, as they are commonly referred to, are quite different than Laser and Inkjet printers in that they heat up the photographic paper and colors are released as a gas. The papers have a laminate-like coating which when heated lock in the dye, making the photograph less susceptible to fading and also water-resisitant.

Dyes and papers are sold as a kit and state exactly how many prints it'll produce.

You'll find high-end dye-sublimation machines for customer use in drug stores and camera shops as they are faster alternatives to mini lab printing. Kodak and Fuji machines are the two manufacturers most frequently found in these locations. Smaller printers for personal use are sold in office supply stores, camera shops, and by computer/electronic retailers.

Pricing:
Kodak sells directly to the public on their website. A color and paper kit that will give you 80 prints sells for $39.99. That's 50 cents per print.

Epson's PictureMate 200 Series Print Pack costs $37.99 and delivers roughly 150 prints. That's 25 cents per print.

Minilabs

Tradtional photofinishing labs offer the highest quality print possible. Maintenance is extremely important in regards to how well these multi-million dollar machines operate. Manual color and contrast corrections can make nearly any image better or worse, depending upon who is printing - a person or auto pilot.

Minilabs print digital images by using a laser which exposes the photo paper which is then run through a series of chemicals to develop the image. This process is extremely similar to how negatives are printed. Those family photos you have from generations ago have lasted so long because of how they were printed.

Pricing:
Ritz Camera/Wolf Camera/Inkley's 4x6 print prices are 27 cents for 1-24 prints, 21 cents for 25-59, and 19 cents for 60 or more prints.

Target pricing is 25 cents for 1-30 4x6 prints, 31-99 for 20 cents and 100+ prints at 15 cents each.

Conclusion:
1. Print your photos. Computers crash, CDs are being replaced by DVDs for storage, and memory cards can become corrupt but prints are highly visible and easy to obtain.

2. Nothing compares to the quality of a minilab other than a professional lab that does custom printing.

3. It's actually cheaper to print your photos in a minilab than it is at home.