No matter how 'digital-savvy' we think we are, most of us need to put ink to paper from time to time. Printers may not be as glamorous as the latest tiny gadget, but the trusty printer may be just what you need to create superb digital prints.

Finding a good photo printer can make the world of difference to your prints. For most people, choosing a printer entails balancing price, speed and print quality. But as models improve, manufacturers differentiate them in other ways. Inkjet printers, along with digital cameras, are changing the way we print photographs. When loaded with special photo inks and paper, an inkjet printer is the best option for transforming a digital image into a photograph.

Some photo-quality inkjets include extra features such as a dedicated USB port for connecting your digital camera directly to the printer, built-in media card slots that let you plug in a storage card and hit a button for instant prints, and an LCD menu for selecting prints; each of these options means you don't have to go through a PC. These printers can produce beautiful colour photographs.

Paper is important

Don't forget that the quality of your print is only as good as the paper you use. Use a good photo-quality paper, preferably one manufactured by the company that made your printer. Why? Because companies like Canon, Epson and HP formulate printer, ink and paper as a complete system. Use Brand 'x' paper with your Epson ink and printer, and you may not get the results you expect. There are plenty of printers on the market that are designed to be used for printing digital images. Manufacturers like Epson, Canon, HP, Fujifilm and Lexmark all produce printers for this market. We took a look at some of the models on offer and give our verdict on which products are worth a second look.

HP's finest

HP submitted two printers for this group test: the Photosmart 7550 and the DeskJet 5550. With the Photosmart 7550 you don't need a PC to print photos from a digital camera. Instead, you can connect an HP camera with direct-printing capability, such as the HP Photosmart 320, to the USB 1.1 port on the printer's face, or you can slip any camera's flash media into one of the printer's four card readers, which together can accommodate all widely used flash-memory card formats. An on-board control panel with a flip-up LCD screen provides menus for selecting the images; setting the number of copies to print; zooming in and rotating images; stamping the date and time on photos; grouping images into albums with decorative frames; and even modifying the colours. Despite the plethora of features, the menus are easy to use. If your PC happens to be hooked up and running, you can also move an image from the printer to your e-mail program.

The Photosmart 7550 prints glossy photos with intense colour saturation; we found that bright parts of its images were sharp, though in darker areas the details tended to be obscured. Thanks in part to a design that uses two black inks, the 7550 prints clean black text that preserves fine detail such as serifs; on coated paper it prints text superbly. It also prints narrow parallel lines almost perfectly. The 7550's print speeds are middle-of-the-road compared to other photo printers: 4.2 pages per minute (ppm) for text — fast enough for an occasional home-office job — and 0.8ppm for graphics.

HP's printed documentation gives short shrift to the control-panel menus and could provide more information on how to attach a camera directly; however, it does give good basic information on setting up and using the printer.

The Deskjet 5550 also has some good features worth mentioning. An automatic alignment feature helps you avoid printing out a page of alignment calibrations, then making adjustments on-screen manually and printing out another page to make sure everything lines up. Instead, a light inside the printer illuminates the alignment page as it prints, while a lens reads the page and automatically adjusts the print heads. The 5550's paper-type sensor, another automatic feature, should eliminate the need to choose a paper type in the driver. And HP's installer software walks you through the installation process and shows animations of how to insert the ink tanks, the USB cable, and other components at the appropriate times. The 5550's text quality didn't impress us: it was bold and dark, but we saw some feathering. The 5550 prints somewhat slowly, too, turning out text at 4.8ppm and graphics at 1ppm.

Canon can

Canon's offering in this sector is the i950 Bubble Jet Printer. Of the photo ink jet printers we've tested so far, Canon's i950 is easily the fastest. It rendered a 7 x 5 inch image at a rate of 1.5ppm, which in our book is pretty fast.

Setting up the i950 was easy. Canon's driver allows for advanced image adjustments, with some especially useful features such as control over each colour channel. A 'background' feature prints two files, one under the other. With it, you can print a completed form by adding a bit-mapped form template to your Word document. The i950 may fly when printing photos, but text documents are produced at a more leisurely pace of 3ppm. And though we like Canon's full-featured driver, it seems more complicated than necessary; to set up a watermark, for instance, you must work through a dialogue box that has three tabs.

The i950 printed glossy photos with fine detail and accurate colours. Gradients and transitions, however, had minor banding. Grey-scale images came close to matching traditional film photos, but they were slightly marred by minor colour streaks and had a slightly yellowish cast. Though good enough for letters and office documents, text output had a greyish cast and a hint of shadowing. On coated inkjet paper, text looked far better.

We like that the i950's paper input and output flaps are permanently attached; the clip-on paper flaps, that many Canon printers carry, fall off too easily. However, while the i950 looks good, it fails to include the one vital feature that the other printers in this review include: the media card slot. This is one area where the Canon printer falters against its rivals. It takes away the option of printing directly, so you need to use a PC.

Epson printers easy on the eye

Epson submitted two printers for this roundup: the Epson Stylus Photo 935 and the Stylus Photo 950. The Epson 935 produced excellent prints, with sharp, crisp graphics and bright colours. It can print images directly from memory cards; simply print an index first of all, and then choose your prints from the selection. The LCD screen allows you to choose the paper type, size and the layout of the images. The 935 also uses a new technology that allows users to print directly from the digital camera. It also has an optional Bluetooth unit that turns it into a wireless-enabled printer, which can exchange data with other Bluetooth enabled devices. A USB port allows the printer to print images from an externally connected CD ROM, and archive photos to a CD-R from a memory card. The printer also supports roll-paper printing, giving digital photo enthusiasts professional looking prints. Both Epson printers use Print Image Matching technology to give excellent prints. The Epson 950 has all the add-ons you could possibly need. It supports roll paper printing, with automatic cutting.

Lexmark lovelies

The Lexmark P707 is a good bet for those who want a good value for money photo printer.

It connects to your computer via a USB cable, and is compatible with Windows 98 and above, and Mac OS 8.6 to 9.2 and X. The printer will output an A6 photo in about 60 seconds, However, anything larger is a bit on the slow side, so if you need your prints in a hurry, choose your size wisely.

The P707 supports Compact Flash (Type I and II), Memory Stick, Multimedia Cards, Smart Media, Secure Digital and IBM Microdrive cards.

There are some printers that are designed to print purely photographs; they cannot be used to print A4 text documents. The Canon CP 300 Card Photo is one such printer. Compact and lightweight, it is designed to be as portable as possible. The printer can work off mains power or through the rechargeable battery. The Canon CP 300 can print postcard size prints, either in full-size or multiple print. To change the size of the prints, you simply change the ink cartridge. The printer can also be hooked up to a computer through a USB cable. The printer does not include this component in the box.

Fujifilm does direct print

The Fujifilm CX-400 is less compact than the Canon printer, but it is intended for the same use. The printer comes with a PC card adapter for XD and Smart media cards so that users can print directly from the card without any need for a PC. Images can be seen on the printer's LCD screen.

There are plenty of buttons on the printer — a dazzling amount in fact. However, they each have a clear function, from changing the print size to switching between USB and card mode.

*** Best Buy in photo printers ***

Epson Stylus Photo 950

Although there was some stiff competition — most of the printers had similar features and produced excellent quality prints — we felt that the features included with the 950 gave the printer an advantage.

The 950 allows you to print onto CD ROMs (provided that they have the correct inkjet printable surface) — no more blank CDs lying around the house. The printer captures the smallest details in images by using Variable-Sized Droplet Technology, which produces the smallest ever ink droplet. The roll paper allows users to print banners and panoramic shots. Its print resolution of 2880 x 1440dpi results in excellent images. Combined with Print Image Matching, photographers can look forward to prints that are more true to what they had originally envisaged when capturing the image.

A great printer; the extras really make it worth investing in.

*** Best Buy in direct print photo printers ***

Canon CP-300

There were only printers in this group test that were designed solely for use as digital imaging printers, and choosing between them was a tough job. Both had excellent features and in their own ways were worthy of the Best Buy tag. However, for sheer portability, the Canon CP-300 just had the edge. It's almost miniscule dimensions mean that you can throw it in a shoulder bag and take it on the road with you — something that sadly, the Fujifilm printer just couldn't do.

The CP 300 is a full colour direct digital printer. It takes three paper sizes: postcard size, L size or credit card size, so you have some choice over the type of prints you produce. Users can also choose from borderless or multiple prints. The finished prints were covered with a protective coating, which should give your prints an extra layer of defence.

Print speeds are estimated at about 85 seconds per sheet in postcard size. When we watched the printer at work, it appears as though the colours are layered separately, with the protective coat applied last. The 300 x 300dpi prints produced were high quality, with good colour reproduction

The signal transfer is a proprietary protocol for Canon cameras. To take it on the move, uses can simply charge the battery and go; images can be printed from a direct print compatible camera through a USB cable.

Printing is quite straightforward — simply display the image you want to print on your camera's LCD screen, make sure the direct print icon is shown in the corner of the screen and then press the set button. Before you know it, you have your newly recorded images on hard copy.

20/10/2003