Buying a Printer

“My printer if finally being laid to rest. The cost of repairs will certainly outweigh it's value.

So, I'm gonna buy a new one.

Can someone explain dpi? And, how it relates to printing photos, papers, etc? And, perhaps what a good dpi is (w/out being too good. read: too expensive)

I don't need a really fancy one (I don't think). I need one that'll print nice pics up to 5x7 or so. And, one that I can use to print papers for school and stuff. I do have a digital camera but I don't necessarily need my memory card to plug directly into it since I usually upload the pics to my computer first, anyway.”

“I would, but ... Ok, I'll forgive you even though you were hateful toward me.

DPI means not a lot when it comes to photographs. It means more for black and white text.

For good color photgraphs, you want to look at accuracy of the placement of the ink and the color matching capabilities. Translation: Look at print samples of high-quality on the printers you're interested in. HP is always a good bet.

Bottom line: DPI is a gimmick for color pics.

(National Geographic, known for it's photo quality magazine, has very low dpi.)”

“I really like the ones where you can stick a SD card right into the printer to print pictures. A flatbed scanner/printer is awesome as well. The tech side of this I'm not sure about. All I know is I love my $85 HP.”

“Thanks for the input.”

“You're welcome.”

“tarabull, when you've decided what features you think you want out of a new printer, check and see if they have something along the lines of what you're looking for at Costco. Most electronics stores will give you 30 days to have a problem and be able to return it. After that you have to deal with the manufacturer. Costco prides themselves on customer service and returns. You can bring it back any time for any reason. I dont buy this kind of stuff from anywhere else any more.”

“c bat, way ahead of ya. I'm making a trip to Costco tomorrow morning.


I heart Costco”

“Tara - I have an older version of this printer:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10043661&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=2484&hierPath=84*2484*
It's been a great B & W printer. Best printer I have bought.
For color, I do not have any suggestions.”

“Sarge, I disagree. DPI -- or dots per inch -- is a standard of the printing industry. Magazines need very high digital quality. I can't remember, but am thinking maybe 2800 DPI is the low end on quality for them.

And the color process used is usually CMYK -- cyan, magenta, yellow and K = black. It's a printing process using four plates, one for each color, to make the image you see. If the registration procedure is off -- which is a mechanical process on the presses -- that can greatly mess up the photo.

I work at a paper that prints at a daily newspaper which uses minimum wage, often immigrant labor on the presses. It's cheap, which the boss likes, and maybe 60 percent of the time our photos look really good. Sometimes they are so far off registration that you want to pull your hair out, because I know I took a good photo.

To contrast with magazines, the paper used for news print is much courser and does not need as high a quality image. We routinely use photos at 200 dpi.

For printing at home, I believe the RGB -- red-green-blue -- process is used. And of course you are not matching up color plates. It's all different... DPI is definitely hugely important.

Also, just thought of this, for my home printing I often use 300 DPI on photo paper. Some printers only go to that... some go to 600 DPI. Get beyond 300 and they will be progressivly more expensive.
last edited: 8/08/05 12:03:01 PM”

“I just bought a HP friday night. After 2 lexmarks only lasting 2 years each, I decided it was time to get a real printer. My wife then spent the weekend printing wedding shower invitations on it with heavy paper and cardstock. She loves it so I'm happy.”

“'courser'? Hee Hee. ;-)”

“I'ved had an HP for years. I know a ton of people who swear by Epson.

My new printer is about a year and a half old, a Canon i9100, with six separate colors of ink. They go fast and are hugely expensive to replace at about $12 each, still I love printing enlargements of my own photos. This printer goes up to 13x19. Have only done 8x10 on photos, but have gone to 17x11 on maps on regular paper. (Nice for national park maps off the web.)”

“I like my HP color laser. It's 600 DPI, the dry ink stays good whether I print a lot or a little, I've had it nearly a year now and I'm still only halfway through the ink supply it came with. Prints decent looking color photos much quicker then inkjets. Hooks right onto my network so everyone can print to it. Recently been printing some topo map extracts from mapcard.com, they came out nice.”

“Depends on what you are looking for Tarabull!

I'm off for the summer, give me a call if you're curious. :-)

I have a couple of HP printers (one uses the ports for digital media, so you can plug your memory cards right in.)


For ARCHIVAL photos, the Epsons are supposed to be really nice, but also very expensive.

The HPs we've had have worked out well for all-purpose printing.

I also have a "dye sublimation" printer (Camedia P400). The only place I've seen them have been at Office Max or Adray (on Big Beaver, on the opposite side of the street and near the REI, I think) I only use this one to print "archival" photos-- it uses a lamination process to laminate the colors onto the paper-- therefore, there is no problem with bleeding in water, AND, the photos are supposed to be 75-100 years archival. However, this printer is very costly-- it doesn't use ink, so the cartridges are essentially plastic ribbons that cannot be reused in any way.... Quality is good, but I think the prints average about $2.50 each for letter-sized paper (both the lamination ribbon and paper are specialty items.... The printer itself is about $400, I think...

I think Lizs is incorrect-- most inkjets use CMYK inks as well... I believe RGB has more to do with images that will be use on the web. (using light to mix colors, Red plus Green equals Yellow)

Anything about 300 dpi is excellent, although very difficult to detect the differences. I've had digital photos processed at 200 dpi and they looked great!”

“Yesterday, I picked up the HP Printer/Scanner/Copier 1510xi. Box says:

Up to 20 ppm (black) and 18 ppm (color)
1200 x 1200 dpi optical resolution adn up to 19,200 dpi enhanced resolution

It was $89 at Costco. Seemed like a good enough deal to me.

I haven't taken it out of the box yet. Should I?

Also, while there, I found the HP Photosmart 375 which is one of those mini printers that prints w/out a computer. Just plug in the digital camera and go. Prints 4x6 prints "up to 4800 optimized dpi color". It was marked down b/c it was their last one. I bought it for $85 and plan to give it to my dad for his bday. I”

“ooops. I shouldn't have posted that. I forgot he sometimes reads TT.”