December 3, 2008

A Print of Your Own: With 3 Great Ink Jet Printers from Epson and HP

We'd like to highlight a recent article by MacWorld on three ink jet printers worth consideration this holiday season. (These printers are of course compatible with PCs.) Remember that you'll need to keep investing on quality ink and photo paper to get the best quality results. That's how they get ya.
HP Deskjet D2545 Green Printer ($35)
A basic and affordable desktop ink jet printer that will satisfy your typical household needs, from printing term papers to party invitations to family photos. In addition, this printer is made up of 83% recycled plastic. Features are basic, but for many folks, all you need. No LCDs, memory card slots or functions like faxing or scanning.
Epson PictureMate Zoom PM 290 ($230)
A great pick for a portable printer, PictureMate spits out 4x6 photos (and smaller) in 60 seconds for about 25 cents a print--all at lab-quality. The built-in CD burner is what really sets this apart from the other portable printers, though, so you can immediately dump your shots onto a CD, or collect other people's shots. Paper and ink packs ($35)make for one of the more budget friendly ink jet situations.
Epson Stylus R1900 ($450)
When you're serious about archival quality (85 to 200 years) and large format (up to 13x19) you can print some beautiful 7-ink, pigment-based photos with gloss optimizer. This printer isn't great for much regular document printing (term papers, etc.) -- it'll do it, but you'll be wasting fancy ink and tiring out your printer.