What is the best photo printer? The one that makes your digital pictures look the most accurate and colourful?

Question

i'd like the one with the best detail printing for my digital photos.

Answer 1

The best and most cost effective is the printer at your local lab. The cost of a 4x6 inch print there is from $.14 to $.17 each, while the cost of paper and ink on an archival inkjet costs in the neighborhood of $.50 each (not including the initial cost of the printer and your time).

If you intend to print labels on your CD's, then an Epson "R" series photo printer is a good way to go, but for production printing, a photo lab is truly the best option

Answer 2

Epson COLORIO.In japan i throw away my HP.It fulfilled its duty though.I didn't mean HP is bad but truly EPSON is st...

Answer 3

Sorry, but Fhotoace is completely wrong on this.  Most commercial labs use printers with a very restricted color output within the sRGB or AdobeRGB gamut compared to a good inkjet printer.  You can actually see that here, just go midway down the page to the "In Print" section and hold your mouse over the "ink jet printer" and then the Frontier printer to see the color gamut difference in the image of the colorspace:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutoria...

Moreover, for very large images, commercial companies use giclee printers.  Guess what: giclee is a fancy French word for "inkjet."  Yeah, they're printed on (typically) an Epson wide carriage inkjet printer.

Essentially, there are 3 big inkjet printer companies worth considering for photo printers:  Epson, Canon and HP.  Depending upon what your maximum size is as well as your speed needs, one of these companies will produce a printer to meet your needs.

At the basic 8.5" width, an Epson R800 is a good choice.  For 13" width, the Canon Pixma Pro 9500 or even better the Epson R2400 would be the best choice.

Above 13", I like the newest HP printers with the built-in colorimeters, but they are very expensive.

And don't forget:  choosing the right paper is as important as choosing the right printer.  Initially, get the brand-name paper designed for your printer before experimenting with alternative brands.