Inkjet Printers

Date: Apr 18, 2005
Contributor: Nannie Pettry

Top-Rated Inkjet Printers

If you have a computer or digital camera, you need a good printer; one that is reliable and versatile. To get that sort of performance you'll need a color inkjet printer. They let you do it all, and without breaking the bank. For its May issue Consumer Reports rated more than two-dozen inkjets and it found that there is "no connection between price and print quality."

The HP Deskjet 6540, which sells for around $130, was the highest rated color inkjet. The editors say this is the top choice for anyone who prints both text and pictures. The Deskjet 6540 produced "fast, first-rate photos and text." In fact, it spits out 11 sheets per minute, the highest rated inkjet in the test. It does not support memory cards, which means to print pictures it has to be hooked up to your computer.

The Canon Pixma iP4000, which sells for $140, came in at number two. The text and photos it prints are also first-class, and it's almost as fast as the HP 6540. It was named as CR Best Buy because the printing cost per page and per photo is significantly lower than the HP 6540. The Cannon Pixma iP4000 does not support memory cards either, but you can import pictures with a cable from a camera supporting the PictBridge standard.

If you print a lot of pictures, Consumer Reports says there are three models you should consider; two of them are HP machines.

The editors say the HP PhotoSmart 7760, which sells for $150, and the HP PhotoSmart 8450, which sells for $245, are "good choices for camera buffs." Both of the PhotoSmart printers produce "excellent photos." They both handle memory cards and have an LCD screen for previewing and cropping pictures, which is a neat feature if you print a lot of pictures.

The other "smart choice for photographers" is the Canon Pixma iP8500. In Consumer Reports' testing, the Pixma iP8500 produced "excellent photos" and it printed them quickly. At $345, it is the most expensive of these three models. The Pixma iP8500 holds eight ink cartridges. If you run out of one color, you replace that one cartridge rather than replacing the multi-color cartridge that may still have ink in it.

There are also printers that just do photos. Consumer Reports rated them, too. These machines tend to be smaller than the regular inkjet printer and they can render a 4 x 6 photo in about a minute. Some use inkjet technology, some use what's called dye-sublimation. All of them can print photos without being hooked-up to a computer. As the magazine points out, there are some downsides to these photo printers: they can't print text or graphics, supplies for the dye sublimation models are expensive, and they don't deliver the quality of a top-rated regular inkjet model. Bottom line: the editors say "they sacrifice print quality and flexibility for speed and convenience."

One more thing to consider-- It's actually cheaper to print your digital photos at a store. It's not as convenient, but it's usually costs less. With most home printers, it costs you between 35 and 55-cents to print a 4 x 6 photo. That same shot will cost you about 29-cents at a drugstore or photo shop.




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