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Paper Work
Special to The Washington Post March 27, 1998; Page N45 Digital photo images are great to e-mail to friends or post on a Web site, but you're also going to need some way to convert those digital images into plain old prints to stuff in a wallet or hang on a wall. While photo printers were once large, expensive behemoths, inkjet technology has now advanced to the point where less than $500 gets you a small printer that cranks out prints remarkably similar to the ones that come from the one-hour photo store. But this doesn't come for free; pricier, harder-to-find paper stock is required for quality output, and for the best output of all, you need to use coated, glossy paper that can cost a dollar a sheet.
The Printers The first thing we discovered is that you should think seriously whether you need a photo-only printer. These devices do poorly in general-purpose work, such as printing letters, so you may well find you need to own two printers. The H-P 722C, on the other hand, did a reasonable job printing the photo images; on plain paper, it did the best job of the four. And it handles text quickly and cleanly. On the better papers, however, the photo printers stepped away smartly from the 722C. We liked the Epson Stylus Photo's prints best; they came out slightly less grainy, with more subtle color gradations than the prints produced by the H-P PhotoSmart, a close second. The Canon images were decidedly muddier, and in a side-by-side comparison the prints from the H-P 722C, while still credible reproductions, delineated shades of colors and shadow detail least effectively. The Epson has several other advantages over the PhotoSmart as well. The PhotoSmart runs only under Windows 95; it uses computer and operating system resources to handle image output, which can bog down other tasks underway. The Epson is also a lighter, smaller printer. But it lacks a manual feed slot for single sheets, while the PhotoSmart has one. The H-P PhotoSmart also uses a flat paper path, so it may well handle heavier stock better. In terms of value, the Canon BJC-4304 is the low-price leader at $225 to $250, costing less than even the general-purpose H-P 722C ($275 to $300). The Epson Stylus Photo printer sells for $325 to $350; the H-P PhotoSmart, about $400. (Prices listed below are manufacturers' suggested retail prices.) The Canon adds one extra wrinkle that makes it worth considering: For $99 you can add a cartridge that replaces the ink cartridge and turns the printer into a Windows 95 photo scanner. Slide the print to be copied into a plastic carrier and load it into the printer's manual feed slot, and your print becomes a digital image! The resulting image appeared to me a bit flatter in colors and less sharp than the original photo; if scanning will be an important undertaking, this may not be the one. But for occasional use, why not?
The Paper There's no mistaking the difference when you step up to specialized papers, sold in computer stores and catalogues and specialty photo retailers. They have whiter and in many cases glossier finishes, so they look and even feel more like photo prints. (The problem with regular paper is that the ink dots sprayed by an inkjet printer spread on its porous surface, producing fuzzy images and muted colors.) We tested five different premium-grade papers: Epson Photo Quality Glossy Film, $27 for 15 sheets; Epson Glossy Photo paper, $12 for 20 sheets; H-P PhotoSmart Glossy Photographic Paper, $11 for 20 sheets; Canon HR-101 High Resolution Paper, $24 for 200 sheets; and Kodak's Inkjet Photographic Quality Paper, $10 for 20 sheets. In an unlabeled comparison of the outputs from these printers, we ranked Kodak the worst and Epson's Glossy Paper the best all-purpose photo-printing medium; for damn-the-torpedoes imaging, though, experiment with Epson's breathtaking (and breathtakingly expensive) glossy film.
The Price Also, keep in mind that, as with photo prints from a developer, direct sunlight, water, folding, spindling or mutilation won't do any favors for your printouts. But at least if you lose a print, you can always crank out a fresh copy. And money is not the only currency you can pay in; none of these printers are speed demons. The fastest of the printers, not surprisingly, was the H-P 722C, which zipped out 8-by-10s in 6 to 8 minutes from the time we pressed the software's 'print' button. The H-P PhotoSmart took 7 to 8 1/2 minutes, the Epson 7 to 9 minutes, and the Canon a consistent 9:30 to 9:45. Fast? No, but it's much faster than it would take to drop off your film and then pick it up. And for the right time-starved technology pioneer, that could be a welcome development.
BJC-4304 Photo, Canon;
Stylus Photo, Epson;
PhotoSmart, Hewlett-Packard;
DeskJet 722C, Hewlett-Packard;
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company |
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