My wife usually goes to Walgreens to print photos. Lately she has been having trouble connecting to there website on her phone. It got us thinking about little Bluetooth printers, can anyone recommend one that will print 4x6 photos?
We will also be getting a new computer and printer soon and can anyone recommend printers that will print photos? Is it worth printing your own? Or better going to Walgreens? One think we would like the printer to have is air print.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
I cannot remember last time when I print my own photos at home. If I had to make a physical print, I would go to the local Kmart or similar shop. For me at least, it is a hazzle to own a photo printer that has decent quality, maintain the ink tanks, cartridges, paper, etc.
Unless you print regularly , I would recommend getting a general purpose printer (which is air-print). I am using a color laser printer from Brother but any good inkjet printer can also do the job. The selection depends on the volume of print, whether you want multi-function, duplex printing, etc. Hard to provide a generic recommendations
Thanks. We don’t really print many photos but my wife is tired of dealing with Walgreens. Where we live it’s really only Walgreens or cvs. I saw a brother printer at Costco but not sure if it’s worth it, it was $200 or $300 I think. I did have a canon printer years and years ago that was good, did the job it was $100 on an Amazon special. But want to get something a little better quality even though we don’t print a lot.
Consumer Reports did a study several years ago and determined that inkjet ink costs something like $3000 - $9000 a gallon. That’s one reason it is not unusual to find new inkjet printers selling for less than the cost of a couple of replacement cartridges. And printing photos requires both special ink and special paper which adds to the cost.
The first 12 minutes of episode 512 of the Accidental Tech Podcast is a discussion about printers. It might be worth a listen. Hint: “A printer can make any 10 minute project take 3 hours.”
Another vote against printing your own, for all the reasons already given. Send 'em to Shutterfly instead.
We tend to send most of the pictures to a Walgreens or an online source like Shutterfly. However, we do print at home on occasion with a Canon MX922. It can be used as a regular ink jet and has a photo drawer and setting. We’ve been happy with the outcome. The one thing we have had challenges with is finding a decent and affordable photo paper on which to print. We print at home because we have the paper now, but only for small batches. Larger ones get sent out to keep costs down.
Best wishes on your photo needs.
A possibility would be a Canon Selphy CP 1300. It prints 4x6 dye sublimation pictures of good quality. It is wireless and foolproof. The pictures cost about $.35 each including the ink ribbons. The printer costs $99 on Amazon.
I would use an online-Service to get Print-outs of my photos, if I still need them.
We use Digital Frames to present our pictures, and I could hardly remember the date I last printed one for presentation.
As a printer for seldom home use I would go today with an inexpensive Laserprinter, as those do not have the problem with dry-in-ink.
I love the Epson PictureMate PM400 for printing 4X6 at home. The quality is great and the connection always works. It’s small and takes up relatively little room on a table.
The paper often goes on sale. I like matte which they don’t sell but they have semi-gloss that prints nicely.
I used the Canon Selphy for a few years but the quality doesn’t compare to the PM400 and the prints are not actually 4X6. There are perforations to tear off the edges of the photo after it’s printed. I also had connection issues.
A few years ago I gave up on those awful inkjet printers, and we tried all the major brands over the years – none of them were any good.
I decided to get Brother B&W laser printers and rely on (at the time) the local Costco for prints. Now they have removed all the printing gear from the stores, but we’ve still used their online service that delivers in a couple of days. Fine for us.
It just seems like having prints is a Boomer mentality. Everybody now just puts their photos on their phones and share with their friends electronically. We also have a couple of “digital picture frames” on shelves where we used to display prints. Probably a cross between old and new generations.
I’ll pile on the train and say just use another service. I’ve had really good luck with Costco although it was better when you could go to the local store and pick them up. Now they ship them from a central location. It’s dirt cheap for decent prints.
Costco was definitely better when you could go there and get them.