By Mike Wilmer

If you've just started shopping for a photo printer, there's a good chance you're feeling overwhelmed. Yes, there are lots of brands and models to choose from, and, no, you won't find the best printer for you without doing some homework.

To get started, it's important to note that there are basically three classes of photo printers: general-purpose printers, photo printers that can serve other needs, and those dedicated to making photos only.

General-Purpose Printers
General-purpose printers are designed to generate text quickly and are better at handling unusual paper sizes and envelops. They can produce photos, but to the discerning eye, the results you get won't measure up to real photographs. If you need to print lots of letters and envelopes and only a few photos, you might be better off with a general-purpose printer. Then when it comes time to print a high-quality photo from your digital camera, you can opt for an online print service, stop by your local 1-hour photo lab, or buy a dedicated photo printer (see below).

Photo-Realistic Printers
Photo-realistic printers will produce output that rivals traditional silver-based color prints in both tonality and detail. They come in various shapes and sizes and may offer special features, such as the option to print on CDs. Besides doing an excellent job on photos, they'll satisfy other printing needs, albeit at slower speeds than the general-purpose models. That's because they use much smaller ink droplets and thus require many more passes to print a page, even i it's only filled with text.

Dedicated Photo Printers
Dedicated photo printers, such as Epson's portable PictureMate, are almost always designed to function with or without a computer. They're an easy alternative to taking your digital photos to a lab for printing, but because they usually produce prints of specific sizes, like the standard 4x6 inches you get from your photo lab, a second printer is needed to handle other printing tasks.

A number of full-size, photo-realistic printers have card readers and LCD screens, like most dedicated photo printers, enabling the user to make prints without the use of a computer. While that can be handy, most people will want to organize and edit their photos in the computer, as well as make printing decisions based on what they see on their computer monitor.

No matter which type of printer you choose, you'll want to consider the following before making your final purchase decision.

Printer Size
Get out your tape measurer! Don't buy something that won't fit on your desktop. The "footprint" can vary a lot. Epson's PictureMate, which produces 4" by 6 " prints, will take up 10" by 12" of space, while their Stylus Photo 1800, which produces up to 13" by 44" prints, takes up a whopping 25" by 13" area by your computer.

Going Wireless
If you have a home wireless network, you may not need to put your printer on your desktop. For example, if your computer is in the corner of your family room, you might prefer to put the printer out of sight in a cabinet across the room or in one of the kids' bedrooms. A few printers, such as Canon's Pixma iP4000R, come with built-in 802.11g wireless support. Other printers offer it as an option.

Ink Droplets
Much like fine grain in photographic film produces better tonal quality and finer detail, smaller ink droplets will give you a better print. Canon's Pixma iP4000R uses an unbelievably small 1-picoliter ink droplet. As a result, that printer doesn't require the usual light-cyan and light-magenta cartridges that are typically found in photo-realistic printers. Anything under 2-picoliters in size will produce high quality inkjet photographs.

Dye or Pigment Inks
As you might expect, the cheaper printers produce photos that fade quickly and can be destroyed with a drop of water, while the more professional models produce photos that are water and fade resistant and will, with reasonable care, last for generations. Inkjet printers are optimized to use either dye or pigment inks. Photos produced with dye-based inks, not unlike traditional color photos, will fade faster than photos produced with pigment inks. The better dye-based inkjets produce photos that will last up to 25 years, while pigment-based inks can produce photos that will last up to 200 years without noticeable fading. So why doesn't everyone use pigment inks? Because pigment inks typically produce photos that aren't as saturated and as vibrant as what you get from dye-based inks.

Ink Cartridges
Makers of desktop printers used to offer all-in-one ink cartridges only-meaning all of the different inks were housed in a single cartridge. If you printed a lot of photos that used primarily one color, you could find yourself tossing out a lot of ink with your cartridge. By choosing one of the newer printers with individual ink cartridges for each color, you may significantly reduce your ink costs. For example, if you print a lot of portraits, you may find you'll need twice as much light-magenta as compared to all of the other ink colors. Replacing only one color at a time can avoid a lot of waste.

Match Paper and Inks
Usually your best option is to choose the printer maker's inks and papers because they're designed with the manufacturer's hardware and software in mind. If you make certain that you use the recommended combinations, i.e., matte black ink with matte paper, you'll ensure your output is of the highest quality possible.

Cost of Consumables
Printers today are very reasonably priced. In part, that's due to competition, but the low hardware price is also possible because printer makers know they'll make money on the paper and ink you use. Be sure to ask what it costs to make a 4" by 6" or an 8" by 10" print and compare. In a recent review, PCWorld.com heaped high praise on HP's Photosmart 8450 because it comes loaded with features, but they added one caveat: "ink and paper costs are high." Still, that might not be a deal-killer if you like everything else about the printer and your volume of printing will be on the light side. If you plan to do lots of printing, consumable costs will be a bigger factor in your shopping decision.

Included Software
Last, but not least, it's a good idea to take a look at the software included with every printer. Some printers come with nothing more than the required driver, while others have software suites that allow basic editing, image importing and organizing, generate slide shows, and so on. If you're trying to choose between two printers that are, in most respects, similar, then the included software bundle might be the deciding factor.

Join a discussion on this topic in our Photography Forum to get more hot tips on shopping for the perfect printer for your needs!

Mike Wilmer is a Brooks Institute of Photography graduate, has been a professional photographer for over 3 decades, and established the Photography Forum in 1987.