Printing pretty pictures

BUYER'S CORNER

What photo printers should you look at? Business Standard offers tips on what's available in the market.

If you are a digital camera buff and are tired of spending a fortune on prints at the photo studio, buy a printer at home and make prints of the photographs you've taken.

And if you are an executive who's always on the move and needs to print documents from a PDA, pick up a mobile printer.

HP India and Canon offer an array of innovative products catering to the needs of discerning customers. Let's first look at the options available to photo buffs.

HP India sells Photosmart 325, a printer. This has colour graphic display and an integrated memory reader. So it is easy to view photographs and print them directly from your memory card without your having a personal computer.

Printing a photo takes just 60 seconds and Photosmart's ultra compact design with optional battery pack makes it a perfect product for those who travel a lot. The price: Rs 8,000.

If you want faster printing speeds ( for example, if you want to print 16 pages in black and white) for 4x6 borderless photographs without having to own a personal computer, you could also look at the HP Photosmart 7260 photo printer, priced at Rs 6,000.

And those looking for studio quality colour photographs could consider the HP Photosmart 8458, though you'll have to fork out Rs 17,000 for it.

With its special "dark-room" features, this printer also helps you get creative with your photographs.

If you want far more than just making copies of photographs, HP offers the Photosmart 2608, an all-in-one printer, fascimile machine, scanner and copier.

With its advanced photo printing features, you can get prints without having to use a computer. The built in networking also ensures that you can share the printer with five personal computers at home. The price tag? Rs 14,999.

Canon too offers interesting options for those who want to print photographs at home. The Selphy CP900 is designed specifically for home printing and the camera's advanced image processor ensures that you get vibrant and high quality prints.

It works with a Selphy print engine to ensure speed "� a post card size picture is ready in 54 seconds; a larger photograph could take 63 seconds to print. A special durable protective coating on the photograph ensures that it will not get damaged for 100 years from water spills.

If you have a Canon camera, you can attach it to the printer and then zoom, rotate and edit photographs before they are printed.

What's more, you can print wirelessly through its infrared facility. Still, all this does not come cheap: Rs 16,995.

Canon's Selphy D700 offers an innovative facility "� you can view your photographs on TV and print them. Designed like a game console, the memory card can be attached to the printer which virtually converts your living room TV set into a new medium for viewing and printing photographs.

The device offers you a choice "� you can get credit card size photographs or sticker prints. It also provides unique features, like a red eye reducer, face brightener and image sharpener, all of which help you get good quality photographs. The tag: Rs 12,995.

Canon also has interesting products for executives on the move. Canon's PIXMA iP90 is sold as a "perfect wireless mobile printer" which can connect wirelessly to a several devices, via infra red and Bluetooth.

For emergencies on the road, the printer has a unique "save black ink" mode that saves the use of black ink. The other is the "use composite black ink" mode, which allows the printer to continue to print black documents even when the ink is over by combining three colours to make black ink. The price tag, though, is a bit steep: Rs 17,995.