When using a photo printer you are using it for the purpose of printing a quality picture on photo paper. The use of these types of printers have become extremely popular because people like the idea of being able to print their own photos.
A photo printer has many nozzles and can print drops of ink as little as 1 picoliter. Since digital cameras have become the latest way of taking pictures by most companies and consumers, the need for a photo printer was naturally the next step.
The photo printer used to be quite expensive and were not used by the general public. The idea was proposed by Epson to manufacture a photo printer for the consumer so they could print their own photos. Then other companies followed suit by providing low cost printers and the public was surprised to see how economically they could print their own photos. The early photo printers as well as most of them today only print 4 x 6 inch prints. However, there are larger printers available for printing 8 x 11, 10 x 14, and even bigger pictures.
Photo printers are unlike the typical inkjet printer in that they often use more coloured ink cartridges. They may even use a specific kind of photo ink. Photo printers genreally have a wider range of colours which are great for producing life like quality prints.
Some of the photo printers available have memory card slots, used for printing photos without the use of a computer. There are also some versions that can print directly from the camera itself by supporting the PictBridge protocol.
Many who do not know much about photo printers often end up with a lower resolution inkjet printer with the expectations that it will print photos to the same standard as a dedicated photo printer. Photo printers will generally print at a higher resolution than a standard inkjet printer, hence the name.
A photo printer produces a hard copy of a picture that has been either stored on a memory card or direct from a camera. The printers which print the photos to the quality of the professional photographers are some of the very best. They are often not as expensive many people think, when taking into account the costs involved having your photos printed in a shop.