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Specialty Printers

Photo printer

Photo printers are color printers that produce photo lab quality pictures on photo paper.  They can also be used to print documents.  These printers have a very high number of nozzles and can print very fine droplets for improved image quality.

Some photo printers also have media card readers.  They can print 4” x 6” photos directly from the media card of digital cameras without a computer in between. 

Theoretically, most inkjet printers and high end laser printers are capable of printing high quality pictures.  Sometimes, these printers are marketed as “photo printers”.  However, a dedicated photo printer is designed to print photos effectively and economically.  Apart from a higher number of nozzles and very fine droplets, these printers also use additional cartridges, such as photo cyan, light magenta and light black.  These additional color cartridges allow the printing of more vivid and realistic photos and the result is better than ordinary inkjet and laser printers.

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Portable printer

Portable printers are small, lightweight inkjet or thermal printers that allow computer users to print from laptop computers when traveling.  They are easy to carry, convenient to use but generally more expensive than normal inkjet printers due to the compact design.  Their printing speed is also lower than normal printers.  Some portable printers are designed to print photos immediately from digital cameras and are known as portable photo printers.

MultiFunction / All-in-One Printers

Multifunction printer (MFP) is also known as all-in-one printer or multifunction device (MFD).  It is a machine that includes several functionalities including printer, scanner, copier and fax. 

Multifunction printer is very popular in SoHo (small office / home office) offices.  It can use either inkjet or laser print method.  Some multifunction printers also have media card readers, allowing printing of pictures directly from digital cameras without using a computer.

Advantages of multifunction printers:

1)     Low cost – it is often cheaper to buy a multifunction printer than individual components (fax machine, scanner, printer, copier) separately

2)     Take up less room

Disadvantages of multifunction printers:

1)       If one component is broken, the entire machine has to be replaced

2)       Failure in any component will affect other functions

3)       The print quality and speed may be lower than some stand alone components

Read more about the other types of printers: inkjet printers, laser printers, dot-matrix printers, thermal printers. 

Best deal for Photo Printers, Portable Printers and Multifunction Printers:

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Tigerdirect.com (US/CA stores)