You could say that the road to photography was created ever since the first person picked up a random object and tried to replicate what was around with it, on any kind of surface. Since back in the day where drawing meant you'd use a stick to draw a line in the sand people were fascinated with reproducing and saving everything that was around them. Many many years later, guess what, we're still at it, and getting much better at it too.

The digital camera and digital photography was born and now we have nearly unlimited options when shooting a photo. Still, there's that odd appeal of a printer photograph, that makes it tangible and makes you want to print out things that you could easily store and see on your PC. This is where photo printers become useful. They blend the modernism of digital cameras with the old fashioned print on paper that you can easily store in a photo album and pass on to the future generations.

In a world that's fascinated with photography and mobility at the same time, the only reasonable path to evolution for manufacturers was very predictable. And so the portable photo printer was born. Some people seem to call it the 'Selphy'. This is because it's among the most popular lines of portable printers on the market. The latest model from Canon's popular line is the CP790. As you look at it for the very first time you'll understand what makes it popular. Compared to other types of printer, whether they bare the Canon logo or of another manufacturer, Selphy photo printers are family oriented and look exciting. This particular one could easily pass for a grass-green bucket; and that's because it is one.

After a couple of seconds of disbelief one can only draw the conclusion that Canon has a team of very inteligent people who realized how many things you could actually hide in the bucket, right under the printer; like the power plugs and supplies when you're taking it along outside the house.

The top of the CP790 houses a 3 inch color LCD and the Easy Scroll wheel controls for navigation. This makes for some pretty convenient photo previewing, editing and printing. Scaling, red eye correction as well as color adjustments are all a part of what the CP790 can do. One very important detail is that this Selphy uses dye-sublimation technology. 4 by 6 photographs are printed in great quality and bring back some of that fine gradation so typical of film-based photos. For a photo to actually come out you'll have to wait about 60 seconds. While it's not fast, it's not bad either for a portable printer. Digital camera printing is obviously supported, as is printing straight from a memory cards.

The printer supports SD, miniSD, MMC, Memory Stick, Compact Flash and a couple of others. At $180 roughly, this printer may seem a bit more expensive than other options on the market. But good quality prints combined with an awesome design your kids will love makes this printer perfect for any family.

Most of us have at least one photo album in the house, probably full of photographs from our weddings, when our kids were younger and so on. Every single time you end up visiting someone's house and they even remember they have an album it's clear that you'll be spending the next half an hour or more skipping through pictures and admiring people or places. Since the digital camera became popular you'd have thought people moved on and started using their computers more. Well, they do, and there are tons of virtual photo albums on the Internet.

People share their photos through various socializing sites or e-mail. But it's somehow not the same feeling and some people, me included, would rather hang on to this old fashioned tradition of printing photos and storing them in an album to share with family and friend. Counting on this, several companies have started selling the compact photo printer, a small and friendly looking device that can print 4 by 6 inch photographs whether you're in the house or under a tree somewhere enjoying the shade and scenery on a warm summer's day.

Out of a multitude of choices we've decided to present some of the best compact photo printers on the market today, one from each important manufacturer, the Epson PictureMate Dash PM 260, Canon Selphy ES30 and the HPA636. All of the three printers can be found for under $150 which is a reasonable price to pay for such portable devices. The print quality is more or less the same thing in the case of all three, with only a highly trained eye being able to set them apart. The Epson and HP printers make use of the inkjet technology whereas Canon has opted for dye-sublimation.

While dye-sublimation offers a wider color gamut and sometimes better quality photographs they tend to be a bit more wasteful with ink and cost more for maintenance. All three companies sell paper and ink in kits. The dye-sub Dash PM seems to win when it comes to those consumable packs, simply because it uses exactly the same amount of ink and paper, whereas its inkjet competitors may consume all ink before all paper is printed.

Printing speed is relatively low in the case of all three printers. Technology hasn't evolved enough to allow compact ph

oto printers to produce a print fast and you'll have to wait around them for a minute or two until the job is done. Another thing all of these three printers have in common is the size of prints which is limited to 4 by 6 inch. If you're wondering which of these three are the best compact photo printers, it's really hard to say. The Epson PictureMate line received a ton more positive feedback when it comes to quality whereas the Selphy line is more family oriented and filled with fun features. With the design also playing an important part, it's up to each person to figure out which one they prefer.

Choosing a business printer is as hard or easy as you make it be. There are many printers that include a wide series of features on the market. The important thing in making a decision is establishing exactly what you need out of such a device. For example, some offices may be very interested in cost cutting, specially during the recession. Purchasing a printer that may cost more upfront (most likely a laser) but has very low maintenance costs might be a very good idea. Some printers out there have a very low initial price tag and attract you instantly.

But when you start using them you discover that they chug ink like a train and the ink also costs a lot to replace. Printers with individual color cartridges are also a good deal since you won’t have to replace all of them at the same time.

A good office printer should be a multifunction one. Color lasers generally offer better text quality and most of the times they are faster. For any office that mainly needs to print out documents with the occasional image thrown in, laser is the best choice. Offices who need to print out images more often however, and who might need good photo quality as well are better off with an inkjet all-in-one.
Other features you might be interested based on what environment you need a printer for include:

-Versatility of connectivity – it’s great to have wireless and Ethernet on top of the standard USB cable connection. If a lot of users rely on the same printer for print jobs throughout every single day, it’s important that the printer works fast and well in a workgroup. A PictBridge slot is extremely useful for people who need to print straight from a digital camera. While this feature might be more important for the home user or amateur photographer, there are plenty of offices (real-estate, media, etc) who might need this kind of functionality as well. A media card reader is also a bonus, and some offices might want to be able to print straight from a flash memory stick (while it’s not needed most of the times, it does come in handy on the odd occasion).

The speed of printing is obviously another very important aspect. Some time ago lasers were renowned for their printing speeds. Now inkjets have almost caught up in terms of speed, sometimes even surpassing lasers. Speed might not be an issue for some offices, but for the ones who care a lot about this particular detail, it’s important to also take the printer’s warm up time into account.

Low printing volume means you’ll catch the printer warm up on every single print job, further adding to the wait time. Two extra features that come in handy would be the duplexer, that allows printing on both sides of paper (which translates into saving time, paper and costs) and the auto document feeder which allows you to scan multiple pages without having to manually insert each single page.

As a conclusion, regardless of what an office needs, there’s a business printer out there that can offer exactly that. A list of important features to use when going through options is really helpful and time saving.

Canon has been offering quality printers for many years and has come to a point where it can offer any type of printer for any type of user. This is best proved by their Selphy line of photo printers that are family oriented, offer good photo quality and look like a child's colorful sand bucket.

I've pointed this fact out because if you can find a Canon printer looking like that, that still delivers high quality prints, then there's a chance you'll find absolutely anything you're looking for in Canon's lineup of printers. Both old and new generation printers behave remarkably. The Canon Pixma ix7000 Inkjet Business printer for example was, as the name suggests made for office use. It was designed to offer a combination of great quality on your average paper, photo lab quality when using special paper and multiple ways of paper handling. Since it's a large format printer, it's only obvious that you're dealing with a big device.

But what you don't know yet is how big. At 25.5 inches in width and a 20.4 inch depth you'll have a rather hard time fitting this device on most desks. But let's assume that it's no problem for offices to provide a special place for their dedicated printer to sit on. The design of the printer inspires style. Dark-gray plastic combined with metallic-silver plastic areas turn it into a modern device that will look good in professional environments.

Among the first things that you'll notice is that this printer has three paper paths. There's a 250 sheet casette mounted straight on the front of the Canon Pixma ix7000 Inkjet Business printer, and also a 250 sheet top-mounted tray. On top of that you'll also get a manual feeder that can handle up to 10 sheets of paper. Setting this printer up is relatively easy. Connections are limited to either Ethernet or the usual USB. Because there's no LCD screen this printer is basically stuck to a computer. The software instal is just a matter of pressing 'next' as many times as you have to and then you'll discover the printer is ready to work.

Inside the printer you'll find six individual ink tanks, five of which are pigment-based and the last one being clear ink that's meant to provide laser-quality text and amazing photo colors, according to the manufacturer. Because you get individual ink tanks this means you can replace each one separately as soon as it runs out. The pigment inks make use of the LUCIA technology.

So what's not so great about the ix7000? Apparently the printing speed. It's slower than most other inkjet printers. Maximum speed is estimated at 10 ipm in black or 8 ipm in color. Add to that about 18 to 20 seconds for the first page out and you'll discover that you'll have to wait a while for the ix7000 to get things done. But since patience is a virtue and from every other aspect this printer offers great quality, it's probably one of the best choices your money and office can buy.

Like many other people working in a small office, I’ve done my share of printing throughout my ‘career’. Every office I’ve been in so far had a different choice in printers and brands and I can’t exactly complain about any of the devices I’ve used in the past years. But it has occurred to me that out of those many years of printing various documents, I’ve only a couple of times printed something in color.

As I was preparing to write this article I was slightly puzzled by the concept of a monochrome laser printer when the market is filled with inkjet and color laser all-in-ones to fit the needs of any office. But the conclusion is, there is no point to spend a higher amount of money for a high end color laser printer when all you need is crisp black text. The series of Samsung SCX laser printers include models to suit whatever needs an office may have.

A simple and cost-efficient multifunction mono laser printer like the Samsung SCX-4600 would probably be a perfect choice. Like most printers in this line the design of the SCX-4600 features rounder corners, a compact and stylish design and a dark plastic case. The two-line monochrome LCD provides much needed basic information and the buttons around it are chosen properly for anything you may need to do without the help of a computer. Samsung’s SCX-4600 offers copying, scanning and printing features. A series of useful extras include the Print Screen tool that allows you to print what’s on your desktop at the press of a single button and ‘AnyWeb’, an application that allows the user to select various sections of internet sites and collate them on one page for printing.

Setting this printer up is very easy. It comes with a toner, as the only consumable that ever needs to be replaced. To gain access to the toner you’ll simply have to open the flap that’s found on the front of the printer. The starter cartridge that Samsung’s printer ships with will only be enough for about 700 pages, but when you decide to replace it you can opt for either a 1500 page or 2500 page toner, depending on the printing volume you need. For paper storage you’ll be getting an input tray, on the front side right towards the bottom. It has a paper capacity of 250 sheets. For envelopes and non-standard media types you’ll get a manual single-sheet feeder. According to the manufacturer, this printer hits 22 pages per minute which proved to be accurate after some printing tests.

The bad part of it all, as in the case of many lasers, is the warm up time. Printing quality is exactly what you’d expect from an office laser, perhaps even better, as the SCX-4600 can easily compete even with pricier products on the market. The only reason why you’d want to avoid these Samsung SCX laser printers would be the lack of some key features for office user like networking (in the form of either wireless or Ethernet), automatic document feeder or duplexer.