Epson’s line of PictureMate photo printers is currently competing with Canon’s Slephy line of portable photo printer. Both companies have a lot to offer in terms of both quality and portability. Except Epson seems to be a small bit ahead in popularity. Their Epson portable photo printers, four at number currently on the market, going under the name of PictureMate, seem to sell a lot, and on top of that even receive only possitive feedback. This is a rare achievement in a world of instant gratification and numerous options everywhere you look.




The extremely-portable Epson Picturemate Show, also known as the PM 300 comes with an eye-catching 7 inch color LCD. The design of the printer is extremely friendly and perhaps could be called family oriented (well, maybe not as much as the Canon Selphy line, but its a good thing because some people might find the blue and pink colors used on the Selphies a bit too childish). The fact that it features a handle implies portability from the first moment you set your eyes on the PM300. The only thing that tends to spoil this portability a bit is the lack of an included battery. But you may purchase a separate car adapter to charge it.

While it will work just fine with a PC it was mainly designed to be used out of the house. This means it offers variety of possible connections to digital cameras and other types of photo storage solutions. The PM 300 supports nearly all types of memory cards known to man including CompactFlash, Memory Stick, xD, and SD cards. As soon as the card is inserted you can preview the images on it and decide which you’d like to print. With the help of a PictBridge port the same can be done with a compatible digital camera. If you own a camera mobile phone and you’d like to print from that as well, you can with the help of an optional Bluetooth adapter (that you’ll have to purchase separately from the manufacturer).

The main idea to the large display is to let you preview images you’d like to print from memory cards. It comes in handy with digital cameras as well but it’s not vital since digi cams already have a preview LCD screen of their own. But the really nice part about it is that it lets you edit your photos and add effects to them before printing. For those special moments when you’re in the house and planning to print with the help of a computer, you’ll find that the software that comes bundled is pretty nice to have and great help.

When considering to purchase these Epson portable photo printers you must take into account both good parts and bad parts. On the bright side, the PM300 offers great photo quality, portability and decent speeds for an inkjet portable device. What you won’t find so great is that it limits you to 4 by 6 inch prints. Ink prices may seem a bit high for some also. Epson sells paper and ink as a kit, 100 sheets and the ink for $29.

Watch tweets on: