I need an inkjet printer for home use. I want to print high-quality photographs, with color accuracy being my biggest concern. I don’t mind tweaking the printer to get printout colors that match my monitor.
Cost is unfortunately also a factor, but I don’t expect bargain basement prices.
I’m currently using an older HP6940 Deskjet, and am not satisfied with the color accuracy.
Windows 7 64bit
Anybody have recommendations?
Reported for move to IMHO.
A inexpensive color laser like this or thismight be better overall solution. Inkjets are certainly cheaper on the front end but absolutely tear you up on cartridges and premium paper consumables in a short period of time.
Color lasers consumables aren’t cheap but they are vastly less expensive on a per page basis and can generally use non-coated paper.
Yeah, but, color laser printers (particularly cheap ones) are inferior to inkjets for printing high-quality color photographs.
I have an Epson Stylus Photo R2880, that uses 8 colors of ink and makes gorgeous prints, up to 13x19". If your monitor is correctly calibrated, the printed colors are very accurate. You can get one for $500 (with $100 rebate). There are similar, cheaper models if you don’t need such large prints.
Second the recommendation and also add that the choice of non-coated versus coated paper has to do with the degree of the amount of ink that will absorb or not into the paper (and spread - thus the term dot gain). The Epson will allow you to select the paper type in the properties dialogue thus optimizing printing.
Some of the smaller ‘home’ laser printers aren’t actually cheaper, per-page than inkjets (I was recently in the market for a new printer and I was looking at small desktop colour lasers from Samsung and HP. At least at this scale, the toner carts are so small that they’re not economical.
In the end, and despite my track record for despising inkjets, I went for an Epson SX435w, which is compact, fast and produces nice output. Unlike the OP, I don’t require professional colour fidelity, so I also picked up a set of third party refillable ink cartridges and some bulk (non-Epson, obviously) ink - which reduces the cost of printing enormously - by a factor of twenty or so.
Thirding the recommendation for a good color inkjet. I use a Canon i9900 myself, 4x6 up to 13x19 paper size, eight colors.
But:
Since these are your criteria, you’ll also need to invest in some kind of monitor calibration, a Spyder or a Huey to keep your monitor in line. I use a Spyder with mine; also be sure to never use third-party inks if you care even a whit about color accuracy.
Cost will certainly be a factor; at-home photo quality printing isn’t cheap or simple, and requires a bit of dedication on the users part. But worth it. Good luck.
Opinions? IMHO. Moved.
samclem, Moderator
We’ve had a Canon IP1600 for some years now, and it’s done exceptionally well. I’m still impressed with its color printing, and it has lasted way longer than any Epson we’ve owned. We had a terrible run of luck with Epson - our last two Epsons crapped out after one year and one and a half years, respectively. Based on the recommendations above, maybe Epson’s improved, but the next printer I buy will be a Canon (and if we wait for this one to break down, it might be a while).