Best Inkjet Printers for the Highest Quality Photos

This is a review of 3 of the best inkjet photo printers on the market today. The necessary features these printers have will be discussed first and the best inkjet printers that make the grade will follow. Any of these photo printers will give you the best quality photos using ink jet technology.

Necessary Features

The best photo ink jet printers have several things in common. The main feature of a high quality inkjet photo printer is six individual ink tanks. Ink jet printers with only four ink tanks will not give you the same quality photos. The additional ink tanks are necessary to reproduce the entire range of hues. In addition, it is more cost effective to replace each tank as they run out of ink than to replace a multi ink cartridge.

Other necessary features for the best inkjet photo printer is it must be at least 1440dpi. A higher dpi is not needed since most people can't see the difference. The printer must also have an ink droplet size of 4 picoliters or smaller if being used to print larger photos. It is also good for the printer to use ink that will retain color and not fade for many years, called the print permanence rating. This rating should be at least 25 years.

Epson Stylus Photo R1800 Ink Jet Printer (C11C589011)

This Epson Stylus Photo R1800 Ink Jet Printer is made for serious photographers and poster makers. It is hard to find a printer that comes close to this one and for only $769.99 from Amazon.com. Whoever said "you get what you pay for" was talking about this high quality inkjet printer. Print posters up to 13" x 44", print directly to inkjet-printable CDs and DVDs, and print a 4 x 6 photo in 42 seconds! Extreme printing with a resolution of 5,760 x 1,440 and connects using USB or FireWire. It has a 100 sheet capacity, can use about any type of paper, and works with PC or Mac.

Canon PIXMA iP6700D Photo Printer (1441B002)

The Canon PIXMA iP6700D inkjet photo printer has a 3.5-inch color LCD viewer where the best photo can be tweaked before printing. Use Bluetooth to print from your PC or phone camera, processes Canon's ChromaLife100 system, and prints an 8 by 10 inch photo in 76 seconds. For $299.88 from Amazon.com you also get 9600 x 2400dpi resolution with USB, infrared and wireless connectivity. High quality printing for a very low price.

HP B8350 Photosmart Pro Photo Printer (Q8492A#ABA)

Need a fast printer? This HP B8350 Pro Photo Printer can print 31 ppm in black and 22 ppm in color. It has color resolution of 4800dpi and can print wallet size up to 13 x 19-inches. Super fast photos, it zips out a 4" x 6" print in 26 seconds. For $799.99 from Amazon.com this printer delivers. It has an optional black ink cartridge that gives you laser jet quality document printing. Enhance and sharpen photos with the HP Real Life Technologies.

You can find a lot of other inkjet printers that do a fine job of printing photos. These three best inkjet photo printers go well beyond the call of duty if higher quality is needed. The ability to change out individual ink tanks is absolutely necessary for volume printing of photos. When purchasing any inkjet printer it is best to make sure extra replacement ink is purchased. It isn't fun to run out of ink in the middle of a critical print job.

Sources: Personal and professional experience