Answers to Your Photo Printing Questions
In Part 2 of our series, our expert goes to the hardware makers to get your questions answered.Danny Allen, PC World
More questions? Any comments? Send me an e-mail.
In this second installment of our special look at your printer questions answered by the vendors themselves, I move on to photo-related issues. These include questions about all-in-ones that print onto CDs and DVDs, minimizing photo edge cropping, and printing slides and gallery-quality prints.
If you've got questions about how to prevent ink smears, which multifunction printers support legal-size paper, which printers have 64-bit drivers, and wireless networking options, read Part 1, "Printer Makers Answer Your Urgent Questions."
Note that some questions and responses in this column have been edited for brevity.
If you'd like to see what PC World thought of many printer models, click on any of the following links to see a list of printers we've reviewed from that company: Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark, Oki Data Americas, Ricoh, Samsung, and Xerox.
Now let's look at the responses to your questions concerning professional and recreational photo printing.
Your Questions
Which Printers Can Produce Gallery-Quality Prints?
I have been looking for a printer that is capable of printing large giclée prints of my watercolors. Which printers can create giclée prints and at what resolutions? --M. Thomas, Centerville, Massachusetts
Upshot: "Giclée" refers to high-resolution, large-format prints made with fade-resistant inks, often for commercial art sales. Below you'll find suggestions from the vendors I spoke to, but other companies such as Kodak and ColorSpan also offer commercial giclée printing solutions.
You might also want to read my March column on professional photo printers.
Brother: Brother does not offer giclée printers.
Canon: The imagePROGRAF iPF5000 is capable of printing at 2400 by 1200 dots per inch. This would be our only recommendation.
Dell: Dell doesn't offer giclée models.
Epson: When looking for a printer that can produce giclée prints, Epson suggests you choose an inkjet with 100-percent pigment-based inks; only pigment-based inks produce the longevity required to sell fine-art watercolor prints. Choose a printer that can load and handle fine-art media. Watercolor paper can be relatively thick, so you need a printer that can handle media up to 1.5mm. Also, check service groups and online user forums and communities to see what printers have been successful in the fine-art market for a number of years. Epson is one vendor that has been a leader in the giclée market; Epson's Stylus Photo R2400 and Stylus Pro 4800, Stylus Pro 7800, and Stylus Pro 9800--used with our UltraChrome K3 ink--are all ideal choices for wide-format giclée prints.
HP: The HP Designjet 5500 printer is our recommendation for giclée prints. It provides fast printing that's ready to sell or distribute. New production print modes deliver professional image quality at speeds of 100 square feet per hour for glossy and 189 sq ft/hr for coated media; 569 sq ft/hr printing using maximum speed mode.
Lexmark: Lexmark does not not manufacture giclée printers.
Oki Data Americas: Oki Printing Solutions does not currently offer this technology.
Ricoh: Ricoh does not offer giclée printers.
Samsung: PC World did not receive a response to this question.
Xerox: Xerox does not have an office business-class printer that is capable of giclée prints. That level of printing would typically take place in a professional printing setting and would be available in a production-level printer.
2. Which Multifunctions Can Print Directly Onto CDs and DVDs?
I recently got a new multifunction printer, but this one doesn't have the ability to print directly on DVD or CD. I was told at the dealer that Epson has the only license, currently, but that they expect vendors such as Canon and others to be adding that feature in the near future. Any info on this at your end? --B. Larsen, Tustin, California
Upshot: I couldn't determine if Epson has the only "license" to print directly onto CDs and DVDs, but as you'll read below, it does look like it's the only vendor offering printers with this feature.
Brother: Brother does not offer multifunction devices with the ability to print on CDs or DVDs.
Canon: There are no immediate plans to add CD and DVD printing to a Canon product. However, consumers can produce high-quality CD prints by purchasing high-quality CD labels and printing from a Canon printer. These prints tend to be much sharper as the paper is of a higher quality than the paper on a printable CD.
Dell: Not applicable to Dell printers.
Epson: Epson was the first and still is the only consumer inkjet printer manufacturer in the U.S. to include CD/DVD printing on its printers. Current models include the Stylus Photo R220 and Stylus Photo R340 inkjets, and the Stylus Photo RX700 multifunction printer.
HP: HP offers a variety of alternative solutions for CD and DVD printing. Our CD/DVD Tattoos allow consumers to create personalized, adhesive, super-glossy, color labels with their inkjet printer. HP also has LightScribe technology that allows for silk-screen-quality images to be placed onto discs using an HP CD/DVD burner.
Lexmark: Currently, Lexmark laser and inkjet multifunction printers are not capable of printing directly onto CD/DVD media. However, our inkjet products can generate CD/DVD labels.
Oki Data Americas: Our digital color multifunction printers and printers can print onto CD or DVD labels, but not discs.
Ricoh: Ricoh products don't offer this feature.
Samsung: PC World did not receive a response to this question.
Xerox: Xerox does not currently offer a product that prints directly onto CD/DVD discs. However, we offer CD/DVD label media for many of our printers and multifunction devices, along with an applicator tool to apply the labels accurately to the disc. See the Xerox Web site.
3. Can You Fine-Tune the Edge Settings on Photo Prints?
What I find very annoying with most printers is their tendency to crop your carefully designed image by perhaps 5mm or more. Surely with all this existing dpi and page loading accuracy, they do not need be so crude in handling borderless prints. It would help if there was a decent option to fine-tune the edge settings so that we could offset any manufacturing slop in the paper guides. --D. Pincott, Auckland, New Zealand
Upshot: This issue appears to affect inkjet printers, which generally deliver the best-quality photo prints. It appears that the imaging software can sometimes be to blame, but the explanations and suggestions below might also shed some light on the matter.
Brother: In order to print a borderless photo, it is necessary for the machine to do some cropping. This can be minimized by using a good photo editing program that shows you how the print will actually look.
Canon: There is currently no standard solution that will prevent all cropping, although many common cropping issues can be handled in Easy-PhotoPrint and Easy-PhotoPrint Pro drivers, depending on the size of the print and of the image.
Dell: In order to produce a borderless print, Dell's inkjets allocate 2mm of space around the edges to ensure there is no white spacing visible around the border of the photo.
Epson: When printing borderless pictures, it is necessary to print over the edge of the page. However, Epson printer drivers do allow the user to fine-tune the amount of borderless expansion.
HP: Most printers do have some level of "overspray" to maximize the quality of the print right up to the edge of the page. Whether there is control over the amount of overspray or not is typically a function of the printer driver. We do provide user accessible control of this overspray in some of our drivers. For example, for the Photosmart 8250 printer, you would click Properties in the main printer pop-up window. This takes you to a multiple-tab window, one of which is labeled Advanced. In the Advanced tab is a line item called Printer Features, and under that line item is Overspray. The default is Automatic, which is underlined. If you click on Automatic, it offers a drop-down list that includes Automatic and Change. If you click on Change, it pops us a window with a slider that allows you to adjust the overspray, with the default being at maximum overspray. Adjusting to less overspray will cause the driver to shrink the size of the overspray, thus putting more of the picture on the printed page.
Lexmark: Unfortunately, this is a camera-image-to-photo-size issue. The image size taken does not always size perfectly to common photo dimensions (i.e., 4 by 6 inches, 5 by 7 inches, etc). When printing borderless photos, the software must crop the image slightly to assure it takes up the correct photo size (i.e., 4 by 6 inches) without distorting or changing the ratio of the photo. Our laser printers do not offer cropping capabilities, and thus this question doesn't apply to them.
Oki Data Americas: At this time, we don't offer borderless or edge-to-edge printing. Our products and solutions are used mostly by businesses where there is less of a need for photo printing. Our customers are more focused on reliability, productivity, and performance in their printing products.
Ricoh: Ricoh products don't offer borderless printing.
Samsung: PC World did not receive a response to this question.
Xerox: Xerox does not offer inkjets meant for photo printing.
4. Is There a Printer That Can Print Slides From Digital Images?
I take stereo pictures using a pair of Sony digital cameras, manipulating the images with PokeScope software. The easiest and least complicated way for the ordinary viewer to see them is as a pair of mounted slides in a hand viewer. I can understand the difficulty of printing slides but wondered if any company has solved the problems at a reasonable cost. --R. Dring, Nottingham, England
Upshot: None of the vendors I contacted currently offer this capability in any printer model. Oki Data's response gives one indication as to why.
Brother: Brother does not offer a product with slide printing capability.
Canon: Unfortunately, not with Canon.
Dell: Not applicable to Dell printers.
Epson: Epson does not currently offer a printer that can print slides from digital images.
HP: PC World did not receive a response to this question.
Lexmark: At this time, Lexmark printers do not offer slide printing capabilities.
Oki Data Americas: Oki Printing Solutions does not currently offer this feature because doing so would require at least a 6000-dots-per-inch resolution and $9000+ price point.
Ricoh: Not offered by Ricoh.
Samsung: PC World did not receive a response to this question.
Xerox: Xerox does not offer a printer for slide printing use.