Best Photo Printers For Mac

Tony Hoffman The Best Photo Printers for 2019 Your photos deserve to exist as more than mere bits and bytes. Here's what you need to know to pick the right photo printer—for snapshots or big, bold art prints—based on your output needs. Also, check out our top-rated picks, based on our deep-dive reviews. What Makes a Photo Printer, Exactly? True —in contrast to standard inkjets that manufacturers merely call photo printers—fall into two broad categories at the consumer level: dedicated photo printers, and near-dedicated ones. As the name indicates, dedicated (also known as 'small-format') photo printers are designed to print nothing but photos.

Objectively, the Canon iP8720 is not the absolute best on the market, but the highest quality photo printers can cost you at least a grand. For a high-end consumer-friendly product, this printer is the perfect compromise to deliver quality photos at a reasonable price.

You simply can't use them for outputting documents, because they don't accept letter-size paper stock. They are limited to snapshot sizes, comprising maximum paper sizes of 2 by 3 inches, 4 by 6 inches, or 5 by 7 inches (or panoramic variations on these sizes).

But this category of printer isn't defined just by its limits. These printers are relatively small and portable. They're also much less computer-centric printers than they are standalone consumer electronics products, with an emphasis on ease of use. What both categories have in common is that they focus on printing photographs. Here is what you need to consider to make the right choice. Do You Even Need a Photo Printer?

There's no such thing as a dedicated or near-dedicated photo printer all-in-one, but some dedicated photo printers add functions beyond printing. (That said, many inkjet-based home and office all-in-ones do print excellent photos; see for our tops picks there.) Most include menus with basic editing features that let you crop an image, remove red-eye, and the like. A few add so many editing choices that they are essentially home photo kiosks, often including a large touch screen to let you easily give commands.

Models like these often also add features such as the ability to scan slides and film negatives. Some also include enough in-device memory to store hundreds of photos, so you can bring the printer with you, show the photos, and print them out on the spot. A few dedicated photo printers are even built into other kinds of devices, such as cameras. Near-dedicated photo printers don't offer the same kinds of extras as dedicated models. By definition, however, they're also capable of printing standard business documents, although it's generally a waste of their talents—like using a brand-new Porsche as a town car. Some are harder to use for standard office printing than others, mainly because you may have to swap out ink cartridges when you switch between glossy and plain paper.

If you must use a near-dedicated photo printer for office printing as well as photos, even occasionally, be sure to pick one that lets you switch easily between photo paper and plain paper. What Does It Cost to Print? To get the cost per photo for a dedicated photo printer, simply divide the cost of the print pack by the number of photos it will print. To get the total cost of ownership, multiply the cost per photo by the number of photos you expect to print over the printer's lifetime, and then add the printer's initial cost.

This total is the best basis for comparing prices. Do You Print in Black and White?

With most printer categories, you should consider whether you really need color. Photo printers turn the question on its head, so you should consider whether you need black and white, which many printers can't handle well. The most common flaw in black-and-white printing is a tint, or different color tints that show up in different shades of gray. If you print black-and-white photos, you'll need to check out black-and-white photo quality apart from the printer's color photo quality. This is more often a problem for dedicated, rather than near-dedicated, photo printers, but you need to consider it in either case. (In our reviews, we note such tints and their severity when we encounter them, but we don't use monochrome images to test small-format printers.) Assessing Printer Size: Portable or Desk-Bound?

Inexpensive dedicated photo printers range in size from small enough to fit in a pocket to too large to carry very often. If you want to bring a printer with you to events like parties or Little League games, pick a size you won't mind carrying. Also, consider whether you'll need to run it from batteries. If so, make sure there's a battery available, if only as an option, and find out how many photos you can print on a full charge.