Photo printer
As a photo printer , all are colloquially printer called that for a high-quality output of digital images were conceived. Normally, special consumables (example: paper type) must be used for this.
There is no uniform quality standard that clearly defines the "high quality output" of a photo printer and so there are great differences in quality between different photo printers. Imagesetters are used for the industrial production of photos with the highest quality standard . These work without a grid - and are therefore not referred to as (photo) printers .
history
Before the advent of digital photography, most photos were made in large laboratories . At the beginning of the 1990s, investments worth millions were made there for the conversion to the hybrid system Advanced Photo System (APS). This turned out to be a bad investment, because - due to a standardization dispute - this system was only introduced to the end user in 1996. At this time, the first digital consumer cameras were already being presented at international photo fairs such as the Photokina . Since the quality of these cameras was without exception very poor, the large laboratories did not want to make a second bad investment. No further development of existing systems such as the Agfa Digiprint was undertaken. The resulting market niche was exploited by the leading printer manufacturers.
technology
Photo printers either work with improved inkjet technology or use the (gridless) thermal sublimation process . The colors used can differ considerably from ordinary ink in terms of brilliance, lightfastness and durability. Another feature (compared to conventional office printers) is the option of borderless printing. In order to avoid the formation of droplets on the edges of the paper, technical improvements have also been made over conventional inkjet technology.
With the thermal sublimation process, droplets cannot form due to the process itself, which is why borderless printing with this process was possible earlier than with inkjet printers. However, the material costs are significantly higher with this method - therefore it could not establish itself in the mass market.
A different approach is that of 2008 with the PoGo introduced printers zinc printing technology ( Zero Ink = "zero ink"), in which the color pigments are located already in the paper and are developed by heat. This process works without printer cartridges and cartridges.
Quality feature
Around 2000 digital photography began to spread massively. In order to conceal the serious deficiencies of the digital technology at the time, the entire image production line was adapted to the user profiles .
A typical example of this is the profile of the “clipper” : Vacation and family motifs should be printed out for the photo album in a size of 10 cm × 15 cm. The printers were set in such a way that they increased the amount of black much more than was necessary. As a result, the image motifs looked very strong and rich in contrast ( high impression of sharpness ). This concealed the weakness of the printer that it was very difficult to print delicate colors. With the restriction to 10 cm × 15 cm, the physical lack of sharpness of digital images was barely visible.
Today's photo printers also use various methods and tricks to improve the impression of sharpness.
Right photo: After lightening the left photo, you can clearly see the poor quality of the print.
Equipment and economy
Most devices today can be operated completely independently of the home PC. They have several card slots for holding the memory cards - a display enables the selection of images on the cards. When connected to a PC, the printer can be used as a memory card drive. A Bluetooth interface enables the wireless transmission of cell phones directly to the printer.
There are devices in which a single ink cartridge is sufficient for all colors, from which even the black tones are mixed, but there are also devices with a separate black or color cartridge. Some printers have a black cartridge with fade-resistant pigmented ink and an additional cartridge with brilliant black for photos. In order to achieve the desired quality, all devices require a special, coated photo paper. Ink cartridges and photo paper for photo printers are expensive and in any case represent an additional source of output to any existing home printer.