Digital Prints With a Click

Websites have finally caught up with the digital photo printing craze. Sites like dotphoto.com not only post your digital photos online, but can offer you photo quality prints at extremely reasonable rates. Plus, since they are converting digital photos to prints you don't have to worry about the process of processing (forget the film being exposed or processing chemicals doing damage

* Going digital allows you to get your digital photo on a t-shirt, mug, or even edible chocolates.

Printing Picture Perfect

Technological evolution has occurred! Way back when computers were in their early stages, many things were pretty primitive—including printers. Two early printers were known as “character” and "dot matrix" printers.

Character printers printed like a typewriter and dot matrix printers used dots to create words and shapes. Today, the more popular brand of personal printers are:

• Inkjet
• Bubble jet
• Laser

These printers use the dot method for printing combined with colored inks. The difference is that their DPI (dots per inch) are much greater so you get richer detailed digital photo prints. Printers have evolved!

The Printing Shop

Ok, let's say you're hosting an end of the year soccer party for all the kids and parents. With a digital camera, computer and software you probably can put together a pretty cool party flyer. However, the challenge comes when you're ready to print the flyers out. You might want to seek outside help.

Sure, your personal printer could handle maybe 20 detailed prints but how long would that take? If you're looking to print hundreds of flyers your best bet is using a digital print service. Places like Fedex and Kinko's can take your flyer and print out hundreds of copies in a fraction of the time it would take you to do it yourself. Plus, they can also change the size of your prints to make postcards as well as a variety of other options that could accomplish a variety of GOALS!

Look Ma, No Computer!

Computers printer manufacturers have become more in tune to digital photography printing. Today, some printers are designed to be as compact as the photos themselves so you can take them anywhere. And, other printers are so advanced they have removed the computer completely from the printing process—you can directly download your digital photos right to the printer, view the pictures on a mini LCD screen, and print only the ones you want.

Printers With a Dual Purpose

Today, there are all kinds of printers out there. From portable ones that fit in your briefcase to mammoth ones that can create tons of prints per minute, there's a printer to suit anyone's needs.

Digital printing machines have multiple features to suit multiple needs. Some even double as copy machines or scanner printers. Be warned when shopping, however, not to be sold on all the features alone. Make sure that it will give you quality digital photo prints first; this is the most important thing!

Printers of the Pros

When you're printing for personal reasons you probably won't have too many specifications when it comes to a printer. You probably just want something that can handle printing documents and family pictures at a reasonable price. However, if you run a small design firm you may need a couple more digital printing features.

Two of the more popular features top printers offer are:

• Speed
• Paper size

If you have a ton of storyboards to print, high-speed comes in handy. And, if you find you'll need to print digital photos at various sizes for presentations, sizing capabilities are crucial. Think about what's important to you and do your research before buying just any printer.