TECH TIPS
Inkjet printers better, cheaper

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Hewlett-Packard's new Deskjet 5550 inkjet printer at $149 is an excellent value demonstrating an underappreciated trend: Photo-quality home printers are getting much better and much cheaper, even as most of the publicity in the field goes to digital cameras.

There are many ways to share digital pictures, but perhaps the most satisfying is making your own prints that are good enough to put in a frame and hang on the wall.

The four major inkjet manufacturers — Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark — have been competing fiercely for years, driving the cost for the least expensive color inkjets to as little as $49.

Most inkjets use four colors, typically with one black cartridge and one tricolor cartridge. Four colors are all you need for sharp, accurate reproduction of text and color graphics.

To get maximum quality when printing photographs, however, calls for six colors, typically with one black and one five-color cartridge or with two tricolor cartridges. Six-color photo printers use black ink specially designed for high-quality photo paper, along with extra shades of color ink for making a smoother transition from light colors to dark colors.

The big problem, until now, was that six-color inkjets were significantly more expensive, at $250 and up, than four-color models.

HP's Deskjet 5550, which started reaching stores in mid-July, is half the price of the company's previous least expensive six-color inkjet at $149.

Epson has gone even further down the cost curve with its six-color Stylus Photo 820 at $99.

Canon and Lexmark are a step behind. Canon's least expensive six-color printer is the S820 at $249; Lexmark doesn't offer six-color models.

The Deskjet 5550 is impressive because it goes both ways, working as either a four-color or six-color printer, a unique feature among inexpensive printers.

Another amazing feature is automatic paper detection. The Deskjet 5550 checks each sheet of paper as it starts printing and adjusts for the appropriate level of ink output depending on whether it senses the presence of plain paper or special photo paper.

HP cuts a few corners. All printer makers, to their eternal discredit, don't include a cable in the box. So you'll have to buy a USB or parallel cable. And the Deskjet 5550 comes with only black and standard tricolor cartridges. For six-color printing, you need to spend $25 more for a photo cartridge.