Budget Photo Printers

Midlevel photo printers for hobbyists

If you're looking to print snapshots, you might want to skip this section and head back to our page on "best printers overall." Reviewers say that standard inkjet printers do a fine job with family vacation photos and snapshots. We also have a separate report on dedicated photo printers that output only 4-by-6-inch and 5-by-7-inch prints. On the other end of the spectrum, the most expensive photo printers (discussed in a separate section of this report) are designed for professionals and cost more than $500. In between the two classes of photo printers are midlevel units designed to meet the needs of hobbyists, scrapbookers and others who want quality pictures but don't require gallery-standard prints.

The Epson Stylus Photo R1900 (*Est. $300) is the printer experts recommend most in this category. However, in April, Epson announced its replacement, the Epson Stylus Photo R2000. According to their spec sheets, the two printers are very similar: The R2000 adds Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, PictBridge compatibility and bigger ink tanks. As of this update, there are not any reviews available for this Epson photo printer.

Of the R1900, Rick LePage of Macworld says that its pigment-based inks produce the best results in this price range and that, in tests, viewers consistently chose the R1900's prints over those from the runner-up Epson Stylus Photo 1400 (*Est. $280). In tests at PrinterInfo.com, the Epson R1900's color range, depth and accuracy beats the pricier Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II (*Est. $445) -- which is saying something, as the Canon is one of that site's top picks and our Best Reviewed photo printer. The Epson R1900 is a top pick at TrustedReviews.com and the photography magazine Shutterbug, too: Testers there say its skin tones are particularly lifelike, but its black-and-whites suffer from a slight color cast, unlike pricier printers like the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 (*Est. $550), Both the Epson R2880 and the Canon Pro9000 Mark II are discussed in our Best Photo Inkjets section.

But reviews of the Epson R1900 are not unanimous. Photo-i's Vincent Oliver says he experiences difficulty achieving a good color balance and cites poor monochrome printing and lack of a straight paper feed path as negatives, although he says the R1900 is still "a good all round printer." Several early Amazon.com users complain about defective ink cartridges, but those complaints have evaporated lately, and the new R2000 uses different, bigger ink cartridges.

Reviews aren't quite as enthusiastic about the  Epson Stylus Photo 1400 (*Est. $280). It uses dye-based inks instead of the pigment-based inks used by the Epson Stylus Photo R1900 and R2000. One major testing source finds the 1400's photo quality just good -- not great -- and reviewers at CNET and Photo-I say they have to fiddle with their black-and-white photos to counteract the slight color tinge they pick up from the 1400. The other primary complaint voiced by reviewers is that the default profiles integrated with the 1400's drivers -- designed to optimize printing for specific papers -- are often inaccurate and named in such a way that makes it difficult to select the correct profile. Most reviewers had better luck allowing Photoshop to control color and creating their own paper profiles.

Like many high-end inkjet printers, the Epson 1400 has a large footprint, measuring 24.2 inches by 12.4 inches. The printer uses six ink cartridges; the Epson Claria inks are rated to last up to 98 years under glass or 200 years in a photo album. Replacing all six cartridges will run you about $115 or just under $20 per cartridge. Reviewer tests confirm that prints are smudge-, scratch-, water- and fade-resistant. The Epson 1400 inkjet photo printer can print directly onto CDs and DVDs made for that purpose.