Compact Photo Printers

Have you ever traveled somewhere and wanted to make a print from a web page, give a print to a photo subject, or needed to quickly print something for a business meeting or presentation? I certainly have. There are a few portable printers on the market that can print 8.5 inches wide. However, there are many compact and very affordable inkjet printers available that are capable of making 4x6, 5x7, or in some cases, even 4x12-inch panoramic prints. Here are some tips for how to use compact photo printers more effectively.

Perfect for Travel
This may sound obvious, but consider bringing a compact printer with you when you travel. Most people just don't think about it, but most compact printers can be placed in a carry-on bag, or even in checked luggage. If you do place it in checked luggage, I recommend keeping the ink cartridge (or cartridges) in separate sealable bags, and if you carry it on a flight or drive with the printer, always keep it in an upright position. In all cases, the printer should be in its own waterproof plastic bag just to be extra safe. Most printer companies also sell travel bags made for their compact printers.

If you begin with a letter-sized document and want to print it to a compact printer, there can be problems with formatting. Assuming you don't want to shrink the text down to fit completely onto a smaller page (for example 5x7 inches), a text-only letter-sized document should reflow when you change the paper size in your program's Page Setup dialog box from 8.5x11 to 4x6. You will see the type change in the document so that it fills multiple pages instead of just one page, and the document should print without a problem.

A few compact inkjet printers are available that can print larger than 4x6 inches. For example, Canon offers the PIXMA mini320, that can output 4x6-, 5x7-, and 4x8-inch prints, and HP makes the Photosmart A626 and Photosmart A716 printers, which are both capable of making 4x6-, 5x7-, and 4x12- inch (panoramic) prints. Lexmark recently released the P350 portable, capable of prints up to 4x6 inches, as well as the Lexmark Z1300 for prints up to 5x7 inches.

Apart from just having the ability to make photo prints, having the panoramic printing option is helpful if you want to quickly create a letter-sized document to be photocopied for a presentation when you are on the road. Just cut a letter-sized sheet of paper in two, then print both halves. Then paste them together so that there is only one seam.

Battery Powered
Virtually all compact printers have optional battery packs and DC car adapters, which makes them ideal for when you are outside or on location doing a photo shoot without AC power, or when you are at a party or other event. If you're an industrious, aspiring professional photographer, compact printers can be used with digital cameras to make prints for sale at events such as street fairs and they can also be used to print directions, postcards, and mailing labels when you're on the road. In addition, you can print multiple images on one sheet of inkjet paper, either without a computer through the built-in software on some compact printers, or by creating a contact sheet in a software program such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture or Microsoft Expression Media (formerly iView Media Pro).

Most compact printers can be hooked up to external CD burners to back up media cards, but the Epson PictureMate Flash has a built-in CD burner. This makes it capable of computer-free printing and image backup of files from media cards, cameras or mobile phones. And some of the HP Photosmart compact printers, Canon compact printers and Epson PictureMate printers can also utilize an optional Bluetooth Print Adapter, which allows wireless printing from mobile phones and other devices.

Some of the dye-sublimation printers (also called thermal dye printers) on the market are even s