Over the past decade, the market has exploded with products designed to print high quality digital photos from home.  While some of these products deliver good results, far too many leave you questioning why you ever stopped dropping off your rolls of film at hour-wait photo developing chains.  Before you throw in the towel and concede that the technology to print affordable and professional quality photos from home is not ready for public use, you should check out what HP has been working on.

shutterstock_44601544When printing digital photos from home, you need two parts: the printer, and the ink.  While there are many digital printers to choose from, the standard-bearer is the HP Photosmart 100 inkjet photo printer. Weighing less than 3 pounds and measuring in at 4.7×7.9×8.8 inches, this printer packs a big punch for something so light and portable.  It is able to connect to your PC via USB cable, features slots for memory cards, and comes with a port that allows direct link from a digital camera to the printer.  The image quality also suggests that this little printer is not afraid of punching above its weigh as it can print pictures at the extremely sharp resolution of 2400×1200 dpi.

There is a wide array of HP inkjet cartridges to choose from that produce high quality images.  The best for home printing is the HP 57 Ink Cartridge – HP Genuine OEM (Tricolor).  This little cartridge is able to print up to 400 pages of brilliant, professional quality pictures for a reasonable price thanks to its dry-based ink technology.  The dry ink allows different colors to blend easily resulting in incredibly crisp pictures that will not fade.  Using the HP 57 Ink Cartridge, just like using all HP inkjet cartridges, is incredibly user friendly.  The on-screen monitor feature allows you to see when the ink is running low, and replacing the cartridge is simple.

This combo works best when printing out 4X6 photos, but can also produce great results when printing larger pictures.  If you are looking to print brilliant color images from home at various sizes, you really cannot go wrong with these products.  The smart design of HP inkjet cartridges and printers show how HP has really changed the way that people print digital pictures.