Save time and money by printing your own photos at home

Considering how widespread the use of digital cameras is today, and how affordable the average model is, it's hard to believe that even 10 years ago people were still using old-fashioned film cameras on a regular basis. Indeed, the digital camera revolution has meant that a whole new generation of photographers has emerged, with the art of good photography no longer confined to those who are able to afford the best equipment or easily navigate their way around a dark room.

For most ordinary people, the biggest benefit delivered by the modern wave of digital cameras has been the ability to print out photographs at home. In the early days of digital photography, it was possible for people to print colour photographs but lower ink and paper quality meant that the result was often grainy, giving poor representation to what may have been excellent photographs. The development of affordable home photo printers since the mid-2000s has changed this. Essentially, ink used in photo printers is able to emulate the resolution and range of colours available on traditional photographic prints, delivering end results of much higher quality than those seen on older printers.

The benefits of photo printers are clear. For starters, they save a considerable amount of time. Photo sharing and printing websites, for example, can be very handy. But depending on your computer's capabilities and your internet speed, it can take over an hour or longer to upload photos to these sites and request print outs. Thereafter, these print outs may take several days to arrive in the post or, if your postal system is unreliable, never arrive at all. With a photo printer at home, printing out photos may take just minutes and you'll have them in your hands immediately.

What's more, purchasing a photo printer is likely to save you money in the long-term. It's true that the act of buying a photo printer may put a temporary dent in your finances. You'll also need to add various peripherals to this cost, like ink cartridges, toner and special photo printing paper. These supplies however will last a considerable length of time and the overall savings you make could be significant.

In addition, photo printers allow you to print photos one at a time, rather than in bulk. As a result, it's much easier to print the photographs you want as and when you want to see them, or when you want to send a single snapshot to family or friends. This not only saves you money but it's also a much more environmentally friendly way of printing photographs, since you ultimately generate less waste by only printing the photos you want to keep.