Compact Color Inkjet Printers

Compact Color Inkjet Printers
Compact color printers and dedicated photo printers, the latter designed just for pumping out high-quality photos and not for general printing.

• EpsonPictureMate Show is a compact and boxy little number that includes a 7.0-inch WVGA viewing screen (that doubles as a digital photo frame) and 270MB of internal memory. It measures about 9x8x6 inches when in non-use, and expands when ready to print or when the viewing screen is flipped up. The printer's color dye system can produce excellent-quality prints, although paper size is limited to a maximum 4x6 inches.

• CanonSelphy ES40 is a little deceiving at first glance. While it may look like something more suited to a kid-safe playroom, with its soft colors and rounded edges, it is actually a very sophisticated mobile photo printer that includes a large 3.5-inch LCD, Canon's Easy Scroll Wheel, four large buttons (on, creative print, print, back), and eight smaller buttons (voice, menu, display, edit, zoom in, zoom out, plus copies, minus copies). It also has a voice-guided feature that a kindergartner could work without much difficulty. One other unique entry in the family is the Selphy CP790, which resembles an art deco bucket, which may or may not hint it's a good place to mix and create those digital photos.

• CanonSelphy CP800 is a fairly new addition to the company's compact line of photo quality printers, which just recently became available in time for the 2010 holiday buying season. It replaces the Selphy CP780 and also uses the popular heat-to-transfer dye sublimation technology that allows the system to be mobile without the worry of ink spills or a print head getting miss-aligned. This unit features an adjustable 2.5-inch LCD, built-in memory card with a PictBridge port, and can produce 4x6 photo prints in as fast as 47 seconds. It is also priced at less than $100.