At the beginning of the digital revolution, many people embraced the new technology and loved it. They used their new cameras to take pictures of the kids or the new puppy and e-mail them to friends and family far away. The average digital user almost never saw or made real-world prints of their digital photos. Why? Simply because there was no easy way to do it. The average home printer did not produce a print that in any way compared to the quality available from film cameras. That has all changed.

Printer manufacturers such as Epson, Canon, Samsung, and Hewlett-Packard stepped into the photo printer market, and Epson soon emerged as the photo printer of choice for photographers using digital technology. Epson printers were aimed specifically at digital photographers with archival inks and paper designed exclusively for use in their own brand of printers. They were the first to develop a product line that produced a print that was indistinguishable from one done in a commercial photo lab. The race was on to grab this ever-growing consumer market. Soon HP and Canon had developed photo printers of their own, and at prices consumers could afford.

With the help of image-processing software, digital photographers were soon printing their own work. Many enjoyed the process immensely, but others did not like learning how to use the software and dealing with the sometimes-finicky printers. But soon, enough consumers were printing their photos at home to impact commercial photo labs, who soon saw their sales dropping with no end in sight.

Photo printers popular with photographers can change rapidly in today's market, but the following all offer good prints, have color LCDs, slots for memory cards, USB-port connection, and the ability to adjust color, black-and-white, and sepia tones: