Digital photo printers - as good as printing at Boots?

[UnSerpentQuiCourt]

I know that digital photos printed on your home printer tend to fade very quickly and so print out one or two photos at a time at Boots, which is time consuming and expensive. If I buy one of those photo printers and special paper you see advertised, would the photos last like 'real' photos?

Usually if you buy the manufacturer ink they will last longer. I know Epson calls their ink technology "Durabrite". I remember seeing them testing on the Gadget show a few years ago and they did do their stuff.

That said I've always found that printing at home is more expensive than taking it to Boots. So I tend only to print the occasional photo for casual use. If I intend to put it on a wall then I'll get it printed professionally.

Still might be worth a try for me - I live 15 miles from the nearest Boots and then the photoprinter is often not working, so /i would love to print odd photos - maybe 3 or 4 a week.

I think Boots also does an online photo printing service. You upload your photos to them, they print them and post them back to you.

I'd suggest you simply buy a half decent Epson printer then.

Don't worry too much about it being a special "photo printer". Nowadays they'll all pretty much print photos. The key will be choosing the best paper and using the official ink.

For convenience it's a no brainer but like I said earlier. By the time you've factored in the special paper and the ink, you are better off uploading them to Snapfish/Boots/Jessops/wherever and waiting.

Oh and the reason I recommend Epson is because they have the Durabrite technology and they are one of the most popular brands so there's more chance of you being able to pick up new cartridges if you live out of the way. For example, my local Tesco's has a good selection but a naff selection of HP/Lexmark.

Try DSCOLOURLABS

they are cheap and will post to you.

CHEAPER TO DO IN BATCHES THOUGH

sorry for capS lappyS Go NE MAD

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. The problem with uploading my photos is that I really only want a couple/3/4 photos a week to stick into dd's scrapbook, and that makes the postage quite high. Or I leave them untill I've got a decent number and then it takes so long that she's I've forgotten what it was all about. Maybe I need to get more organised.

Postage is probably way cheaper than £50 for a printer, £15 per ink cartridge and £5 for special photo paper!

You could be right! I wonder how many postages would add up to £80ish?

Oh, and I do know how to spell until.