I’ve been thinking that a photo printer would be a great gift for my mother-in-law or sister-in-law who seem to take a lot of photos, yet somehow I never see them. I mean, what’s up with these people who don’t have blogs? Just kidding. But these folks don’t even seem to bother with Kodak Gallery or any method of getting their photos from the camera to the computer. I have, however, heard them talk about taking their memory cards to Walgreens for printouts. So I’m thinking this little printer would be great for them.
What I love is the size and shape. I think it’s actually called the Photosmart COMPACT printer, and it really is. It has a little handle, so it’s really easy to take out when you want to use it, and not have it out all the time. It needs to get plugged into the wall of course, but doesn’t necessarily need to get plugged into the computer. It’s like your own personal Walgreen’s kiosk. Stick your memory card in the front, photo paper in the back, and use the touch screen to select what you want to print. For the photo-happy grandparent, this is fantastic. For those who are more picky about their photos in terms of lighting and color, I’d guess that you would, like me, first upload your photos to the computer, mess with them, and then print them out. Either way, I’m totally satisfied with the print outs I’ve made with my carefully cropped and color-corrected photos.
HP Photosmart Printer, you are my new friend.
HP Photo Album Kit, I don’t really need you. I was so excited that you come with software to make me a scrapbooky kind of photo album. Of course, you come with an album and photo paper, too. But I thought, hooray, I don’t have to go through the pain of formatting pages with multiple photos and figuring out how to make them come out on the photo paper. The templates include Baby, Holiday, Dog, you get the idea. HP, here are some things you need to improve:
1) The software does not let me customize the book. Certain pages must have a set number of photo slots, so you can’t convert a 2-photo page to a 3-photo page, nor can you move the pages around within the album.
2) You cannot format the text. There is a space for a caption and you can’t change it’s position, font size or style.
3) Since the software is all about the placement of photos. You cannot correct them, say for lighting or conversion to black and white, within this interface. You need to have done this action already.
4) If a photo is not high enough in resolution, there is no warning. I would appreciate a “This will print poorly” message. (I am fussy about photo clarity, and I know that my mother-in-law does not care, so perhaps yours does not either)
The printer is $130, so perhaps a joint gift from adult siblings could make this a good gift for someone. The ink cartridges are your real expense. This actually leads me to my last complaint:
5) Too late in alerting me that the cartridge was running low. I was printing a 13-page photo book and the second-to-last page came out faded. I was upset that I didn’t get a warning from the printer about the ink cartridge being low. Then, the alert came on. So, it did actually tell me that the print quality would be degrading soon, but unfortunately it was one page too late. If I was counting on this as a gift, I would be pretty frustrated because I had wasted a sheet of photo paper and was planning to use all the sheets I had on hand. Argh!
I switched out the cartridge (Yay for me for having an extra ready to go, right?!) and noticed that HP included an envelope, postage paid, for me to send in my empty cartridge for recycling. As my three-year old says when he gets his way, “I’m so happy now!” Good for you, HP. We really don’t want to throw these ink cartridges into the landfill.
Bottom line, on my new friend, HP Photosmart Printer. For a doting grandparent who just wants to print photos and not care about editing them, this is a very cool toy to have.
Links:
> If you want to buy an album to go with it and save 20%, click here.
> Read what other parent bloggers have to say about the printer.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I didn’t realize they sent a return envelope for the used cartridge – that’s pretty fantastic!
I’m seeing similar comments about the software – those who are already experienced with photo editing aren’t too excited about the software. But I’m glad that the printer worked so well for you!