I just have one thing to say about Printers - BUY AN EPSON!  They are the best quality, fastest, most dependable, cheapest, etc. color printers on the market - and if you are into printing out digital photos (like I am) you cannot find a better printer!  

My first printer was an Epson LQ dot matrix.  Then I splurged and bought a HP 550 "COLOR" inkjet for $600 - wow!  From there I owned a couple of Canons and Epson's 640, 740, & 760 (at ever decreasing prices and increasing quality). The scan below is from my users guide for my latest Epson, the 880, that I bought on clearance from Circuit City for $65!  It prints 15 pages per minute (PPM) in black and white and 5 PPM in full color at 2,880 DPI - and what more can I say? 

The only thing I can't figure out about Epson is why they only let a model stay on the shelf for a few months before they come out (with what `they think') something better.  Looking at a list of all the Epson color printers that have been on the market over the past few years blows your mind - but I guess they know what they are doing?!

I have two tips on using your Epson printer:

1. When printing color photos, choose "photo quality inkjet paper" instead of "glossy photo paper" (even if you are using the glossy stuff).  Your prints take half the time, use half the ink, and give you the same quality output (try it both ways and compare the results).

2. When buying replacement cartridges, don't pay the $30 each for "true Epson cartridges".  Epson (and most of their competitors) sell you their printers cheap - and then stick it to you on the ink cartridges.  There are some very good `generic' cartridges on the market for Epson printers that you can buy for $4 each that work just as well as the "genuine" thing.  I've been using them for years with great results!!!