I just cranked up my Epson PictureMate Personal Photo Lab inkjet printer for the season to do some holiday photos to include with cards I’m sending out. A friend had bought a new digital camera last summer, and the camera shop where he got it wouldn’t let him leave without toting one of these along. Since he’s a totally digital guy, he passed the printer along to me. And I love it.

Before having this puppy in my life, printing out 4×6 photos on my other printers was typically an exercise in terror. Would I get the paper in the right way? Would the sheet twist in the process of printing and come out with my once-in-a-lifetime vacation shots at an angle? Would the ink smear while I was pulling it off the tray? Why was this a nightmare for me? Photo paper and ink is pricey, and I’m a true cheapskate. Anything that wastes either of those two items makes me shudder.

Lots of other folks like their PictureMate too, so I culled through reviews and picked up a few cool tips that I’m sharing here.

Gavinldc writes that the family takes their PictureMate “with us to family gatherings [to] print photos on the spot. No computer needed, just a digital camera or even just the memory card from the camera…”

Tonytang from Illinois writes, “I prefer to print in the “enhance find details” mode to get an even sharper print. Although this mode is much slower than the regular mode, I can see the difference in sharpness.”

Alfmalmac from Ohio writes, “If you print from the desktop, the Epson driver will still somewhat crop your picture… because the printer driver increases the size of the print to allow for sloppy alignment and the edges of the photo are oversprayed (printed off the edge of the paper) when borderless is selected… There is a workaround. Just add a border of about 15 pixels before you print. The driver will remove the border and [do] no additional cropping of the picture..

Seanmcr6 shares this tip: “…The print cartridges provide at least 135-140 prints, especially if you print with white borders, which I do.” He adds, “I have had 4 clogs since I’ve owned it. 2 cleaning cycles each time resolved the issue. Small waste of ink, but in the grand scheme of things, not expensive at all.”

Posted on December 14th, 2007 by dian