Best Photo Printer Mac

by John, allprinterreviews.com Expert Reviewer
( USA)

This Best Photo Printer Mac Review is for the benefit of those who have had the unfortunate experience of buying a printer that was not Mac compatible. Now others would wonder what's so special about Mac that it has to have issues about compatibility. Mac software is exclusively designed by Apple and sometimes their available applications don't have an equivalent with the Windows applications. Now that we've settled that, we zeroed in on three of the top printer brand's Best Photo Printer Mac compatible.

Below is a comparative review of the Best Photo Printer Mac compatible printers. The following are three professional photo inkjet color printers with wired connectivity and large format capacity. Their maximum media size is Super B (13" x 19") and we compared each one side by side asthey all run using Mac Operating Systems.We will find out how the Best Photo Printer Mac compatible unit will perform if all basic features considered are on an even keel.

1. HP Photosmart 8750 Professional $998.97

For a photo printer that offers professional printing capabilities, Photosmart 8750 is considered easy to use wherein its built-in Ethernet allows it to share work even in a small network of users in a mixed Mac and PC environment. It can also work wireless if the user so chooses to use a wireless router or work PC less via four media card slots.

HP Photosmart 8750's hardware controls are easy to navigate with the aid of the pop-up LCD screen and the printer's interface offers a lot of options. Despite the numerous control features, controls are all straightforward and easy to locate which makes execution of software applications fast and without any reason for delay.

The printer's driver, supports Adobe RBG, sRGB, and printer-managed software. This is aside from its own ability to adjust color for ink saturation, ink volume and brightness. These are features which any serious photographer would like to have, in order to make sure photos have that distinctive professional looking quality. The HP Photosmart 8750 provides color management controls for the 9-ink borderless color prints that can come as large as 13x19 inches in realistic color and crisp black-and-white photos.

Now if you will opt to use print-menu shortcuts instead of the color management controls, you can simply select options such as "Photo-quality printing with white borders", and the software will automatically choose Best Print Quality, Landscape Orientation and HP Premium Plus photo paper.

The print menu also has provisions for image adjustments if printing directly from camera or memory card. It has slider scales that allow red-eye correction, contrast and sharpness adjustment, digital flash, smart focus and even adjust ink volume for smoothening to regulate the amount of ink applied to a selected page. Adjustment may also include the print's drying time.

The HP Photosmart 8750 printheads are attached to the ink cartridge, which means clogging problems can be solved by simply replacing the erring cartridge. Ink run outs are supported by the HP's pop-up which gives advice that the ink is running out but will not stop the user from printing. As the user, you can simply wait until your output becomes unacceptable as your basis for tossing out the cartridge once it is depleted.

The extended color palette of additional ink cartridge for gray and blue and the available tools work in perfect harmony to produce photos that come in varied sizes, using different media, and in rich color with complete accuracy in details. Thus, we had a fine time testing this printer for our Best Photo Printer Mac review, since every tool and application were useful in producing quality outputs.

2. Epson Stylus Photo R1900 $449.99

As a professional photo printer the excellence of Stylus 1900 photo prints are mostly attributed to the recently introduced Radiance Technology and its UltraChrome Hi-Gloss 2 Ink. Exploring its driver however, will give you essentially the same features used in all Epson Stylus Photo printers.

The Advanced tab for color management option is one of its improvements as a professional photo printer, by setting it as a default, where "Best" is the top setting. To access the printer's Auto Photo Enhance feature you have to turn off high speed. Features other than this are basically the same wherein the different options are mechanically adjusted.

UltraChrome Hi-Gloss 2 Ink allows the Stylus Photo R1900 the best in facial tones with Red and Orange ink cartridges as its addition to in its color palette. To achieve best results, you have to use the Premium Glossy Photo paper. The skin tone enhancements created was not something as impressive with the UltraChrome Hi-Gloss 2 and Radiance technology practically running the show.

This Stylus Photo 1900 does not allow PC less printing which makes it really important for Mac users to make sure of its software compatibility to the printer although its does says in the specs that it supports Mac. It has no card reader and no built-in Ethernet connection reader either.

MicroPiezo AMC print head was given its update with the special coating that will repel ink clogs. Another add-on is the mist collection system to prevent ink overspray as it collects mist build up. There's one thing wrong with it though, since the mist tends to gather on the bottom trays and its causing some unpleasant marks at the print bottoms. Print speed takes about 3 minutes and 38 seconds for the 8x 10 inch large size, which we had hoped would be faster considering its total reliance to Radiance technology.

You could decide on this, if you think the quality of the photos will be worth the amount of high quality ink cost you will be using, when producing your professional looking photographs. There are other printers out there that will cost you less in producing professional quality photos and yet will give you the same offers of functionality except for the improvements cited above.

3. Canon Pixma PRO9000 Photo Printer $534.98

Our review of PIXMA PRO9000 produced agreeable results. It provides for Canon Easy-PhotoPrint Pro software, which allows the user to have control over the quality of the prints. This software helps in ensuring quality photos at post production stage after Canon's Digital Photo Professional and Adobe Photoshop software are done with their auto adjustments. It allows you to produce contact prints which you can use to further adjust color balance, contrast setting and brightness. All in all, The user has three color adjustments to choose from for fine tuning purposes. This is actually good if you want to ensure professional looking photographs.

You can easily navigate adjustments using the user friendly controls by selecting None if you want third party editing like Adobe Photoshop while another set of controls are provided for black and white adjustments. You can also choose an option to put the printer into self- cleaning it needs as a dye-based printer and automatically.

Canon has stepped up its improvement where it counts the most for professional demands. It has surpassed Epson here in widening the users' choices of media. It now recognizes other brands of paper, even those sold by competitors. This is quite good if you want a professional printer to serve you well. A true test of its photo quality is one where pictures remain excellent in almost any brand of media and Canon Pixma PRO9000 is confident enough of its outputs.

However it does not allow PC less printing since it lacks a card reader and front USB port aside from the USB 2.00. It is therefore important that software provided are all Mac compatible. Like that of HP Photosmart 8750, our review of Best Photo Printer Mac compatible printer also gave us pleasure, in the sense that the use of this printer for combining technology and functional tools can deliver professional services with utmost efficiency and ease of use. Canon Pixma PRO9000 is capable of this at a lesser cost than what HP Photosmart 8750 is asking for.

Summary of Best Photo Printer Mac compatible printers

PIXMA PRO9000 has finally come of age in this printer. Despite its lack of PC less printing capabilities and less longevity in the life of its photos, this printer presents a photo printer that can give you the professional help you need with ease of use and competence of technology for a lesser price.

HP Photosmart 8750 comes in only second in our assessment in as much as its additional card reader slots, wireless connectivity and provisions for gray and blue color enhancements tools don't seem to make up for the large difference in its price with the other printers of similar caliber.

Epson Stylus Photo R1900 should take off from its over reliance to its ink technology and color management and allow users more options to use for adjustment and color management with the aid of third party tool. The printer is okay for professional printing services and the outputs are excellent but could have provided more for the price it is asking.

Best Photo Printer Mac's choice is the Canon Pixma PRO9000 Photo Printer.

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