1. What's the difference between a photo printer and a regular inkjet printer, provided they cost about the same and print with the same resolution?
2. There's a way to make colors that come out of the printer to match better with the colors on the screen. How to do it?

(Darn, with all the PC problems, there's the printer, like there's nothing better to do!)

26 views, that's about half of people who post here, and what? Nobody knows? I don't believe you, you meanies!

It's been a while wince I worked with printers, but if memory serves and I'm not too out of date...

Photo printers often have more ink tanks (5 instead of 3), to give a broader colour spectrum. They are also more likely to support a colour-matching standard, which brings us to question 2.

The purpose of a colour standard is to provide a way to ensure than Scanners, Printers, Screens, and other colour image input and output devices actually work with consisten colours. Without a standard, it is unlikely that you'll get a good colour match between the photo you scan, it's image on the screen, and the printout from your printer.

I think the world of color management has changed a lot since I was a techie, and I never knew much about it then anyway... so I'm going to refer you to a relevant page at Microsoft:

An Overview of Microsoft Image Color Management Technology (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/color/icmwp.mspx)

Hey Whitewolf,

I too, know how it feels to be ignored :(. From this useful article in Tomshardware (http://www4.tomshardware.com/consumer/20041025/index.html) :

you should know that manufacturers have more or less agreed on the definition of a "photo" inkjet printer. The GFK Institute, which studies the market share of manufacturers, needed clarification in this area. So, manufacturers got together and declared that a printer could be called "photo" if it uses more than four different inks, and/or has slots for memory cards.

Also, the article warns the buyer not to be deceived by low priced printers. A cheap printer may end up costing you alot in ink catridges. Look at cost/page when buying.