For those of us that like to have the hard copy of the photo, I've put together a bunch of tips that you should understand prior to venturing out to the web looking for the right printer, that by some miracle happens to match your financial budget more than your esthetic sense of quality imaging.

Inksize Droplet
The size of the drops being shot out of the inkjets will determine the quality of the print, especially in fine detail areas in your photos. Typical inkjets have a 4 picoliter jet size. Newer machines can go as small as 2 picoliters, like the Canon i9900. The difference between 2 and 4 pl is noticable under really close study, but theres little noticable difference between them at a distance of say 6 feet.

Number of Ink Cartridges
Ink jet printers combine ink colors to make a huge array of colors and tones. The more individual colors that are used the better the quality and smoothness of the image. In the past, most inkjets came with 1 black cartridge and 1 color cartridge with 3 different color ink wells. Today most printers come with between 6 and 8 in cartridges. If you're really a perfectionist (like I am) about your prints then get 6 or 8 cartridges. I'm really picky with what I print out because I have a big wall in my den with a dozen of my best shots. It's a real conversation piece when I have people over so it's important to me to have great control over my colors and my tones.

Direct Print Capability
More and more of the printers on the market today allow you to either directly plug your camera into the printer or allow you to plug your memory card into the printer. Control over the image is at best minimal (some allow brightness and color adjustments) so don't expect the same quality as from a downloaded photograph, but for quickness and convenience they're great. My recommendation would be to stick with the same brand as your camera or with a brand that clearly states "works with Brand X".

Paper Size
There's currently 3 paper size type printers available on the market for consumers. First are the 4x6 photo printers manufactured by Canon and Epson. Next are the ones that print papers and various things up to letter size (8 1/2 x 11). This is what you could consider to be standard sized right now. The final group are the tabloid size printers -- these are printers that will print up to 13x19 inch sheets (hint: this would require a 10 Megapixel image at 200dpi for a nice clear photograph this size).

Printer Resolution
This is a stat that printer manufacturers love to tout, but can possibly be meaningless. Most photo-capable printers today print at either 1440 or 2880 dpi (dots per inch). There are a few on the market that will do 4800dpi or even as much as 5760 dpi. You won't see any kind of improvement above 1440dpi unless you're really anal like I am. First, you'll need a HUGE image to print something at that resolution even at 4x6 (4x6 at 1440 dpi would be a 49 Megapixel image -- not highly likely). For printing on watercolor paper, you dont really need anything above 720dpi. It's nice to have the ability to go nuts with the dots, but 1- you don't need it and 2- you won't be able to see the difference.

Print Speed
Personally, I couldn't care less how long it takes to print my photographs. It's worth reading the reports on how long it takes, but those reports rarely reflect how an average consumer will be using their printer.

Print Permanence
To me, this is the most critical of all printer and ink ratings. If you look at old photographs, you know that they eventually fade and over time will actually disappear. So called 'Archival' quality is really what you will want to look for which indicates that the ink and paper combinations are more 'lightfast' yielding prints that will last longer. For truly archival quality only pigmented inks should be considered although there are a few dye-based inks that may be considered. For most prints, they'll look good for about a year or two when taped tacked to a bulletin board or up to 5 years when properly framed or stored. The great thing about digital photography is that you can always reprint the image when you want it as sharp as it was the day it left your printer.

Good luck and happy printing.