Digital cameras let you take a bunch of pictures, deleting the ones you don’t like. There’s no more end-of -the-roll-half-pictures or inside-the-lens-cover-black-pictures stashed in boxes or drawers. Many printer manufacturers now make units specifically for printing photos. New units print great quality pictures. And, new paper and ink options aim to make prints last longer, too.

Just like other printers, photo printers can connect to your computer to allow printing from the desktop. The real goal is to work directly with your camera to take your pictures straight to prints. Photo printers typically have several slots for the different types of memory cards used in cameras. Some include “PictBridge” connections, allowing cameras to be plugged directly into the printer using a USB cable. Keep in mind that both a PictBridge printer and PictBridge camera are required for this type of connection.

Printers higher up the food chain also have a small LCD screen to let you view your pictures before printing them. This is particularly handy for use without the PictBridge connection. With a PictBridge connection, you can simply use the camera’s LCD screen for viewing.

Choices of ink and paper help determine the quality of your finished prints. The biggest advances are being made on color brilliance and print longevity. It used to be easy to tell the difference between a traditional continuous-tone photo from film and a digicam image printed on an inkjet printer. Even good printers couldn’t match the brilliance of photo-lab prints. Bright colors looked dark and subtle shading was muddy.

Today’s portable photo printers reduce those differences. Some of it is due to advancing technology. A big part is due to ink developments. Inks for photo printers (and standard ink jet printers) are specially developed to create more brilliant colors than regular inks. To help even more, some printers use more than the traditional four-color CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) inks. For example, Epson uses six colors, adding red and blue to brighten these tones.

Inks are also available that are rated to last up to 200 years and that fight smudging. Typical inkjet inks fade quickly, especially when exposed to light. It also smears with too much moisture. Archival-quality inks resist fading, and adhere to paper better, reducing the chances of smudging.

Finally, paper is a critical component in the process. Regular paper soaks up ink like a sponge, making sharp lines and rich colors difficult to reproduce. Photo paper helps ink “stand up” on the paper, enhancing both color intensity and clarity.

Epson takes the combination of ink and paper one step further. “Epson sells a package of 100 photo-sized sheets and a six-color ink cartridge,” says Jeff Carnahan, an Epson sales representative based in the Clive CompUSA. “The package means Epson can assure users of a cost of less than 30 cents per print.”

According to Carnahan, Epson will also be releasing the Picture Mate Deluxe photo printer shortly. The device features an LCD screen for previewing images, pigment-based ink for better color, and increased printing time over the previous model. Extra features make it portable, including a rechargeable battery, a car power adapter and a handle.

It all adds up to quality prints without standing at the photo processing counter.