The judges rated overall quality including color depth, accuracy and clarity. Jason Byrne, GCN senior editor for reviews, and lab assistant Donovan Campbell contributed to this report. Over the last few months, six of these babies have been spitting out impressive photographic work in the GCN Lab. And the high-end Fuji Pictrography 3000's output so closely resembled a photo that it was impossible to tell the difference between the two. The Epson and Fuji printers earned Reviewer's Choice designations.
Ink jets spray tiny dots of liquid ink onto a page.
Dye-sublimation printers transfer color from semitransparent ribbons via heat. The Fuji Pictrography occupied a third category all to itself. Discarded donor paper had to be removed occasionally from the printer's trash bin. The printers' resolutions did not necessarily correspond with image quality. The Epson claimed 1,440 by 720 dots per inch, the Fuji 400 dpi maximum.