Owning a digital camera is a considerable financial investment. Although it's easy to view your digital photos on a computer screen, there's nothing quite like a good quality glossy colour print. Until recently, the combination of a digital camera and a colour printer was no match for an old-fashioned film camera and film processing.

But there are now printers on the market which, if given a good enough digital image to work with in the first place, are pretty close to delivering results of a quality comparable to conventional photo prints. The latest digital cameras are also capable of delivering some very acceptable images.

Choosing a printer depends on a number of factors. What's your main concern - picture quality, convenience and versatility, or running costs? Here we look at half a dozen photo quality printers that have very different strengths and weaknesses. Some are designed solely for printing photos, while others are all-rounders capable of printing charts and letters to the bank manager as well.

There are two main printer types: inkjet and thermal dye sublimation. The former fires microscopic droplets of ink at the paper and the latter literally melts tiny dots of coloured wax from a thin film onto the paper in several passes. As we will see, although dye-sub, as it's known, has traditionally been the best photo quality choice, especially for professional pre-press printing, the cheaper and more versatile inkjet has been honed into a formidable challenger. Click the 'NEXT' link below to find out more.