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Cheaper Photo Printing at Home

Techstination feature for Monday, May 17, 2004

Photo printing at home, for a reasonable price. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. When it comes to printing digital photos, when you add up the costs of special paper and ink, it's often less expensive to use online services or digital print services available at a wide variety of stores. Epson is hoping to convince more digital camera owners to print at home…with its PictureMate personal photo lab. Product manager Fabia Ochoa…

"The price per print matches that of the most major labs in the U.S. today, which is 29 cents per print.

The toaster sized device can accept 8 different types of memory cards from cameras and can be used with or without a PC. Unlike some rival devices, which typically have higher per print costs, there is no color LCD screen. The PictureMate prints contact sheets…that you use to select which photos you want to print. And when it comes to buying paper and ink…

"We have packaged 100 sheets of PictureMate photo paper along with the PictureMate cartridge. So all you have to think about is actually picking up one consumable for the product. You don't have to worry about when one color goes out or when you run out of photo paper you have to make another trip to the store."

You are limited to snap shot sized photos. Epson claims the prints will last as long or longer than those you would get from professional processing. The PictureMate is scheduled to go on sale this spring for about two hundred dollars.