Photo printers these days are capable of producing some absolutely stunning digital photo prints that easily rival, and in some cases even surpass, those made by a photo lab. Since digital photography has put the final output of a digital photo in the hands of the photographer, you can make these kind of prints yourself right at home. Let's discuss the ways to be sure to get the best photo output from your digital photo printer.

First of all, the initial responsibility for image quality resides with your digital camera. There must be enough resolution to make each photo sharp and clear, and for most photos up to 8 X 10 in size that will require about 4 - 6 megapixels. So be sure that your camera is turning out high quality images to work with before you even start printing.

The next step in producing outstanding digital photos is to edit them by hand in photo editing software before you print them out. Here is where you can make lots of beneficial adjustments depending on the capability of your photo editing program. You can crop out all the unnecessary parts of each image, adjust the color saturation and contrast, and much more. The more time you take here, the better your print will usually be. Doing all of this by hand is also very important as photos often have completely different editing needs from one to another so no one-size-fits-all solution can be applied to all of your photos to make them look their best.

Once you have the images edited its time to print them out, and here is where you will need a high quality photo printer for the very best output. Thankfully, there are many great inkjet printers on the market these days that are more than capable of making excellent prints, but to find the very best printers you should look for those that separate their color cartridges into individual units instead of combining them all together as most cheaper printers do. This lets the printer have more complete control over the printing process including printing a wider range and deeper saturation of colors than most normal printers are capable of.

Also consider the photo paper that you will be using and use a high quality paper, preferably the brand and type that is recommended by the manufacturer of your photo printer as this is usually the combination for the highest quality results.

As you can see, getting the very highest quality digital photo prints is not just about the printer itself, although it does play a large role in the overall output. So if you need to produce the very best digital photo images, follow the guidelines given above to help you achieve the best results.

Thad Pickering writes on many consumer related topics including digital photography. You can find the best photo printer and the best professional digital photo printer by visiting our Digital Photography website.