My wife is interested in changing from scrapbooking with paper to digital scrapbooking. She likes laying out the pictures on the computer because she feels like it gives her more options. Unfortunately our printer isn't the best quality, so I'm hoping to surprise her with a new one for Christmas (which is why me with zero scrapbooking knowledge is asking instead of her). The printers that print 12 inches are out of our price range, so I'm wondering about other sizes.

She's seemed to do different sized albums, what is most popular? 8x10, 8x8, etc? And if you choose something 8x8 do you just print on 8x10 and cut it down? Does anyone have any recommendations on certain printers? Right now I'm looking at some Epsons in the $100-200 price range, but it's hard for me to tell which ones would be best for scrapbooking. Thanks for your advice in advance.

You'll want a good photo printer. In my experience, I perfer the HPs over the epsons - much easier to install and use day to day. However, I've heard epsons are easier to maintain (cleaning the printer heads). I've had a HP photo printer for over 4 years and I've never had any problems with it - we will be swapping it with an all in one HP printer so that we can get rid of the seperate fax machines and scanners.

You just print 8x8s on the regular paper - you can even use the extra space to print a smaller photo and then crop the paper.

8x8 is very popular and convenient - you can get plany of 8x8 album styles and printing at home is very economical.
No mater what brand of printer you are looking at (epson and hp are he most popular tho)you should take into account few things.
* the printer should be a photo printer - not a all in one type.
* Cartridge cost is an ongoing cost to consider, You can either get printers that use a combination of cartridges such as a black, tricolor and or photo cartridge or you can get the type that have 6 or more seperate ink tanks. For photo/layout printing the seperate tanks tend to be slightly more economical

Take a look at out article here: http://scrapbook-bytes.com/cgi-scrip...icle_132.shtml for more information about printing

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AHH, so sweet! My DH bought mine a couple years ago for me for the same reason. We have an Epson Stylus PHOTO RX500 Scanner/Printer/Copier, and it was fairly inexpensive (keep in mind this was almost two years ago, they probably have a better one for the same price now). We are very happy with it. I print all of my layouts using this printer (and JetPrint glossy paper from Walmart) and have even been happy with the way it uses cheap, refill color cartridges (not Epson brand) which has saved us tons on printing costs! Good luck to you and your wife (she will love, love, love digiscrapping!!!)

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How sweet!!I have an Epson that was very inexpensive 6 years ago and we have a been very pleased with it. If you do go with Epson, I recommend using Epson brand paper. It seems to make a difference

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I have an Epson Stylus PHOTO RX620 which happens to be an all-in-one, but the printer part is a photo printer and uses 6 cartridges. I LOVE it!! I've printed out probably a couple of hundred layouts on it and plan on doing many more.

Over the years I've owned one Lexmark (hated it) and one HP (didn't like it either) and several Epsons which I've always loved. I've changed several times, but only for personal reasons and not anything on Epsons part as far as durability or quality - just my own little need to constantly upgrade. LOL

As you can tell already, we each have our own opinions as to which brand, and which paper - I happen to use only Epson ink, but not Epson paper and never glossy. Those things are not things that can be put into facts as to which might be better, just what each of us has found we like for ourselves.

If you should happen to look at the Epson site for additional information, I noticed they have the RX620 at $199.00 with a $40 rebate for ordering from them. I don't know if you have a scanner currently, but it might be a nice way to get both because at some point you'll want a scanner also.

Here's a link to the Epson site. (I was going to link to the model, but I think it might not have worked with my cookie information.) Did I mention they also have free shipping?

http://www.epson.com/

To answer another of your questions - I print my 8x8's onto 8x11 paper and trim off the excess. With the Epson I have, I can also print borderless at the 8x11 size if I want. So when you are researching printers, you'll probably want to find out if it will print borderless.

After she gets her present, don't forget to have her come back to SBB and learn all about digital scrapping. We have a great tutorial section.

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I have a couple of dont's Do not buy Cannon :P Do not buy Lexmark. I cogently have a lexmark and thought i have finally figure out how to make it do what i want. It is temperamental and you never know what it is going to do. I have wasted a lot of time ink and paper trying to get things right. Not worth the time if you ask me If you find one with a scanner and photo printer in one that you like i would get it i could not live with out my scanner. That also basically gives you an at home copier. I use mine all the time with my clip art books and dd school projects. Good luck

Oh and don't forget to send your wife our way. She will have a blast.

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I have to disagree with the comment "don't buy Canon" as I have had nothing but Canon photo printers (actually use them in a business setting) for over 4 years and have had great success with all of the models we have used - and we work them hard. Currently use an i9900 and love the quality and the speed.