Epson has two current specialist photo printers and the model which takes care of the lower end is the $399 Stylus Photo 810.

Moving in the right direction, but it isn’t easy teaching an old dog new tricks.

While HP’s strength in photo printing is once again proved, mono prints take too long and the scanner is poor.

Built-in tracing and improved drawing, formatting and colour correction make X3 the best CorelDRAW upgrade in years.

Good photo quality and a large touchscreen make this the A4 inkjet to buy.

Cleverly extends Photoshop Elements’ appeal to both digital photo novices and the more experienced

A wide range of power, but too old-fashioned and confusing for most users.

Best-of-breed photo management, editing and sharing with great usability and value.

The best home-office choice with an ADF and fax, plus good text speeds and quality. Those looking for a photo printer should look elsewhere, though.

The price is reasonable, but the interface is poor and speed and quality are below average.

An A4 paper and folder kit for printing out your digital photos in a format that can easily be shared and stored for years. It's essentially a pack of 10 sheets of double-sided photo paper, a hard book and folder clips.

With a lightning-fast scanner and high-quality photo printing, it’s only hampered by speed and running costs. CD printing and transparency scanning are bonuses, though.

Once upon a time not too long ago, your average inkjet printer had a single tricolour ink cartridge. Of course, the print quality was fairly ordinary, but it did the job. Today, with digital cameras the norm and home users wanting to print their own photographs, your photo printer may have as many as eight different ink cartridges.

A new interface, smart albums, guided editing and photo merging keep Photoshop Elements ahead of the pack

Best-of-breed photo management, editing and sharing with great usability and value.

A simplified interface, strong photo-to-art Focus and the low price make painter essentials a great buy.

Printer manufacturers have steadily been increasing the number of ink cartridges in their top of the range photo printers on the basis that the more basic colours they have to work with the more precise the overall result.

The Epson Perfection 3200 Photo represents absolute quality scanning for the serious amateur or professional user. It uses a matrix CCD and micro lens to produce an amazing 3,200dpi optical resolution. Even though it wasn't the highest optical resolution scanner this month, standing behind both the Microtek 4,800dpi scanners, it still produced stunning results without long scanning times, care of USB 2.0 and FireWire.

The Lexmark P6250 is a not just a photo printer as such, it's also an all in one multifunction device: printer/scanner/copier and media reader. You might be nodding to yourself with the obviousness of an all in one printer winning out over tiny single use photo printers in this roundup, but to be honest the distinction is not just made because of the broad functionality and applicability of the Lexmark P6250.

Packed with features like network capability and transparency scanning, it also has the best scanner by far, with great print quality too.