A slight speed boost and a new curvaceous shape keep Canon on top of the inkjet pile.

Canon continues the good work and delivers another winner with the MP610.

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.

Expensive but solidly built – a fast way to get superbly vibrant A3 prints.

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

Cheap to buy and run, the X5470 is great for mono printing, but less so for photos and images.

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

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.

A Lexmark multi-function device, the P6250, won our last photo printer roundup, so the expectations were high for its big brother, the X7170. Unlike our Labs Winner, this machine is definitely targeted at the business market. For an extra $100 premium, the machine adds office-oriented functions such as faxing, a copy feeder and a better scanner. It's also noticeably larger than its brethren.

Epson has gone all-out on their digital photo flagship -- it has eliminated all office-centric features to deliver an enthusiast's juggernaut with film scanning, a six colour ink-tank, and plenty of memory card slots.

Portability has been talked about a lot recently, and people are starting to get used to the fact that their printer can be just as portable as the rest of their equipment. Canon has been offering portable laptop printers for several years and selling just enough of them to persevere, however, with the digital camera boom they are starting to come into their own.

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.