I don't think there are ANY printers out there which won't eat you up with ink costs. I've bought new printers several times because it was actually CHEAPER to purchace a new printer than to purchase ink cartridges. One big help is to go online for the ink. I've had wonderful results with the G&G brand ink I get from http://www.4inkjets.com/ The quality is excellent and it costs less than half of the OEM ink at CompUSA though it's also possible to find good deals on OEM inks online.

If you're looking for a printer which will really knock your socks off, I'd recommend the Epson Stylus Photo R2400. It's a large-format printer which will handle paper up to 13" wide and the 8 ink colors really do a spectacular job with color prints.

But where this printer really shines is with B&W images. You get amazing control over the output - it'll remind you of your wet darkroom but without all of the chemical smells. I don't think there's a better B&W printer out there.

It handles a pretty amazing array of paper too, and because the R2400 is a sort of "industry standard" you can download paper profiles for it from all of the major manufacturers. It'll handle thick papers with a nice straight feedline too, so you can print on canvas or other art papers and achieve some really amazing effects.

All of this quality doesn't come cheap, of course. The thing runs around $800. But I've had mine for almost a year now and it really is worth every penny.

If you want something which prints nice 8x10 images without the huge price tag, I've had very good results with the HP DeskJet series. You can get them in the $100 range and they provide surprisingly high quality for the price.

The best photo printers are just that - darkroom equipment. If you are doing clerical work as well, you may well be most happy with two printers - a cheap laser printer for correspondence AND a photo printer. Each is optimal for their design-task, and each does much less well for the opposite task.

While making top quality inkjet photographs is vastly cheaper in time and resources than making prints in the fume-room, the pigment inks are squandered if used for correspondence, and are poorly suited to printing on bond paper.

There is a substantial choice of printers now in several ranges of size - 8.5", 13", 17", 24", 44" and 60". A 13" printer will handle an 11x14 just fine. Epson was the pioneer of photo printers but now is getting some competition from both Canon and HP, which is good for us all. The edges have narrowed, but I think overall, Epson still holds the lead at the moment. Were I to buy a printer today, it probably would still be an Epson. This may change at any time - they are not the only game in town anymore.

It might also be worth mentioning, that if you are just learning the digital darkroom, and will not be going to large prints immediately, letter-sized printers can be had dirt cheap and actually do a very nice job. While my big printer was in the shop being overhauled, I picked up the bottom of the line Epson R200 (now the R220) for about $100US, and the quality of the prints is amazing. It is certainly a light duty printer, but represents a very low initial investment.

HP announced a very competitive-looking printer, the 9180. While it got great reviews of pre-production models, it seems to be having severe teething problems now that it is shipping. There is a short supply of machines in some places, as well as paper and inks. Those who have actually got one are currently expressing their regret in a number of forums, due to a slew of problems.

I suspect when it is finally debugged, it will be a fine printer. Also worth considering is that the ones who have the lemons may be shouting a lot louder than those who are satisfied.

Epson has three 13" photo printers, and I am most familiar with them. The venerable 1280 uses dye-based inks. They produce gorgeous colour, but depending upon the paper chosen, may show fading in as little as 15 to 25 years when properly framed under glass. It is capable of doing correspondence very well too, so if print longevity is not a big concern, it might be worth considering. It is fairly old technology - the printer has been on the market for a number of years - but it is very affordable at about $400US. It remains on the market because it is a very fine printer and people are still buying it.

The other two, the R1800 and R2400 use pigment-based inks and depending upon the paper, may see no visible fading for a century or more. Longevity estimates are published for most of the papers. These are strictly photo/fine-art printers capable of printing extremely high quality photographs.

The R2400 is truly the fine-art printer, the only choice for B&W and specially for printing on matte surfaced art papers. Its K3 inks have great longevity, and curators and gallery owners adore it. While both will do a fine job on either glossy or matte papers, it is necessary with the R2400 to switch from a black ink optimized for one to an ink optimized for the other surface. While this gives the maximum print quality, it is a bit of a hassle and ink is lost while flushing out the previous kind.

If printing on glossy stock is the primary purpose, then the R1800 is an excellent choice. Along with its inks, it has a special gloss optimizer cartridge. There is no need to switch between black cartridges when changing paper surfaces, since both blacks are mounted at all times, and the switch is automatic. The R1800 is also $300US less in price. For someone primarily doing glossy prints, it is very attractive.

If a 17" fine art printer is needed, Epson just announced the 3800 at Photokina earlier in the week. It lacks a number of the features of the high-end 4800, but also is $1,295US compared to the $1,995US of the 4800. It is actually a bit of a bargain when compared to the R2400. The R2400 comes with about $128 of ink bundled with it, while the 3800 comes with $540 worth of ink. Thus when the price of the bare machines are compared with the price of ink deducted from the list price of both, there is only something in the range of a $30 price differential. The ink for the 3800 is also 25% less when replacements are purchased, making it an even better deal. Then again, a new set of cartridges will set you back $540US! However they are much larger cartridges, so will make a lot more prints. It should be available early in 2007. Both of these also use the K3 inks.

Just as in the fume-room, the skills of the person doing the printing are probably the most critical to achieving maximum quality. Epson, HP or Canon can only print what you feed it. If your image process skills are poor, you prints will be likewise.