Best portable printer options
 

I am looking for a portable printer to take on trips with my Apple laptop. Fairly light duty
apps Few pictures, printing lecture notes, and of course boarding passes
for those boni. A search prduces some recomendations back in O4.
Looks like cannon vs HP with cannon looking a bit easier to stuff in a laptop bag. Recomendations update?

As an aside some of the new 4x6 photo printers print panoramic.
but thought they probably lacked post script capability, i.e. to print that boarding pass. any thoughts?? the pimply faced teenagers at the big boxstores had no idea.

They won't do photos, but I've always been a fan of the small Pentax printers...

http://www.pentaxtech.com/

Surely you don't need Postscript to print a boarding pass? They'll work with Bluetooth and have OS X drivers.

I have been using this for the last 2 years. Works flawlessly.
Printed boarding passes as well. Small and fits in my laptop handbag.

http://www.pentaxtech.com/Products/P...J200_menu.html

Note: You will need special paper.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a portable printer that will do photos (i.e., color printing)? That was part of the OP's question, and I'm wondering too.

I just picked up a canon i70 on ebay in UK for £70 which is less than half the price of a new ip90. Got extra ink and all. I plugged it in, got the drivers and it ran perfect. Prints great and will print photos too.

It's worth looking on ebay before shopping new. New the ip90 will go for roughly $400 + tax

/E

No it wasn't.

"Few pictures" does not equal "photos" to me.

There really only are 2 brands of portable printers, the HP Deskjet 460 mobile

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en...obile_printers

And the Canon i80

http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/con...7&modelid=9786

Both of these will do some basic photo work, with the Canon probably being slightly better than the HP.

Both printers are still pretty bulky, both can take a battery pack but I simply don't like the idea of traveling with a pressurized ink cartridge in my bag. The HP can also connect through WiFi with an optional card and both support Bluetooth with another option.

I used to have one of the Canon portable printers, and it ended up being a bigger hassle than an advantage. You need to drag along the printer, spare ink, paper (regular and photo), cables etc...

If you can get away with not needing to print photos on the road then the Pentax is still my pick.

I use a Canon BJC-55. It's about as large as a Deskjet 460, best I can tell from looking at a 460 photo. I consider the battery life of the BJC-55 as "excellent" (truly, I usually leave the charger at home and have never had a problem getting through the printing workload I need while on short trips - maybe 30-40 sheets).

I carry a manila envelope with about 50-75 sheets of blank paper, to keep them in good shape while in my briefcase. I guess if you are carrying a portable printer and planning to print while away from access to resources (ie extra paper), then you are probably going to have to carry paper anyway???

Regarding cables, my BJC-55 and my laptop both have infrared ports, so I typically don't use a cable for that setup. But, if needed, a short USB cable isn't too much of a hassle.

Regarding Ink, the Canon comes with a small round screw-tight container that is specially fitted for carrying a print cartridge and its "holster", either B&W or color. I remove the ink from the printer and put it in this airtight container, along with the extra sealed-in-a-foil-packet cartridges, into a ziplock bag. Takes care of any potential spillage (of which I've had none anyways).

The printer and ziplock bag of extras fit right into my 15" Brenthaven shoulder bag along with my laptop, plus additional goodies such as Airport Express, iPod, etc etc.

I practically worship my Canon BJC-55! It's small, ultralight, includes a good life lithium battery, and with the optional head...even scans! I also print wirelessly using the infrared. It's a fantastic travel printer!

Unfortunately, it's long discontinued now and they command top dollar (sometimes even more than their original retail price) from loyal users that might need a replacement, when they pop up used or new on eBay.

I think Canon really went four steps backwards when they discontinued this great portable color printer/scanner and replaced it with the i80 that doesn't scan, doesn't come with a battery, and is bigger and heavier. Crazy.

I also still use the BJC-55's bigger plug-in sheet-feeder brother (but still an extremely small footprint)...the BJC-85...as my "home" printer/scanner from my laptop. Again wireless via infrared.

Have Canon i80
 

After extensive research - the canon is the best option. Unfortunately, there are not that many options. The canon and hp are both bulky. I place my printer in my 22 inch Tumi roll on. It has gotten beaten up in there as it has been gate checked. Recently I have noticed that the color ink cartridge has started leaking because of being banged up. I love the fact I have a printer available to me. I plug it into my Apple Express and it prints wirelessly. Pictures are great and fast.

I second the Canon i80. I have the earlier version, the i70 (almost identical), and it's the perfect portable printer. Does text great and a reasonable job on photographs. It's very light, small and quite rugged, and has a reasonable-sized paper tray. It easily fits in my Tumi computer briefcase. The only downside is the ink cartridges are rather small, so it runs out of ink faster than a full-sized inkjet printer.

OP thanks and responds
 

As the OP i have read and thanks everone for the suggestions. I think I will
probably go with I80 or newer I90 cannon... but to the computer experts:

I had asked if the newer dedicated photo printers designed to print 4x6
prints and now recently larger and longer (panoramic) prints if the software in these allow them to print text. Cannon has some small dedicated photo printers ... look smaller than the 190. In other words could you print in a pinch
sitting in your hotel room a yahoo map or even that boarding pass, even
if you had to use the more expesive photographic paper. Thanks, Bill

yes, they are smaller but they are also bulkier. They're more like two bricks on top of eachother than two brick side by side. You'de be hard pushed to fit them in a briefcase, which you can with the i70-ip90

/E