The HiTi photo printer I wanted to use in my internet kiosk came in the mail on Monday but I hadn?t had a chance to test it out until yesterday. I was impressed with the output quality of my $80 printer?an untrained eye would consider the glossy photo?s impressive and even comparable to normal prints. However when compared side by side to a digital photo from shutterfly.com it is obvious the output has some shortfalls. I?m not a photo printer expert but the colors, particularly the blue from the sky were not as full on the HiTi printer.
Overall the quality of the prints was only a small reason to justify not using the printer in my kiosks. What was influential in my choice was 1) lack of linux drivers (requiring two computers to be used in the kiosk) 2) an unexpectedly long 2.5 minute per photo print time (could be decreased to 1 minute per photo with the industrial model, but would double the cost of a kiosk) 3) inability for the photo to drop down in a slot for delivery to the end user and 4) a small paper tray (requiring maintenance more often) that had problems correctly loading paper when fully loaded.
A better solution that could provide higher quality print outs, would be to contract with a local photo shop. Digital photos could be transferred in real time over the internet to be delivered to the hostel the same day. At first, I thought this would not be feasible because most broadband connections do not allow fast upload speeds. However, with the increased use of cable modems (fast upload speeds) this is becoming less of a limitation. Furthermore, most professional photo shops can produce pictures at a substantially lower price than the 40 cents per print, HiTi printers.
I also did some research on CD-RW drivers that could be bundled with the kiosk. Panasonic apparently makes the only slot loaded CD-RW drives readily available on the market. A slot loaded CD drive will prevent damage from a broken CD tray. The CD-RW drive runs for around $135.00 and the DVD-RW drives run for about $230.00. An added benefit is that these drives are slim and require less space and power.