Gone are the days when you had to hold down a button and wind a tiny crank to roll up your film. The digital age has begun and having to get film developed is a thing of the past. But even though it's easier to take pictures, you still have to go through the complicated process of waiting in line at a drugstore's photo kiosk with your memory card to get them printed, or do you? Maybe it's time to look into printing from home.

The main benefit of printing your digital pictures at home is its simplicity. Many of even the cheapest digital photo printers allow you to connect your camera or plug in your memory card and print directly. With photo editing tools built into the menus of new cameras, a computer is usually not even necessary!

Consider it as an investment. Sure the initial cost of a printer may run you a couple hundred bucks, but ultimately it's going to pay off because the cost per photo is drastically cheaper than what you might pay in a store. Sure there's ink you need to buy, but even with the cost of ink and paper, it still ends up being cheaper.

The newest photo printers are able to rival the quality of even the best prints you can get in a store, so this really adds to the reasons of why you should purchase a printer. Depending on the paper you use and the ink you buy, prints can last a very long time, too. Imagine no more having to drive or wait in lines. Photo printers allow you to print without having to wait to pick up your pictures later on. Actually printing of prints is fast, too.

Okay, so now that you're convinced in that you need to buy a printer instead of going to a store, how do you go about choosing which printer to get? One of the biggest things you should consider is the size of the prints you're going to want. Some printers only print 4x6, some let you print as large as 8x10 or even 11x14! There's no point in spending on what you don't need, so be sure to think about what you're buying.

The next thing you'll want to look into is the quality. This is usually measured in DPI (dots per inch). Also a part of the quality is the type of printing the printer does. Dye-sublimation printers use a completely different technique than actual ink or toner. Be sure to research and weigh the options of what you really want.

The last thing you should look for are the printer's features. Are you going to need borderless printing? Double-sided printing? Some printers are easier to use than others, so one of the best things to do is check out the printers in the store. Most places let you print a test page so you can see the quality and speed of each printer. Do a little research and figure out how much ink is going to cost, too. Some printers are cheap, but overprice their ink, while other printers are expensive but their ink is cheap. It's almost always better to just make an investment.