A lot of people wonder whether it’s a good idea to print photos directly from their digital camera, thereby bypassing the computer. When you want your photos fast, this may be the way to go. Today, there are printers designed especially for this task.

Photo printers are generally smaller and often battery powered. This makes them portable and an excellent resource if you need to print pictures on the go. This scenario is really the strength of dedicated photo printers: they’re the perfect solution if you need photos fast and you need them now. They have the same usefulness as the older Polaroid pictures that develop automatically. The LCD screen on the camera and the printer even allow an advantage over Polaroid because you can only print the pictures you want. So if you need to print pictures quickly or are away from a computer and need to print photos immediately, a photo printer is the right option for you. You’ll be the hit of your next party.

However, if you are an avid scrapbooker or like to make photo albums and collages, you may want to wait on printing photos. If there are no time constraints, it really is a good idea to download your photos to a computer and view them first. Some pictures that appear to be good on your camera’s tiny LCD screen end up looking blurry or unusable when viewed at normal size. Using a computer also allows you to edit photos and make any necessary crops. For examples of good photo editing software, check out our review of photo editing software.

Printing photos directly from your camera with a photo printer dock can be extremely convenient, but make sure that it’s the right choice for the type of photos you take and the places you’ll need them. Sometimes speed may be important, but you may also prefer the options and image quality that you’ll get from viewing and editing photos on your computer first.