HP 245 Ink
Photosmart 245 Ink Cartridges

The HP Photosmart 245 ink printer is primarily for printing photographs. It measures 8 x 4.9 x 4.4 in and weighs a mere 2.9 lbs. It is a portable printer, except that it does not run on batteries. It still can find use with the occasional amateur photography enthusiasts and business owners, such as real estate agents and lawyers that can benefit from on-the-spot hard copies of digital photos. The 245v and 245xi are similar models.

The HP 245 inkjet printing unit costs less than $200; an additional $35 can buy a carrying case. . The device has rated print speeds of 1.5 minutes/photo of size 4x6 in. It connects via USB and has a very useful five media card slots that support CF I and II, Secure Digital/MM card, SmartMedia card/xD-Picture card and Sony Memory Stick. It uses HP 245 ink cartridges and holds one printer ink tank at a time; it can either be a Tricolor or Photo Grey ink tank. Compatible printer ink cartridges include HP 57 Tricolor and HP 59 Grey. The price of the HP245 ink cartridges isn't bad either.

The Photosmart 245 can achieve maximum resolutions of up to 4800x1200 dpi The input tray can hold up to 20 sheets at a time; it supports photo paper and plain paper. A 1.8 in color LCD screen facilitates preview and printing from media cards. The consumer can scroll through as many as 2000 images on the LCD. After selecting an image, adjustments such as cropping, adding frames and adjusting brightness can be made. However, PictBridge support is lacking. Other photo-only printers offer PictBridge support which is a useful functionality for photography enthusiasts. However, the consumer can print directly from an HP Direct Print digital camera.

Software bundled along with the driver includes Photo and Imaging Gallery software and Memories Disc. The buyer can do quite a bit with these applications. The HP Photosmart 245 inkjet unit is PC and Mac compatible, and it enables working on the images to quite a level of detail.