A compact photo printer is a stand-alone inkjet printer designed to produce 4×6 or 2×3 inch prints from digital cameras. It works without the use of a computer. It is also known as a portable photo printer or a snapshot printer.
Compact photo printers came on the market shortly after the popularity of home photo printing took off in the early 2000s. They were designed as an alternative to developing photos or printing them on a standard inkjet photo printer. The majority of compact photo printers can only print 4" x 6" pictures. Given this limitation, they are not meant to replace standard inkjets. Many manufacturers advertise the cost per page of photos printed on their machines; this theoretically convinces people that they can print their own pictures just as cheaply as retail stores or through online printing services.
Most compact photo printers share a similar design. They are small units, usually with large LCDs in order to allow people to browse and edit their photos, as can be done on a computer. The editing options are usually somewhat advanced, allowing the user to crop photos, remove red eye, adjust color settings as well as other functions. Compact photo printers typically feature a large number of connection options, including USB and most memory card formats.
Compact photo printers are currently manufactured by most of the leading printer manufacturers such as Epson, Canon, HP, Lexmark and Kodak. While they have increased in popularity in recent years, they still make up a relatively small share of the inkjet printer market.
The other compact photo printer is Pocket Photo from LG which can print 600 dpi on 2"×3" paper and support Android, iOS and Windows 8. The Pocket Photo uses Zink thermal paper which has chemistries imbedded on each inkless photo paper and the image will appear with the heat.