They're not all the same, but if you don't buy one that costs way more than most people want to pay just to print family pictures, you're better off in the long run to take them to your local Target or WalMart and print them there.

The cost is the ink even if the printer doesn't seem like much for many home models. But the quality won't be what you expect if you want the images for a family album to last. Some people may disagree, I'm sure, and if you insist on fronting the cost for your inks in spite of the savings by having better quality prints done just down the street, you should follow their suggestions. Get one that has at least 6 colors in individual cartridges (not just a cartridge that says "color"). Refilling your ink cartridges can damage your printer and reduce the quality even further.

I print professional images for my studio. The "mid range" printer that gives me the same or better quality I'd get from down the street cost me $800 has 10 ink cartridges that cost approx $23 apiece. Fantastic prints up to 13"x19"! To provide clients with the best archival quality images possible I had to make the investment. There are low end high quality printers but they're costly to own and operate. I chose the PIXMA series by Canon. My cost per print would drop considerably if I'd gotten the high end model but I don't do high enough volume printing to make a 4 or 5 digit price line worth the investment up front.

I used to have home printers, and still have two, but I only use them for color copying and quick prints. The cost in the long run is just too prohibitive. Every time your printer "warms up" and cleans the heads it uses ink. I used to use one VERY sparingly and only got 50 pages out of it over a 4 month period because every time I turned it on ink was used before I even got to print. My professional printer uses a different ink delivery system so ink isn't wasted. If I'd used the printer more often in one sitting I'd have gotten more prints out of it of course, but that's how they make their money is on the ink sales.

Your overall cost savings and quality will be much higher if you take them into town. They can charge so little per print because they do volume printing and buying of supplies as well as using a high end machine.

When it comes to photographs, I no longer print them out at home.. I normally use a service such as snapfish.com where I can get someone else to print them out for me on high end photo printing kit. I don't have to worry about ink or anything like that, and the saving on the cost of a good printer/stock/ink means that it works out cheaper as well.