Finally, my mom has been able to put her digital camera to some use without the needed knowledge of a computer.

Within 10 minutes of having the HP PhotoSmart 230 out of the box, she was printing quality pictures directly from her digital camera without the need of an instruction manual. Just give the printer some juice, decide upon your "picture connection," and hit the power button. You're ready to print.

There are several methods, in fact, to load pictures on your printer. We have been printing directly from the memory card, which is a nice cordless option, and fortunately, this printer has a wide-range of compatible memory cards.

You may also print directly from your digital camera with the USB option. Additionally, for the computer savvy, software is included to print directly from your computer. This is an important feature for those backing up their pictures on their computer–that is, if you expect to reprint them at a later date.

The quality LCD screen–while a little blurry on the pictures–is necessary for this type printer, allowing you to scroll through the photos of your choice, selecting those to be printed. For once, you can do away with the photos that didn't exactly turn out as planned, before you even print them.

Another option of viewing pictures on the digital camera, is to a print an index page, which is available from the printer's menu.

There are other features in the menu, including photo brightness, frames, color effects, along with a slide show and adding the date and/or time. A preference panel also allows other changes to be made, such as the number of copies, photo size, color improvement, and others. Additionally, the printer is in seven other languages, including Spanish, French, and Japanese.

The standard photo size is 4x6, which doesn't leave much room for variety, though you may still print as 2x3 1/2. Picture size may be an issue to some, but the reason for this is because of the compact size of the printer. It's easily transported around, as it's the size of a camcorder.

Caution if you make your first print job on the index cards that are included in the box. You'll surely be disappointed with the resolution, but don't worry. Keep digging through the box, and you'll find the glossy paper. What a difference it makes!

If you're worried about additional costs, watch out for making too many prints. You can expect to pay about $30 for each ink cartridge, which, at the same price, you can get about 100 sheets of glossy paper.

Even with a "middle class" digital camera, our pictures still look as if they were printed from CVS, and after seeing "One-Hour Photo," digital cameras seem much more appealing.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 230
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh