High-End Gear: HP Photosmart 7960 and Scanjet 4600

Standalone Printing

The readers can take Compact Flash, SD, MMC, xD and Memory Stick cards. They are an open invitation to dispense with your PC for printing photos.

But if this prospect doesn't interest you, you can still put the readers to work, using two of the buttons on the left of the screen. One of the buttons lets you send pictures as e-mail attachments. The other saves the pictures to the computer connected to the printer.

Then there are those who will get the full benefit of the readers either because it's easier, or because they need nothing more or because it's quicker.

When the card is inserted, an on-screen report displays the number of photos found and displays the first of them.