FARGO FotoFUN

by Denise McNickle

After I bought my digital camera, I found myself wanting to print some of the pictures that I had taken. I also wanted to be able to print some images that I had scanned onto photo quality paper. Yes, there were dye-sublimation printers, but they were unrealistic for my budget. Then I discovered the FARGO FotoFUN, a digital color photo printer that produces prints with the same quality as photographs developed in a lab. Finally I could print out my own pictures.

The FotoFUN is a dye-sub printer with a maximum printable area of 4 by 6 inches, which is the size of standard photos developed by a lab. You can also adjust the size of the image and add a border. There is no ribbon, ink, or toner cartridge like you normally would think should be included with a printer. Instead, there are print kits and postcard kits. What these kits consist of are 36 sheets of photo paper and a 36-print ribbon. The ribbon has three color (CMY) panels plus an overlay panel to seal and protect the print. The postcard kit includes heavier weight paper that is previously printed with address and postage indicators on the reverse side. This makes it perfect for making your own personalized postcards or announcements. There is also a mug kit which lets users transfer images printed on the FotoFUN to a coffee mug. Think of the fun that would be and the special gifts those would make.

The FotoFUN printer is small in size and easy to set up. It measures 4.5 inches high by 9.6 inches wide by 7.5 inches deep and weighs only 7 pounds. It can easily fit on your desktop without getting in the way. It has either a serial port or Centronic-compatible 8-bit parallel interface depending on the platform and is compatible with all Windows graphics and image editing software. I did notice that the FotoFUN does not like serial switches, which is a must with my collection of printers, digital cameras, modem, and other items vying for my 2 precious serial ports. I had to end up connecting it directly to the serial port on the back of my computer.

Installation of the ribbon is easy, especially with the help of the diagram in the manual which shows how to position the ribbon inside the printer. The ribbon is very interesting. It consists of three color panels (cyan, magenta, and yellow) and a fourth overlay panel. As the image is printed, the paper makes four passes for each of the panels. The exception is when using the photo mug setting, then the overlay panel is skipped to enable the image to transfer to a mug. The whole process takes about 2 1/2 minutes. Each sheet of paper needs to be hand fed into the printer, glossy side down, within 20 seconds after you hear the printer's rollers begin to move. There are instructions on pre-loading a sheet of photo paper, but I never had much luck with this and found it easier to hand feed each sheet when I was ready to print an image.

Since the dye-sub process requires heat, you can only print so many pictures before the printer needs to cool down. When the printer gets too hot, lights flash and the printer will pause before accepting any more print jobs. Once the printer is cool the flashing will stop and the printer will continue. You will find that after three or four continuous print jobs the FotoFUN will need to cool down, but it only takes a minute or two before it is ready for another job.

The quality of the pictures is amazing. The FotoFUN has a resolution of 203-dpi, which is higher than most dye-sub printers. The printer driver also has several options that can help you improve your output. The printer driver uses the FARGO color matching system, which can be helpful in the color output if you are not using a third party color matching system. You can also control the lightness and darkness of the printed image. This is an important feature because the FotoFUN pictures tend, at least for me, to be darker than I want. Also, prior to printing an image, the FotoFUN warns you if the image is too large for the printed area, giving you the opportunity to adjust the image size. I tried this with a rather large image that I scanned. I had to reduce it as much as I could. The result was a miniature print of what I scanned that still retained the clarity and detail of the larger image.

The ability to make photo mugs is a unique and fun feature of the FotoFUN. The FotoMug Kit includes four mugs and a special clamp that allows you to transfer an image to a coffee mug. The printer driver has a special FotoMug setting which reverses and darkens the printed image. FARGO explains that the printed images need to be darker because the image will lighten during the transfer process. To me this varied by picture and I had to reprint several times because the image was just too dark. The transfer process is easy: trim the picture, tape it to a FARGO mug, put the clamp on, and bake it in the oven. The result is a personalized mug. The images are permanent and dishwasher safe.

The FotoFUN is priced reasonably for the consumer market, where the use of digital cameras, scanners, and PhotoCDs are on the increase. The per page cost may seem high, $1/page, especially if you have to reprint to adjust for lightness and darkness or have paper jams or ribbon problems. However, you will probably only experience a few of these at the beginning. Overall FotoFUN is a bargain. You get high-quality photographs at a reasonable price.

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