Photo Booth Printers: Setup, Print Sizes and Running Costs

Compatibility is not really the question

Booth Junkie prints through Windows, so any printer Windows can print to, Booth Junkie can print to — including virtual printers such as Print to PDF, which is genuinely useful for testing a booth before the hardware arrives. In practice we have not yet found a printer that does not work.

So the useful question is not whether a printer is compatible. It is which printer suits running a booth, and how to set it up so an event runs without a queue forming.

Why operators use dye-sublimation

Inkjet and laser printers work, but almost every working booth uses a dye-sublimation printer — DNP, Citizen and Mitsubishi being the names you will see most often. They cost more up front and repay it quickly:

• Low cost per print. Media is bought as a paper-and-ribbon kit with a known number of prints, so the cost is fixed and predictable rather than drifting with ink levels. In the UK it works out at roughly 10p to 15p a print — very approximately $0.13 to $0.20, though that moves with the exchange rate and with what media costs locally.
• Speed. Prints arrive in seconds rather than a minute, which is the difference between a queue moving and a queue building.
• Durability. The print is dry and touch-safe as it leaves the printer, which matters when it goes straight to someone holding a drink.
• Reliability. No heads to clog between events. A booth that has sat unused for three weeks starts cleanly.

Why photo booth strips print two at a time

This surprises most people setting up their first booth, and it is worth understanding because it decides how you configure your printer.

Dye-sublimation printers use fixed media. The usual booth setup is a 6-inch roll: the printer lays down a 6×4 image and cuts the paper at four inches.

The constraint is the ribbon. A dye-sub ribbon carries fixed CMYK panels sized for a 6×4 print, and a panel cannot be part-used or saved for later. Printing a single 2×6 strip consumes an entire panel and wastes most of it — and because ribbons are rated by print count rather than by area, a 2×6 costs exactly as much in consumables as a full 6×4.

So operators running strips almost always have the software print two identical strips side by side on a single 6×4 panel, then cut at the two-inch mark twice. One panel, two strips, nothing wasted.

What happens to the second copy is the operator’s choice. Most hand both to the guest. Some keep one back for a physical album given to whoever hired the booth — a common touch at weddings, where the couple receive a keepsake album containing every photo taken during the event.

Setting up a printer

Install the manufacturer’s Windows driver first and print a Windows test page. If that works, Booth Junkie will print.

Then, in the printer’s own Windows settings rather than in Booth Junkie:

• Set the media size to match the paper loaded, usually 6×4.
• Set the two-inch cut if you are printing strips. There are normally two ways to do this depending on the printer: either an option in the print driver itself, or by selecting a paper size specifically intended for 2-inch cuts. Either way it is a printer setting, not a software one.
• Turn off any borderless or scaling option that resizes the image. Templates are supplied at the exact print ratio and should be sent through untouched.

Then select the printer in Booth Junkie, choose a template of the matching size, and take a test shot before the event rather than on the night.

Choosing a printer

The practical questions, roughly in the order they matter:

• Does it take 6-inch media? Almost everything built for booths does, and it keeps you compatible with standard templates and strip cutting.
• How many prints per media kit, and what does a kit cost? That gives you cost per print, which is the number to plan an event around.
• Can it cut, and cut twice? Strips need it.
• Will it fit the booth? Dye-sub printers are deep and need clearance behind them for the paper path.

We do not sell printers and have no commercial reason to prefer one. But asked what we would use ourselves: in the UK, a Mitsubishi CP-D70DW. In the US, a DNP DS620. Both are 6-inch dye-sub printers that have earned their reputation in working booths rather than on spec sheets.