I love my Zink hAppy printer

During the lost years of trips up to NJ to help take care of my mom, a great friend gave me a great gift in 2013--a Zink hAppy printer:

Printing photobooth strips from Pocketbooth app

As a scrapbooker, I was often yearning for instant gratification of the photos I took with my iPhone, which made it so easy to take photos of everything: food, friends, moments. Like I said in this post, I love my Instax cameras but there is an unpredictability that is both its charm and weakness--there is definitely magic about the moment you captured but every once in a while, you know the pic that you want in your hands and can't necessarily keep capture with an Instax the way you can with a smartphone.  I was craving a portable photo printer that was compatible with an iPhone and my wish was granted with the production of the Zink hAppy printer.  Some apps, like Pocketbooth, are instantly compatible and I can print my photostrips directly from the app.  For other apps, I can save pix to my camera roll and just use AirPrint to print out pix.

Compared to printing at home, my Zink hAppy prints a little lighter than it looks on my iPhone while my printer at home prints them a bit darker compare to my iPhone:

On top are Zink hAppy prints, on bottom are printer prints

But overall, I'm happy with the prints.  Here's one of the pix from my phone for comparison:

Another detail is that the largest roll a Zink hAppy prints is 2 inches.  So maximum width is 2 inches.  Zink offers a free app, Zink Big, where one can print out a big picture by printing it out in 2 inch tiles.  But for my needs, 2 inch width pictures are not a limitation at all.  On top of that, I LOVE that the Zink rolls are adhesive so when I scrap or craft with the pictures, no glue or tape needed.  I get the 2 inch rolls (for printing out pix, including Instagram pix) and 1 inch rolls (for photobooth pix).  My only quibble is that the rechargeable battery pack that makes it completely portable (like "drop it in your bag and print wherever you want" portable) is available as an accessory and I feel like it should be included with the printer.

I know that there is an Instax Instant Film printer that recently came out, which frankly I totally dig (I love Instax!).  Both are portable and print directly from an iPhone but the film required for the Instax Instant Film printer is usually about $1 per print.  Zink rolls are about $30 for a 19 foot roll--so depending if printing a 2x2 Instagram pic or a regular portrait pic (2x2.75) comes out to 25-40 cents per print.  And bonus, they are adhesive!

I've been really enjoying re-discovering my Zink hAppy--printing out pix and maybe even some crafting will be happening!