The best photo printers produce high-quality prints of high-resolution images and photos that you’ve either taken yourself or, increasingly common these days, from stock photo websites. While just about any printer can produce prints of your photos, photo printers are designed to deliver prints that are as close to photo lab quality as possible. Whether you want to print photos for your photo books, to hang on your walls, or as gifts for family and friends, only the best photo printers can meet your needs.
And unlike photo labs, which usually charge extra for prints, they’re also inexpensive, so you can save a few bucks. There is also a growing home industry where home-based entrepreneurs are using photo printers as an important tool to make money from home.
List of the best Photo printers
Canon PIXMA TS8120
This range-topping A4 PIXMA takes a different twist on six-ink printing
- Max Print Size: A4
- Print resolution: 4800 x 1200 dpi
- Print speed (6×4; std quality): 17 seconds
- Interfaces: USB 2.0, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
- Scanner: Yes
- Dimensions: 372 x 324 x 140 mm
- Weight: 14.7 pounds
This printer makes the intermediate TS8120 in the new PIXMA range (TS9150 in the UK) larger. Both printers have the same six-ink setup, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, memory card slot, and the ability to print on white-faced CDs and DVDs. However, this printer has a 5-inch touch screen and adds Ethernet to the connection mix. The build quality is excellent everywhere, with refinements such as an automatically tilting front panel and an extended output tray. Portraits have the same beautiful warm skin tones as the TS6150, but inky skies sometimes look more fractional. Overall, this is currently the best photo printer on the market.
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Canon PIXMA TS6320
The latest in a long line of 5-ink Canon PIXMA printers, it sticks to the formula
- Max Print Size: A4
- Print resolution: 4800 x 1200 dpi
- Print speed (6×4; std quality): 35 seconds
- Interfaces: USB 2.0, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
- Scanner: Yes
- Dimensions: 372 x 315 x 139 mm
- Weight: 13.6 pounds
The printer is well connected, has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and is fully compatible with Canon’s PIXMA cloud-based printing and scanning facilities, along with a remote printing app that you can install on your smartphone or tablet. For stand-alone operation, there is a net and intuitive 3-inch touchscreen. A welcome addition is the rear paper feed tray that holds the plain paper in the front cassette, and up to 20 sheets of photo paper on the back, in any size up to A4. The print quality is excellent for color photos and is quite good for black-and-white images and is one of the best photo printers on the market right now.
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Epson Expression Photo XP-8500
It’s the most conventional A4 ‘photo printer’ in the group
- Max Print Size: A4
- Print resolution: 5700 x 1400 dpi
- Print speed (6×4; std quality): 15 seconds
- Interfaces: USB 2.0, Wi-Fi
- Scanner: Yes
- Dimensions: 394 x 340 x 142 mm
- Weight: 14.7 pounds
Epson’s six-ink photo prints are known for their vibrant output, and the XP-8500 is no exception. Indeed, color saturation and contrast can sometimes seem too stark in ‘photo improvement’ modes. Ink costs about 12 times more than the Epson EcoTank printer, although the XP-8500 is much less expensive to buy. Again, there is a 2.7-inch color LCD, but this time, it is a touch screen without the surrounding range of push-button controls. This makes stand-alone printing from memory cards and photocopying more intuitive, but the small touch screen is somewhat difficult to use. Print speeds are very fast, which makes it one of the best photo printers in the world.
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Epson EcoTank ET-7700
Comes supplied with nearly a pint of ink
- Max Print Size: A4
- Print resolution: 4800 x 1200 dpi
- Print speed (6×4; std quality): 42 seconds
- Interfaces: USB 2.0, Ethernet, Wi-Fi
- Scanner: Yes
- Dimensions: 390 x 341 x 138 mm
- Weight: 17.6 pounds
Epson’s new ink cartridge solution comes in the form of its ‘EcoTank’ printers, available in A4 and A3 formats. This A4 model is supplied with two high-capacity ink bottles, including a bottle with black ink of 140 ml and 70 ml bottles of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black color inks. That is almost a pint of ink, enough for up to 14,000 mono documents and 3,400 6×4-inch photos. Scanning, photocopying, and printing from memory cards are based on a push-button interface with a 2.7-inch screen. Wi-Fi and Ethernet are built-in, along with a USB 2.0 interface. In general, the quality is good, but although the color reproduction is reasonably accurate, the tonal range seems to be slightly deficient and thus making it one of the best photo printers.
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Canon PIXMA Pro-100S
Specializing in big glossy prints, it goes large in ink range as well as the size
- Max Print Size: A3+
- Print resolution: 4800 x 2400 dpi
- Print speed (6×4; std quality): 33 seconds
- Interfaces: USB 2.0, Wi-Fi, BT
- Scanner: No
- Dimensions: 689 x 385 x 215 mm
- Weight: 43.4 pounds
The Pro-100S uses dye instead of pigment inks, given an exceptionally flowing output on glossy paper. The Pro-100S is very suitable for making black and white photo prints and color prints, including gray and light gray cartridges. These are in addition to the usual six inks of conventional photo printers, bringing the total number to eight inks. Building quality feels ‘professional,’ with a very sturdy chassis and high-quality components. Connectivity is good, with built-in USB 2.0, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi. Color accuracy is equally impressive, and print speeds are super fast. In general, Pro-100S is one of the best photo printers in the world.
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Canon PIXMA Pro-10S
The same but different, the Pro-10S printer has pigment inks aplenty
- Max Print Size: A3+
- Print resolution: 4800 x 2400 dpi
- Print speed (6×4; std quality): 1 minute 13 seconds
- Interfaces: USB 2.0, Wi-Fi, BT
- Scanner: No
- Dimensions: 689 x 385 x 215 mm
- Weight: 44 pounds
The PIXMA Pro-10S uses ten pigment inks instead of dye-based ink. One of the cartridges is a ‘Chroma Optimizer,’ which ensures a smooth finish on glossy paper. From the other nine, you get the standard six colors for printing photos, plus red and gray ink, and both “photo” black and matte black for printing on shiny and matt paper, respectively. There are separate channels in the print head for both photo and matte black inks that save time and ink when changing media types. Excellent output quality combines excellent accuracy for color printing and great definition for monochrome photo prints, without unwanted color casts. Such features make it one of the best photo printers that you can buy.
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Epson Expression Photo XP-970
It’s not quite the full nine yards, but it comes pretty close
- Print resolution: 5760 x 1440 dpi
- Print speed (6×4; std quality): 26 seconds
- Interfaces: USB 2.0, Wi-Fi, BT
- Scanner: Yes
- Dimensions: 479 x 356 x 148 mm
- Weight: 19.1 pounds
Compared to the other large format printers during the test, the XP-960 is much more compact and lighter. The advantage is that it has a maximum print size of A3 (11.69 x 16.54 inches) instead of A3 + (13×19 inches). On the plus side, the XP-760 packs a lot into its small frame, including an A4 flatbed scanner, memory card slots, a 4.3-inch color touch screen, dual internal paper cassettes, a rear paper feeder, and direct printing for CDs / DVDs.
It is much more a high-quality multifunction A4 printer than the other large-format models during the test. It can not compete with the A3+ printers during the black-and-white photo-reliability test, but the printing speeds in color are fast. Still, this is one of the best photo printers currently.
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Epson SureColor P600
Roll your photo prints with Epson’s range-topping A3+ printer
- Max Print Size: A3+ (plus panoramic)
- Print resolution: 5760 x 1440 dpi
- Print speed (6×4; std quality): 1minute 04 seconds
- Interfaces: USB 2.0, Wi-Fi, BT
- Scanner: No
- Dimensions: 616 x 369 x 228 mm
- Weight: 33 pounds
A plus of the P600 is that it comes with a roll feed, something that is not even available as an option with the Canon A3+ printers. It allows you to purchase photo paper on a roll and make prints with aspect ratios that exactly match your requirements, even stretching to panoramic prints. The printer is equipped with a 2.7-inch touchscreen, again absent in the Canon A3+ printers. High-capacity cartridges are a good match for large format printing, which contains almost three times as much ink as for the XP-960, and about twice as much as for the Canon A3+ printers. Color accuracy is excellent, and black and white prints on matte media look great.
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