The 6 Best Photo Printers - Fall 2022 Reviews

The best photo printer we've tested is the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300. It's a professional-grade photo printer that produces excellent-quality photos. It has a wide color gamut and excellent color accuracy and produces pictures that look detailed and vibrant with no banding or other artifacts. It takes nearly two minutes for a photo to come out, but this is part of the cost of such high-quality photos. You can connect to the printer via Wi-Fi, USB, or Ethernet, but it doesn't support printing from USB flash drives and SD cards, which might be inconvenient for photographers.

It has nine cartridges and uses specific photo cartridges that work only on glossy photo paper, so you won't have to worry about depleting the photo ink if you shift to printing documents or reports. That said, the cartridges are only good for about 400 color prints, and the color cartridges are expensive, meaning you'll have to spend a fair amount of money for replacement ink. So, if you're looking for the best printer for printing photos and don't mind the high price tag, this is the one to get.

If you only print casually at home and don't need a professional-grade model, the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 might be a better choice. It's an all-in-one that uses six ink cartridges and produces amazingly detailed and colorful photos. The difference in print quality between this model and the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 is color accuracy, as the ET-8550 tends to oversaturate the colors to make them appear more vibrant. Printed photos still look visually pleasing, just not as color-accurate.

As you may have guessed from its name, this is also a supertank model, meaning it has a refillable ink tank instead of cartridges. A full tank yields a large number of prints, and the ink bottles are cheap, so you don't need to worry about high maintenance costs. It's also a great option if you need to print posters as it supports paper sizes up to 13" x 19". It has the usual Wi-Fi, USB, and Ethernet connectivity, and it can print directly from an SD card.

For a more modest mid-range pick, we chose the Epson EcoTank ET-2800. It's another all-in-one supertank model with a high page yield, meaning your maintenance cost will remain low over time. Unlike the picks above, it only uses the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. It still prints very detailed photos, but as it has a narrower color range, some colors don't come out as well, like bright, saturated tones.

The scanner produces high-quality scans, which is great for digitizing your old family photos. You still get Wi-Fi and USB connectivity and support for Apple AirPrint and Mopria Print Service. Unfortunately, it's slow as it takes a minute and a half to print a single 4" x 6" photo.

Our best budget pick is the Canon PIXMA TR8620a. It produces high-quality photos that look detailed and vibrant, and it can print many different photo sizes, including 4" x 6", 5" x 7", and 8" x 10". In addition to the usual Wi-Fi, USB, and Ethernet connectivity, you can print directly from an SD card. It's also compatible with Canon's mobile app, which you can use to print, scan, and perform maintenance tasks. The main downside with this model is that its ink cartridges run out quickly, so you'll need to replace them.

The cost per print is still low because the cartridges are relatively cheap; it's just inconvenient because it requires more maintenance. You can get XL cartridges that'll last longer, but they still won't match the yield you'd get on a supertank model.

If you need a cheap printer to print the occasional photo, we recommend the Canon PIXMA MG3620. It prints good-quality photos with lots of fine details and decent color accuracy, and it does so fairly quickly, taking only 50 seconds to print a 4" x 6" picture on glossy paper. The main drawback is that it only uses two ink cartridges: one black and one tri-color. These ink cartridges don't last very long, meaning you'll have to replace them often, and since it uses a tri-color cartridge, you have to replace the entire cartridge if only a single color runs out. There are XL cartridges available, but again, it won't yield as many prints as a model with more cartridges or a supertank model. Thankfully, the cartridges are cheap, so your overall maintenance cost won't rise too quickly.

Our pick for the best portable photo printer is the Liene Amber M100. It's a well-built, compact, and lightweight model that's fairly easy to carry around. It's a dye-sublimation printer, so instead of using ink, it heats dye transfer films to create an image. If you're wondering about its photo printing quality, we have great news: it prints amazing-looking photos with very little grain or banding. The downside is that you have to use proprietary paper, and you can only print 4" x 6" photos. Fortunately, you don't have to buy the paper separately as it always comes bundled with the cartridge. As for the cartridge itself, it has enough dye film for about 40 photos.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have an internal battery, meaning you have to use it plugged in. If you'd prefer a more compact printer with a battery, look at the Canon SELPHY Square QX10. Its smaller size makes it easier to carry around; however, its photo printing quality isn't as good, and its cartridge is only good for 20 prints.