We can't blame anyone looking for the best Canon printer. The long-established firm has been behind some great units, from office inkjets to refillable MegaTanks for every use.
Our team has reviewed the best printers and best small business printers - and Canon is always high on our list. Overall, the best Canon printer in our experience is the Canon Maxify GX6020 (known as the GX6050 outside the US). It's precise, fast, and multi-functional - but the company offers a great line-up.
During our comprehensive review process, we conduct a series of identical tests to assess print speed, quality, and estimate long-term running costs.
Best Canon printer overall
This visually appealing 3-in-1 printer is Canon’s latest refillable supertanker and it comes with all the bells and whistles (except for a fax). In addition to duplex printing, it can duplex scan, and it has both a touchscreen and a front USB Host port.
There’s plenty of room for paper and ink on board, which will suit a heavy workload, and plenty of bottled ink in the box – enough for 6,000 mono and 14,000 color pages.
It comes with a responsive touchscreen interface, a 100-sheet ADF (automatic document feed), and dual scanning. It can handle a quoted maximum monthly duty cycle of 45,000 pages and print on a very wide variety of media, including glossy photo paper.
If the initial cost seems a little steep at around US$650 (about £460, AU$ 859) the ongoing running cost is one of the lowest in the business, thanks to Canon’s inexpensive ink refills.
Read our full Canon MAXIFY GX6020 review.
Best Canon printer for small businesses
Canon has managed to shrink all of the features a small business might need into a multifunction device that could fit inside a filing cabinet. The five-ink system gives great quality photo prints and the large touchscreen makes it especially easy to use.
The print speed is a little slow, even for an inkjet, but it is well featured with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity and a handy SD-Card slot at the front. (Note: this model is sold as the TR8560 in the Asia-Pacific region.)
The printer has a large 4.3-inch touchscreen interface, Bluetooth connectivity, in-built Wi-Fi, and a fifth ink cartridge for enhanced print quality. It's main paper tray can hold 100 sheets, while the rear tray for photo paper and envelopes can hold 20 sheets. There's also a 20-sheet automatic document feeder at the top.
Read our full Canon Pixma TR8550 review.
Best professional Canon printer
Positioned at the expensive end of Canon’s MegaTank product line, the Canon PIXMA G7050 comes kitted out with every feature you can think of. There’s auto duplex, a 35-sheet automatic document feed, Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi Direct and universal wireless compatibility with AirPrint et al.
There’s even an old-fashioned fax on board. The device has a two-line LCD display at the front along with a number pad and other buttons.
With room for 250 pages in the main paper tray, another 100 in the rear tray, and enough ink in the tank to print 6,000 pages, it can work hard without needing much attention.
Yes, it is a little expensive for an inkjet, but the running cost is very low, and it ships with six bottles of ink in the box. That’s enough for 7,700 color documents and 18,000 black and white.
Best Canon printer on a budget
The Canon PIXMA TS5120 is an all-in-one inkjet that's ideal for home use. It weighs 14.3 pounds (6.5kg), and has a capacity of 100 sheets in the main input tray and 100 sheets in the rear tray. It has a flatbed scanner at the top, but it lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF).
In terms of the print quality, text printouts are quite good, but the photo prints are lacking and that's because the printer has just two ink tanks (unlike the high-end models in this line that come with six ink tanks).
Features like auto duplex, a 2.5-inch color LCD (non-touch), in-built Wi-Fi, and other connectivity options like Bluetooth 4.0, AirPrint, Canon Print app, and Google Cloud Print make it pretty convenient to operate the printer.
The TS5120 doesn't print too fast (around 8.3ppm for text prints), but it's a great budget option for users with light printing needs.
Best Canon printer for home offices
The Canon PIXMA TR7020, known in the UK as the Canon PIXMA TS7451, is a budget four-in-one with wide appeal. It’s aimed at the home office with a fax facility and 35-sheet ADF (automatic document feed) built in, but it also serves well as a family photo printer.
It prints slowly (15 pages per minute in mono, or 6 in color) but it does so at high resolution on photo paper as well as envelopes and card. There are two paper trays for your convenience and both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.
A crisp OLED display and simple button layout make this an easy device to operate. The TR7020 prints high-quality photos, but its running costs are a bit steep. If you plan on printing several hundred pages every month, your costs will shoot up. Users with heavy printing needs will want to assess other options.
Best Canon inkjet printer
Canon’s slick three-in-one printer is particularly user-friendly with its huge touchscreen display and one-touch NFC connectivity for your smartphone. There are convenient slots for an SD card and USB flash drive too.
The printer's main tray holds 100 sheets of paper, and the rear tray can hold either 100 sheets of plain paper or 20 sheets of photo paper. There's also a multi-purpose tray that can print on CDs and on Canon's printable fingernail stickers.
It prints and scans at high resolution, and instead of four, it uses six separate ink cartridges to achieve superior fidelity when printing colour photos. If you purchase the six ink cartridges separately, the printing cost will rack up, but purchasing them as a bundle will be more cost effective. It’s a somewhat expensive system, but worth it for the more professional finish. (Note: in APAC this model is sold as the TS8260.)
Best Canon printer for documents
The Canon PIXMA GM4050 is one of the first monochrome printers to be added to Canon’s cartridge-free MegaTank range, and it’s one of the cheapest ways to print around. It’s a 3-in-1 device with a scanner, 35-sheet ADF (automatic document feeder), and room for 250 sheets of paper in its main paper tray.
It can duplex print, and Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi Direct is built in. The sluggish print speed cannot compete with a laser printer, but with three bottles of black ink in the box, it can beat any laser on cost per page and total cost of ownership. What's impressive is that you can expect to print 18,000 pages with the included bottles of black ink. If you print frequently and never in color, this capable machine will keep your print costs right down.
Read the full review: Canon PIXMA GM4050.
Best Canon printer for photos
By using six inks instead of the usual four, this all-in-one inkjet printer can achieve more lifelike colors and a premium print quality that is ideal for photos. And that does not mean you have to buy six expensive cartridges because this belongs to Canon’s MegaTank line, which uses far more affordable bottled ink.
There is enough ink in the box for 3,700 mono A4 pages or 8,000 color, so you are already getting great value for money. It also has a scanner bed and Wi-Fi built in, but there is no fax facility or ADF (automatic document feed).
The control panel isn't convenient because it's a dated two-line monochrome display with a bunch of buttons to input commands. The printer's also considerably slow, making it better suited to the home than to the office.
Best Canon printer for home
The asymmetric design is unusual and allows for a very compact small-in-one that nonetheless manages to make way for a scanner bed, five ink cartridges instead of four, and 100 sheets of A4 in the main paper tray.
The Canon PIXMA TS6350 can auto duplex and print on a wide variety of blank media, including labels, stickers, and glossy photo paper. By using pigment black ink in addition to the usual dye-based black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, this printer can deliver vibrant photos and monochrome text documents with a more bold and robust black.
The printer doesn't have a touchscreen control panel. Instead, there's a tiny 1.44-inch OLED display with a bunch of command buttons, which isn't the most convenient to use. However, the printer is compatible with AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, Mopria, and the Canon Print app.
Best mid-range Canon printer
The Canon imageClass LBP622Cdw (known as the Canon i-SENSYS LBP663Cdw in UK) is print-only color laser device aimed at the medium-sized office. It’s a step up from Canon’s entry-level model and includes a color display, Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi Direct, auto duplex, and a fairly fast print rate.
It's plastic build feels rugged but it weighs over 20kg and you'll find it easier to move around with an extra pair of hands. The printer lacks a touchscreen interface and has a fixed five-line LCD display.
Unlike many printers, the rate for dual-side printing (auto duplex mode) is not much slower. It’s a handsome and compact unit that manages to find space for 250 sheets in its main paper tray, and the modular design means you can add paper trays when you need to expand.
Read our full Canon imageClass LBP622Cdw review
Best Canon printers: FAQs
How to choose the best Canon printers for you?
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Category
When choosing which Canon printer is best for you, you'll first need to choose between inkjet, laser, or ink tank printer.
Generally, inkjets are cheap to buy but the ink cartridges are expensive. Laser printers are expensive to buy, but cheap to run. To help you decide, we've reviewed the best inkjet printers, best laser printers, and best ink tank printers.
Prints
What you're printing will help determine the best Canon printer for you. Inkjets are great all-rounders, and generally consider the best photo printers for their enhanced color and vibrancy. Lasers are preferred, especially by businesses, for high-volume printing, with the monochrome precise required for documents. Ink tank printers, which Canon call MegaTanks, are a cheaper alternative to inkjets, letting you refill the ink reservoir.
Functions
Some printers print, while others also let you copy, scan, and fax. So, consider what other functions you might need - a printer with a scanner and photocopier is always going to be useful, and for some businesses, a built-in fax machine is essential. Generally, you'll find most modern printers are 3-in-1 machines. For more on this, we tested out the best all-in-one printers.
Features
If you're printing a lot of documents, check your chosen printer has a large paper tray capacity - at least 100 sheets for higher-volume printing. You may also need an automatic document feeder (ADF), while auto-duplex printing lets you print on each side. For more clever printing machines, see our guides the best wireless printers or the best portable printers.
Budget
Set a realistic budget for your printer based on your use and, importantly, estimated long-term running costs. A mid-range all-in-one typically costs around $200-$300 and will be suitable for the home and office. You can often find even the best Canon printers discounted in the Prime Day printer deals and Black Friday printer deals when sales are live.
Prefer a different brand? We reviewed the best Epson Printers, best HP printers, and best Brother printers, too.
How we test the best Canon printers
Our testing process includes reviewing the best printers for Mac, best portable printers and best large format printers.
We evaluate all our printers on our test bench and compare the findings against the other printer we've reviewed.
To assess the printer performance, we rely on a standard ten-page document. We print the same documents across different printers to analyze their speed, quality, color fidelity, vibrance, sharpness, and contrast. These test pages have fonts of different sizes and colors, mixed texts and images, and just photos.
We consider the printer's design, build quality, connectivity, interface, and importantly, the running costs and pricing.
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