Best photo printers of 2024

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VERDICT
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
VERDICT
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
Canon Pixma G4510 in a home office during our tests
(Image credit: Canon)

The best photo printers let you print images and photographs in high-resolution on high-quality glossy paper. 

Our expert team of reviewers have tested all the best printers and best small business printers - but if you're looking to print your photos, these are the models we recommend. 

In our experience, the best photo printer is the Canon Pixma G620 - a speedy inkjet unit that delivers incredible photo print-outs. For alternatives, we recommend checking out the HP Envy Pro 6420 and refillable and economical Epson EcoTank ET-8550 for photo printing at home or in the office. 

We've rounded up our top-rated printers for photos, comparing specs, speed, print quality, color reproduction, and additional features like scanning, faxing, and photocopying.  

The quick list

The best photo printers 2024

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The best photo printer overall

Canon PIXMA G620/G650 product image

(Image credit: Future)
Great for photographers, homes, and offices

Specifications

Category: 3-in-1 color A4 inkjet printer
Connectivity: Ethernet, USB, Wi-Fi
Print speed: 3ipm (mono)
Paper capacity:: 100 sheets
Weight: 6.6kg

Reasons to buy

+
Six-ink color printing 
+
Cheap to run
+
Lots of inbox ink
+
Wide paper compatibility  

Reasons to avoid

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No auto duplex
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No main paper drawer 
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Small 2-line display 
-
Low paper capacity 

The Canon Pixma G620 (known as the G650 in the UK) lacks too many features for us to recommend it as an all-round all-in-one for everyday use, but as a photo printer, it’s hard to beat. It prints monochrome pages slowly and only offers manual duplex so you have to turn the paper over yourself to print the other side. There’s no touchscreen, no memory card slots, no Ethernet port and no main paper tray. All blank paper has to go in via the rear tray, which can only hold a maximum 100 sheets of plain paper. 

This is where the good news starts because it can accept a very wide range of paper including magnetic photo paper, card stock and printable fabric. It performed beautifully during our time with it as well, printing extremely well on coated photo paper, thanks to its set of six vivid dye-based inks. We found the extra red and grey extra helpful in achieving superior color fidelity, and the enhanced print resolution resulted in superb print quality. 

Best of all though, this top all-in-one photo printer is a MegaTank model. This means the bottled ink refills it uses are a fraction of the cost of cartridge ink and there’s loads of ink in the box.

Read our full Canon Pixma G620 review

Best budget photo printer

HP Envy Pro 6420 unboxed with ink cartridges and mains lead

(Image credit: Jim Hill)
A low-cost photo printer that won't break the bank

Specifications

Category: Wireless all-in-one printer
Connectivity: USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Print speed: 10ppm
Paper capacity: 100 sheets
Paper size: Up to A4
Weight: 13.58 lb

Reasons to buy

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Low price  
+
Easy to use  all-in-one
+
Vibrant glossy photo printing

Reasons to avoid

-
Ink can be costly
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Not the fastest

For the best budget photo printer, the HP Envy Pro 6420 is an excellent choice. Picking up 4-stars in our review, we loved the amount of features packed into this all-in-one. 

It’s a true all-in-one, too, with printing, scanning, photocopying, and fax facilities. There’s Bluetooth, app support, and essential tools, like an ADF. For photography purposes, the printer supports photo paper, as well as A4 paper and envelopes. So, overall, this printer has real utility in a home or small office. Surprisingly at this price-point, print quality is excellent. In our tests, glossy photographs came out vibrant and true. 

As a budget pick, there are limits here. The main tray can only hold 40 sheets of photo paper (or 100 sheets of standard A4), while the output tray is capped at just ten photos (or 25 A4 sheets). And we did find the quality of the ink declined when printing a lot of photos at once, especially for the cost. But for casual, quality photo printing, it’s ideal. 

Read our full HP Envy Pro 6420 review 

Find the best deals on HP printers with our HP discount codes.

Best Epson photo printer

Epson EcoTank ET-8550

(Image credit: Epson)
The all-in-one executive choice

Specifications

Category: Color inkjet AOI printer
Connectivity: Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, USB
Print Speed: 32ppm (mono A4)
Paper capacity: 100 sheets
Paper size: up to A3
Weight: 11.1kg

Reasons to buy

+
Motorised out tray
+
Cheap bottled ink
+
Vivid print quality
+
Large touchscreen

Reasons to avoid

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Slow duplex print speed
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Scanner is not A3 size
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High initial cost

Epson offer several excellent printers for photo printing, but the Epson EcoTank ET-8550 stands out as one of the absolute best Epson photo printers we've tested. 

For starters, it’s a sleek, practical design with a large tilting touchscreen interface and the ability to print on any kind of paper up to A3+. Secondly, it uses six individual inks to create superior quality prints. Best of all, it’s an EcoTank, which means you’re not tied to cartridges, and you’ll find enough bottled ink in the box to print 2,300 photos. 

Yes, it is rather expensive for an inkjet, but Epson’s bottled ink refills are not. So, you will soon see that money back if you plan to print lots of large photos. The printer itself is also very well specified, with excellent connectivity, high print, and scan resolution, and a surprisingly prompt print speed.

More importantly, the Epson EcoTank ET-8550 performed well during our tests, faring particularly well when printing photos on glossy photo paper, thanks it large part to the 180 nozzles per colour and 360 black nozzles that deliver very finely detailed prints. Each print is vibrant and well-contained on coated paper, and if you're looking for colors that truly pop, this one's a winner and worth the steep price.

Read our full Epson EcoTank ET-8550 review

Best A3 photo printer

Epson EcoTank ET-18100 with print outs during our test

(Image credit: Epson)
An ink tank printer for large photographs

Specifications

Category: Ink tank color printer
Connectivity: USB, Wi-Fi
Print speed: 8ppm (ISO)
Paper capacity: 80 sheets
Paper size: Up to A3+
Weight: 8 kg

Reasons to buy

+
Stunning colors on glossy photo paper
+
Prints in A3
+
Ink tank so cheaper to run
+
Six color dyes

Reasons to avoid

-
Expensive
-
Not the fastest photo printer

When you want to go big with your images, the Epson EcoTank ET-18100 is one of the best photo printers thanks to its vivid print quality and support for A3+ size paper types.

First off, this is an ink tank printer - so you top up refillable reservoirs within the printer with ink bottles. This means you get all the benefits of an inkjet printer, which excels at photo printing, but it’s cheaper to print than using ink cartridges. 

The Epson EcoTank ET-18100 performed very well in our tests, effortlessly handling glossy photo paper and producing genuinely stunning colors. Helping to bring photos to life in vivid fashion are six color dyes, allowing for more depth and color in your images, with designers given the option to calibrate the printer to match the controlled colour metrics on their screen. 

Speeds were acceptable - a full-sized A4 image took a little over a minute to print. An A3 borderless print took two minutes twenty seconds. Ok, that’s not the fastest photo printer on the market, but ideal times for producing proofs or limited photography runs that boast clarity and eye-catching colors. 

Read our full Epson EcoTank ET-18100 A3+ Photo Printer review 

Best low cost A3 photo printer

Canon Pixma Pro-100S

(Image credit: Future)
Affordable A3 photo printing

Specifications

Category: Wireless professional inkjet printer
Connectivity: USB 2.0, Ethernet, Wi-Fi
Print speed: 8" x 10" on A4 with border:51 secs; 11" x 14" on A3+ with border: 1 min 30 secs
Paper capacity: 150 sheets of plain paper, 20 sheets photo paper (4"x6")
Paper size: up to 13" x 19"
Weight: 19.6Kg

Reasons to buy

+
Excellent colour and mono prints
+
Relatively fast
+
Substantial build quality
+
Competitive price

Reasons to avoid

-
Uninspiring quality on matte media
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Comparatively high cost of ink
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Dye-based inks less resilient

A more affordable A3+ printer than the Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000 is the Canon Pixma Pro-100S.

Aimed at professional and enthusiast photographers, this high-quality photo printer achieves superior color fidelity by drawing on eight individual inkjet cartridges to create detailed prints on photo paper sizes up to A3+. And instead of pigmented inks, Canon has specified brighter dye-based inks for prints that look good enough for gallery display. Pigment ink is more durable, but you can expect to display dye-based photos for around thirty years before fading occurs.

The Canon PIXMA Pro-100S is a sizable and solid desktop design that uses metal components in its print engine to guarantee accurate high-resolution results on large sheets of paper. It prints quickly on anything from individual 6x4” photo paper to borderless A3+ posters. 

On test, it churned out borderless A3 prints on Canon's glossy Photo Paper Plus around six minutes per print at maximum quality and A4 media around three minutes and 14 seconds. We also found that disabling the borderless feature sped things up to one minute and 25 seconds. That's not even to mention the fact that it delivers impeccable and stunning prints every time.

Read our full Canon Pixma Pro-100 review

Best home photo printer

Epson Expression Photo XP-970

(Image credit: Epson)
Home photo printer that delivers exceptional photo quality

Specifications

Category: Multifunction inkjet printer
Connectivity: Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, USB
Print speed: 8.5ppm (mono)
Paper capacity: 100 sheets
Paper size: A3
Weight: 8.7kg

Reasons to buy

+
Six-ink colour fidelity  
+
Large touchscreen 

Reasons to avoid

-
Slow print speed 
-
Limited paper capacity

If you're looking for a neat photo printer for the home, the Epson Expression Photo XP-970 is ideal. Don't let the sleek dimensions fool you, this smooth 3-in-1 inkjet device can print on A3-size paper and uses not four but six inkjet cartridges to achieve superior color accuracy. It means your ink costs are rather high, but it’s worth it if you want beautifully shaded results. 

The scanner is only A4-size, but it makes very high-resolution scans, and combined with the high print resolution, you can make nearly identical color copies. There is no fax, and print speeds are slow, but in all other respects, the Epson Expression Photo XP-970 is hard to beat. 

The main paper tray can hold 100 sheets with a maximum paper size of 8.5 x 11 inches. The second paper tray can hold 20 sheets of photo paper with dimensions of 5 x 7 inches. For an idea of its performance, you can see the results of our tests of the almost identical Epson Expression Photo XP-960 review.

Best compact photo printer

Canon Pixma G4510

(Image credit: Jim Hill)
Compact photo printer with a refillable ink system

Specifications

Category: 4-in-1 printer
Print speed: 13ppm
Paper capacity: 100 sheets
Paper size: up to A3
Weight: 10.5kg

Reasons to buy

+
Remarkably compact for a 4-in-one
+
Cost-effective refillable ink system
+
Strong software and app support
+
Crisp and natural colour printing

Reasons to avoid

-
Photos lack definition and detail
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No duplex printing
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Potentially messy ink tank system
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No front USB or SD card ports

There are loads of good photo printers with a small footprint, but the Canon Pixma G2510 (known as the G4510 in the UK) is our pick of the bunch for its 4-in-1 capabilities. It's also Canon’s most affordable MegaTank model, making it cost-effective. You can expect a drastic reduction in your ongoing print costs by ditching cartridges for refillable reservoirs, especially as the box includes enough ink for 6,000 mono and 7,000 color pages. 

Behind that headline feature, this is a fairly basic four-in-one printer with just enough key features to make it suitable for home use or a small office. It prints very slowly and cannot automatically print on both sides of the page. And sadly, we found that it lacks the resolution to show all the detail in high-resolution images. '

However, the photos it churned out during testing were very bold in color, and if you don't need highly-detailed images anyway, this shouldn't be a deal-breaker. For anyone planning to run out of many color documents, this compact and pleasingly designed AOI will beat most of the competition on per-page running costs.

To save some money on Canon products, check out our Canon discount codes

Read our full Canon Pixma G4510 review

Best photo printers: FAQs

What is the best photo printer - inkjet or laser?

Generally speaking, inkjet photo printers and ink tank printers are best since they use liquid ink, which is ideal for high-quality, high-resolution photography printing with a wide color gamut. Also, only inkjets can print on dedicated glossy photo paper.

Meanwhile, laser printers have always been associated with high-yield printing and text-heavy documents. However, thanks to the strides laser printers have made in print technology, you can rely on many laser printers to meet your printing needs - so long as you're not looking for professional prints to deliver to your clients. However, if in doubt, the best inkjet photo printer is likely the better choice. 

What printer should I get in terms of paper sizes?

There are plenty of affordable A4/letter-sized photo printers out there that can carry out all the tasks of an all-in-one family printer while doing a great job printing on glossy photo paper. They use the usual four (CMYK) ink cartridges to good effect. They may be either pigmented ink or dye-based ink. The pigment is quicker drying and longer lasting while the dye is brighter and works well with high gloss media making it more desirable for photos. 

When you step up to the more expensive A3+ size printers, you’ll often find more inks used to make up the image, and you may well have pigmented black ink for text documents alongside dye-based black for photos. Five, six, eight, or ten ink compartments are common, and more colors mean superior print quality is possible. It may also mean higher ink costs, but fortunately, photo printers with refillable ink tanks are booming, so if you plan to print a lot of photos, go for a printer that takes bottled ink rather than cartridges. 

How to choose the best photo printers for you

When choosing which photo printer is best for you, there are a number of key considerations. After all, photo printers are diverse - from desktop models to the best large format printers and the best sublimation printers for businesses. So you’ll have to evaluate and select one that’ll be ideal for your needs. Some are built for home, some for the office (and some for every workspace). 

One of the first choices you'll need to make is ink options. The top inkjet printers are very different to the best laser printers when it comes to ensuring quality prints for photography (and the best ink tank printers different to both of those). Typically, inkjet printers are best for photos, as they use liquid ink. As part of this, make sure your printer offers high color fidelity - particularly if you're a professional photographer or business. As a rule of thumb, the higher the print resolution, the better the image quality should be. 

Even the best photo printers aren't usually the fastest printers - they focus on print quality over speed, especially with color prints. But still check the estimated pages-per-minute (ppm) of your chosen printer. You don't want to be waiting years for a single glossy image to complete. If speed is important, connect via a wire, as even the best wireless printers will show some delay compared to a wired connection. 

Beyond these key areas, look for additional features you may need. The best all-in-one printers let you print, scan, copy, and even fax - but you may not need these functions. Automatic document feeders and auto-duplex (or double-sided) printing capabilities are always welcome and often very useful for speeding up the process. 

How we test the best photo printers

Our team of expert reviewers have tested over two hundred printers, including the best home printers and the best portable printers. But whether we're comparing the specs of the best printers for Mac, or analyzing image quality in photo printers, we take the same rigorous review process. 

Each printer we source for testing is measured on our test bench, and the results are critically compared with every other model we have reviewed. Rather than relying on the manufacturer’s quoted figures, we time the first page out and print speeds in single sheet and duplex mode using a standard ten-page document and a stopwatch app.

To compare print quality, we print out the same set of test documents on every machine. These twelve test pages include text of varying font sizes and colors, mixed image and text pages, a set of photos, and a series of test patterns designed to assess sharpness, color fidelity, contrast, and grey scale. 

We also calculate running costs, compare functionality and consider each product’s versatility, design, and build quality. The overall score reflects all of these parameters and overall value for money.

Specifically for photo printers, we looked at their versatility (both in terms of management and media handling), paying closer attention to the print output and the cost of the consumables (ink cartridges, etc.). 

You can find out more about our comprehensive testing process in How we test, review and rate printers on TechRadar Pro.

Collin Probst

Former TechRadar Pro B2B Hardware Editor, Collin has been in journalism for years, with experience in small and large markets, including Gearadical, DailyBeast, FutureNet, and more.

With contributions from