Like many photographers, I like to make prints to adorn the walls at home. And some years ago I invested in a poster-sized printer so that I could do so at will.

Specifically, I got a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 Mark II, which was the 2009 version of a printer that hasn’t significantly changed from its 2006 release.

When I tried to print something this weekend with no success for the first time, I wasn’t sure what to do.

There are obvious steps that everyone goes through, obviously. Checking that all the ink tanks are full is step one. They weren’t, of course. It had been a few months, and I suspect a degree of evaporation may have played its part.

The current heatwave and the fact that I keep the printer upstairs won’t have helped matters. However, it was not a cheap printer – well over $500 – so I don’t mind forking out $30 for a set of replacements from a brand of compatible inks I have come to trust: Inkredible (unlike, sadly, some of the ‘compatible’ brands on Amazon).

Each of the ink tanks for this printer has a chip and the printer senses them. I’ve never had an issue with these, whereas some ‘compatible’ inks have proven not to be. Some will tell me I should continue using Canon’s own inks, but their price is somewhat off-putting by comparison.

Two days later, when the inks arrived, I swapped them out and reassuring lights indicated that the printer recognized them; however, it was still not inclined to print a page for me.

At this point, I had to resort to attempting to understand the printer’s problem via its only means of communication – an orange LED that flashes a number of times in sequence.

This felt positively archaic in an era where my portable battery pack has a small color display, but casting my mind back to 2006 (before the iPhone was announced) perhaps this wasn’t so unlikely.

I can connect to my computer, of course, and hope that the software understands the error, but that doesn’t actually solve it either. Plugging into my Mac did remind me of the printer’s age, though, with a dedicated USB-A cable forcing me to find an adapter for the USB-C ports on my computer.

My MacBook reported a print head error via the Print Center, and ChatGPT concurred when I described the flashing light. Unlike the computer, though, the AI chatbot wanted to help out – suggesting a load of things to try.

While every one of the eight ink colors is a small replaceable tank, the whole print head is attached beneath them and is also removable and replaceable.

The ever-sympathetic chatbot initially suggested a series of parts of the printer to clean – buttons, paper feeds and the like – all of which, it felt, could lead to the same issue.

Eventually, it decided that it was time to remove the print head – but before replacing it, suggested some ways to clean it. In other words, lint-free cloth and rubbing alcohol were additional investments that ChatGPT thought were worth consideration. Not to mention a lot of time.

Sadly, though, AI wasn’t totally on-side with my problem, wanting me to perform a nozzle check – which the printer was refusing to do because the print head wasn’t working.

After a lot of back-and-forth in a chat, though, it gave me odds (about 90%) of an electrical failure of the print head, which brings me to my next choice. Do I source a new one – there are compatible options out there, even if Canon ones are hard to come by – or is it time to call it quits?

I think the answer is starting to become apparent. I’ve already lost a good amount of money and time – and ended up with very inky fingers several times.

I was, I have to admit, impressed with the amount of knowledge that AI had to offer about the printer’s error messages given its age. But at this stage I start to measure the value of my time (no, really, it has some).

There is also a point at which being told “We’re getting there” or “That’s a good sign” by a cheery and positive AI is increasingly frustrating as a human. ChatGPT is a bot, after all, and doesn’t quite appreciate that getting eight different colors over your fingers every time you get all the tanks out to access the print head to try “one more thing” is a bit annoying.

And it takes a long, long time to clean printer ink off your fingers.

So the final question should perhaps be “What is the best large-format printer?” That is a question I’ll still trust to humans with experience, but I did appreciate AI lending a hand in making me feel that I won’t be slapping down the cash on a whim.

Polaroid’s Hi-Print series uses dye-sub technology to print photos on the go – but the Hi-Print series is officially returning to the brand’s iconic roots with a Hi-Print that prints square photos. The Polaroid Hi-Print 3x3 is a portable photo printer that spits out square prints – albeit without that classic white border.

Like the existing Hi-Print printers, the new Hi-Print 3x3 uses dye-sublimation technology, a process that uses heat to create durable, smudge-resistant prints with peel-and-stick backs. Those prints are a square three-inch format, and the printer is capable of printing straight up to the edge – so unlike Polaroid’s instant film cameras, they don’t come with that classic white border.

The printer itself doubles as a photo frame, with an opening to house one of those prints, so the printer becomes the frame when not in use.

The Hi-Print 3x3 packs that tech into a portable printer that measures only about 4” x 5.2” x 1.2” (103 x 131 x 30 mm) and uses a rechargeable Li-ion battery for on-the-go printing. The printer weighs 13.8 oz / 390 g.

Like other Hi-Print printers, the new Polaroid option is compatible with both iOS and Android, with the Polaroid app including tools and templates, such as stickers, for adjusting before printing.

Polaroid is calling 2026 the “year of analog,” noting that a survey by Censuswide of 4,000 people in the US and UK suggests that two-thirds of those between the ages of 18-34 have returned to analog products to limit time spent on screens.

The Polaroid Hi-Print 3x3 launched today, April 7, and is already available directly from Polaroid and selected retailers, including B&H in the US.

The Hi-Print 3x3 retails for about $119.99 / £99.99. The new 3x3 paper sells for $24.99 / £22.99 for 30 sheets.

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For more insight into the Hi-Print series, read the Polaroid Hi-Print 2x3 review. Or, if you want that iconic white border, try the Polaroid Lab or browse the best portable photo printers.

Instax’s portable photo printer line converts digital photos to real instant film, but if the latest launch from the Japan headquarters is any indication, the portable printers are about to get better at printing text.

On Wednesday, January 7, Fujifilm Japan announced the Instax Mini Link+, a premium model for the brand’s smartphone printer series. However, the printer has only been announced in Japan. It’s unclear if the new Mini Link+ will also be available in other regions at a later date or if it could be a Japanese exclusive.

The printer was announced alongside the Instax Mini Evo Cinema, which was also only launched in Japan.

So what makes the Mini Link+ a “premium” model over the existing Instax Mini Link 3? According to Fujifilm Japan, the new printer has a “Design Print” mode that gives the printer an edge in printing out sharp text. The company indicates that “the printer’s image processing capabilities have been significantly strengthened, making it possible to clearly express fine text and patterns.”

The design of the Instax Mini Link+ is also quite a bit different than the Link 3, which has a body with curved edges and a lined texture. The new premium model instead takes on a boxier shape and a metallic black finish. Fujifilm Japan says the new model has “a sophisticated design with bold, linear contours.”

The printer also has a strap hook, which will allow users to add an included wrist strap – or possibly even customize with a third-party camera strap.

Like with earlier models, a companion smartphone app allows users to select and edit their photos before printing. But, new for the Link+ is a “simulation” mode, which allows users to preview how the final shot will look in a frame or on a shelf.

The mobile app will also support printing from Pinterest, Fujifilm Japan says.

The Mini Link+ launches in Japan with two new accessories – a printer case and a frame designed for Instax Mini prints.

The Instax Mini Link+ is expected to begin shipping in Japan on January 30, but there’s no word yet on whether or not the printer may be available internationally.

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Think desktop inkjet printers and you’re probably thinking Epson and Canon. These two companies are the clear leaders in the field for performance and all-round quality. As with other manufacturers, however, the price of ink cartridges has been all but universally criticized over the years, so Epson EcoTank and Canon MegaTank printers are in the ascendancy. This type of printer is typically more expensive to buy but bottled ink refills work out massively cheaper in the long run.

This Epson EcoTank printer is a cost-effective, bottle-fed, multi-function printer that claims to save you up to 95 per cent in ink costs, with up to three years’ worth of ink supplied in a set of full-sized bottles in the retail pack. The setup procedure consumes a little of this but you should still have enough ink left over for 6,600 mono pages and 5,500 color document pages. That should keep you going for ages and when you do need replacement bottles, they’ll be good for 8,500 mono pages and 6,500 color pages. It’s a whole different world to using cartridges and the Epson aims to be one of the best all-in-one printers for the home office and hybrid working.

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Specifications

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Price

Manufacturers have to make their money somewhere. Historically, cartridge inkjet printers have often been relatively cheap to buy but there’s a sting in the tail, with your first set of replacement cartridges costing more than the printer itself. You might be tempted to just buy a new printer instead, but setup cartridges can have a notoriously short lifespan. Flip the coin and you’re often looking at comparatively expensive initial purchase costs for EcoTank printers, but with much cheaper running costs going forward. Pay your money, take your choice. Either way, the up-front price of the Epson EcoTank ET-2980 / ET-2950 is pretty competitive for a bottle-fed printer, at $330 / £320 / AU$499. That’s a modest outlay for a brand new EcoTank printer, especially as you’re unlikely to need to buy any ink for a long time to come.

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Design & Handling

A key design factor is that the Epson has large tanks of ink which are replenished with bottles, rather than using cartridges. The inks themselves feature a pigment-based black and dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow. The mix aims to deliver crisp, durable and smudge-resistant black text on plain paper, along with strong color performance. The dye-based inks should ensure a smooth finish on glossy photo paper, but the absence of an additional black dye cartridge could be a limiting factor for photo quality. I’ll come back to this later in ‘performance’.

It’s only natural to feel short-changed when the ‘setup cartridges’ supplied with some printers seem to last barely any longer than the actual setup procedure. This EcoTank printer is supplied with a complete set of full-sized bottles, comprising 127ml of ink for black and 70ml for each of the cyan, magenta and yellow inks. That’s a tick in a box as far as I’m concerned. It’s also fairly common to worry that bottled ink is going to be a messy business. However, the bottles are designed to be easy to use with separately keyed tops so you can’t pour ink into the wrong tank. They’re drip-free, gravity fed with no squeezing, and shut off automatically with built-in valves to avoid any danger of over-filling at top-up time. In short, the whole process of initially filling the tanks and topping them up later is quick, easy and entirely painless. That’s a tick in another box.

You can get a status report on ink levels via the printer driver but the easiest way to keep tabs on ink is simply to take a glance at the tanks, which have clear inspection windows at the front. Each window has five level markers, from full to empty.

After filling each of the tanks, hinged stoppers fasten securely and are hidden away beneath a cover. It’s all very neat and tidy. The initial setup uses a fair bit of ink to prime the heads, but you should still have enough left over for 6,600 mono pages and 5,500 color document pages. Going forward, replacement bottles should last for 8,500 mono pages and 6,500 color pages, and cost $24.99 / £15.49 / AU$39.98 for a bottle of black ink or $75.95 / £39.49 / AU$99.95 for a full set of all four ink bottles. Suffice it to say that running costs are very inexpensive and massively cheaper than using cartridges.

The final part of the installation process is to print a test/alignment page which you then scan in using the printer’s flatbed scanner. It’s fully automatic so you don’t need to compare a bunch of printed blocks or lines and enter numerical values for each set of test areas, as you do with many printers.

Placing the calibration page into the scanner and completing the process only takes a few moments and ensures that the print heads are optimally aligned for the best and sharpest printing results.

A disappointment as far as I’m concerned is that, while the printer is pleasingly compact and sits fairly low on a table, there’s no internal paper feed cassette. As such, you need to slot paper into the upright feeder at the rear, which comes complete with a pull-up support and adjustable width guides. At least it makes it relatively easy to swap between different sizes and types of paper. Even so, I’d rather be able to fill an internal cassette with plain paper and pop photo paper into a rear feeder as and when required.

While the paper input system is fairly basic, the output tray is more refined. I’m happy that the output tray is fully motorized, so it extends automatically when you’re printing and there’s an option to fully retract it again when you switch off the printer. It’s a space-saver and again helps to keep everything neat and tidy.

Some people love touchscreens for everything but I see absolutely nothing wrong with having a regular color display screen and a set of dedicated buttons for making adjustments. That’s what’s featured here, and the control panel is both logical and intuitive. To be picky, the 3.7cm / 1.5" color LCD screen is pretty small, but I found it clear enough to read comfortably.

Around the back, there’s an auto duplex unit, so double-sided printing is on the menu without the need to flip paper over manually feed it back into the printer. And if you’re unlucky enough to suffer a paper jam during the automatic process, the duplex unit easily detaches for inspection and paper removal, with just a couple of pinch-action clips.

The rear of the printer also features a socket for the mains cable and a time-honored printer-type USB socket. As I’d expect in this day and age, the printer also supports Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi direct. This enables you not only to print wirelessly from computers around the home, but also to print and scan from smart devices, taking advantage of the Epson Smart Panel app. There’s support for Apple AirPrint, Mopria Print Service and Mopria Scan. I’d have also liked to see a USB socket on the front panel, for scanning to and printing from a memory stick, but that’s not featured.

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Performance

I’ve used ink tank printers that were rather slower than cartridge-based models, but this Epson is no slouch. It can output mono text pages at 15ppm and color pages at 8ppm in standard quality mode, rising to 33ppm for mono and 20ppm for color at the top speed setting. In my tests, printing single mono text and color text and graphics pages, the printer took 7 seconds for mono and 14 seconds for color in standard quality mode, and I can certainly live with that.

True to my expectations, black text on plain paper is crisp, dark and robust with good attention to fine detail. Color graphics are also reproduced very well, with good vibrancy and boldness. Arguably more of a handling plus point than a performance factor, I like the way that the front panel hinges upwards, so you can more clearly see the small LCD screen and use the pushbutton control panel to make any required changes.

This printer is clearly designed and advertised as a document printer, and I’ve only seen print speeds and page counts for ink usage quoted by Epson for documents, not for photos. Even so, the dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks work well for creating photo prints on glossy paper, up to a point. Being dye-based rather than pigment-based inks they’re fully absorbed beneath the outer glossy layer of photo paper, resulting in a smooth and uniform finish with no ‘bronzing’ or areas of uneven reflectivity.

However, the absence of a secondary dye-based black ink means that really dark areas of photos are reproduced with ‘composite black’ from all three colors. The result is that photos can be a bit lacking in contrast and depth. Photo printing is also relatively slow. I found that the printer took 1m 30s or 2m 55s to output a borderless 7x5-inch photo print in standard and high quality settings respectively. And for borderless A4 photos in standard or high quality mode, it was 2m 45s or 5m 15s. In terms of photographic fidelity, I found no benefit in switching from standard to high quality print mode.

Back on the plus side, the Epson printer driver is typically intuitive and easy to use. That really can be a performance boost, as it’s quick and simple to make any necessary changes to printer settings, and the same goes for running maintenance routines like nozzle checks and cleaning cycles. The gallery below shows the three main screens for the Windows printer driver.

Another performance facet is that you don’t want downtime when you’re counting on your printer. It’s generally not so much of an issue nowadays but historically, many inkjet printers needed to be sent away for servicing if the ‘maintenance cartridge’ became full of excess ink. Like most of its modern competitors, this Epson has a user-replaceable maintenance cartridge, and if you should come to need one, it’s cheap to buy at $10.99 / £10.49 / AU$15.99 for the genuine Epson article.

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Verdict

One of my pet hates with cartridge-based printers is the seemingly continual need to buy and replace ink cartridges. And it can be a very pricey business. I like that by comparison, this Epson printer is very cheap to run, and that bottles of ink last for absolutely ages. Despite this, the up-front purchase price of the printer is very reasonable, which I can’t say for many bottle-fed printers. All in all, the Epson is great value for money, easy to use and delivers very good quality mono and color documents with a quick turnaround. It’s less ideal for glossy photo printing, which is relatively slow and not of the best quality, but it can certainly turn its hand to the task when needed. I think it’s also a shame that the printer doesn’t have dual paper feed trays, with an internal cassette and separate rear feeder. All things considered though, it’s a very good choice as a multi-function printer for the home office and for family life.

Alternatives

Epson has been a major player in inkjet printers for as long as I can remember, building a solid reputation for quality and performance over the years, all around the world. Like other manufacturers, however, Epson has been plagued by criticism concerning the price of ink cartridges, which can leave a bitter taste in terms of running costs. The answer comes in the shape of ‘EcoTank’ printers, with bottled ink refills saving up to 95 per cent in the total cost of ownership, over the years.

For a busy home office environment or as a printer for the whole family, Epson reckons the ink supplied with this printer straight off the shelf should keep you going for up to three years. Indeed, it’s supplied with a set of full-capacity ink bottles, plus an extra bottle of black ink for twice as much text printing. Crunching the numbers as well as a mighty stack of paper along the way, the supplied ink should be sufficient for printing up to 15,100 pages of mono text and 5,500 color documents. I hate to think how many cartridges I’d have to buy and how much they’d cost, to rack up those kinds of numbers. This Epson certainly aims to be one of the best all-in-one printers for the home office and for hybrid working.

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Specifications

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Price

You can buy cartridge-based inkjet printers for a lot less than this one, which sells for $500 / £460 / AU$729. But the savings tend to be short-lived. Typically, the ‘setup cartridges’ supplied with the printer don’t last very much longer than the setup procedure itself. From then on, you’re into buying expensive cartridges, often on an alarmingly frequent basis. While this EcoTank printer is relatively pricey up-front, the flip side is that running costs are massively cheaper if you need to print documents more than just occasionally. Ultimately, the ET-4950 can save you a big pot of money in the long term.

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Design & Handling

Inks are a fundamental design factor for any inkjet printer. This one runs on a pigment-based black ink and dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks. The sum of the parts is geared to enabling crisp, durable black text on plain paper, along with convincing color performance. Color printing on glossy photo paper comes with the advantage that only the dye-based inks are employed, so you’re guaranteed a smooth finish with uniform reflectivity. The downside is the absence of an additional dye-based black cartridge, which can degrade photo quality.

Unlike many printers that come with low-capacity ‘setup cartridges’, this EcoTank printer is supplied with a complete set of full-sized bottles, to keep you going for longer. It’ll actually be a lot longer, as you get not one but two 127ml bottles of pigment black ink, as well as regular 70ml bottles of dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks. And if you’re thinking that bottles of ink bring the risk of spillage, rest assured that the bottles have a gravity-fed delivery system with shut-off valves to avoid any mess. They also have individually and differently keyed tops, to stop you accidentally pouring ink into the wrong tank.

The printer driver can give you updates on ink levels within the tanks but for a more hands-on, or rather eyes-on approach, the tanks have inspection windows at the front. This makes it easy to keep track of ink levels with just a quick peek.

As a final word on filling the tanks, access to them is gained by a cover that hinges forward. The cover also happens to have a pleasant blue-illuminated ring around the top, which gives a visual indication of when the printer is in use. After hinging the cover forward, you get access to the tanks.

After filling each of the tanks, flip-over stoppers fasten securely and are hidden away beneath the cover. The initial setup procedure uses some ink to prime the print heads, but you should still have enough left over for 15,100 mono pages and 5,500 color document pages. That’s a lot of pages! Going forward, replacement bottles should last for 8,500 pages of black text and 6,500 color documents. The cost works out to $24.99 / £15.49 / AU$39.98 per bottle of black ink or $75.95 / £39.49 / AU$99.95 for a full set of all four ink bottles. The net results is that running costs tend to be massively cheaper than for cartridge-based printers.

The installation procedure is quick and easy, taking less than half an hour from start to finish. The final part of the process is to print a test page which also acts as a print head alignment page. In some cases, print head alignment is a chore, based on manually entering different numbers into various boxes. In this case, it’s all automatic and quickly finished.

After you place the calibration page onto the scanning platen, the printer simply scans the page and carries out the alignment procedure all by itself, in just a few moments. This ensures that the print heads are optimally aligned for the sharpest printing results. For more typical scanning jobs, you’re probably more likely to use the auto document feeder.

When folded out for use, as shown below, the ADF can accommodate up to 30 sheets of paper, ideal for scanning, copying or faxing multi-page documents. It also stretches the maximum size of originals that can be scanned, from A4 or 8.5x11.7" to 8.5x14”. The ADF is definitely a useful feature to have and doesn’t add much to the overall height when in use.

Although the Epson is predominantly a document printer, I’d still like to have the luxury of putting plain paper in an internal feeding cassette, and photo paper or other specialist paper like letterheaded paper in a top feeder or secondary tray. The printer gets half way there with a convenient space-saving 250-sheet internal paper feed cassette, but there’s no secondary cassette nor an upright feeder at the rear.

I’m a lot happier about the output tray than the single input cassette. It’s fully motorized and extends automatically when you start a print job. You also get the option to automatically retract the output tray when switching off the printer, so the front of the printer is flush from top to bottom.

Following the recent trend for touchscreens in almost any type of gadget, the printer features a 6.1cm / 2.4" color touchscreen on its front panel. It’s certainly not massive but, to my mind and eye, it’s big enough to do the job. It’s also quite easy and intuitive in use. And to make it easier to see and to operate, the front panel hinges up so that you can choose the angle you find most convenient.

An auto duplex unit is built into the back of the printer, enabling automatic double-sided printing without the chore of manually flipping paper over and feeding it back into the printer. It worked reliably throughout my testing but if you should suffer a paper jam, it’s easy to unclip the unit at the back and clear any stuck paper.

There’s a variety of sockets and ports built into the rear of the printer. These include USB, LAN and fax, along with the mains socket. The printer also has built-in Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi direct, which many of us find more ideal for printing from multiple computers or laptops around the home. You can also print and scan from smart devices, taking advantage of the Epson Smart Panel app. There’s support for Apple AirPrint, Mopria Print Service and Mopria Scan, but no card slot nor a USB socket for scanning to and printing from a memory stick or memory card.

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Performance

The ET-4950 has a decent turn of speed, outputting mono text pages at 18ppm and color pages at 9ppm in standard quality mode. The ‘first page printout’ speed can be notoriously slower but I was impressed during my tests. Printing a single mono text page took just 5 seconds, while a page of mono text and color graphics took 12 seconds, both in standard quality mode.

Mono text on plain paper is crisp and robust, as I’d expect from a pigment-based black ink, and fine detail as well as the ‘small print’ are clearly rendered. There’s also good vibrancy for color graphics, which literally look good on paper. Solid blocks of color and graduated tints are both reproduced very nicely.

On Epson’s spec sheet and supporting online literature, I haven’t seen any claims about print speeds for glossy photo printing, nor how many photo prints you can expect from a set of ink bottles. That’s fair enough, as the ET-4950 is predominantly designed as a document printer. Even so, the dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks make a decent stab at glossy photo prints. The dye-based inks are fully absorbed beneath the outer glossy layer of photo paper, resulting in a smooth and uniform finish with no ‘bronzing’ or areas of uneven reflectivity. However, the pigment black ink isn’t used for glossy photo output and the lack of an additional dye-based black ink limits the gamut and tonal range, so dark areas in photos can look a little insipid.

Photo printing is also relatively slow. I set about making 7x5-inch borderless photo prints on glossy paper and they took me 1m 30s or 2m 55s each, in standard and high quality settings respectively. Stepping up to full A4 borderless photos in standard or high quality mode, prints took 2m 45s or 5m 15s each. There was very little to choose between high quality and standard quality modes in terms of photographic fidelity.

I’ve become well used to Epson printer driver software being intuitive and easy to use over the years, and the drivers for this model are no exception. That’s a performance boost in my books, cutting down the time it takes to adjust settings. The gallery below shows the three main screens for the Windows printer driver, include the Maintenance section with options like nozzle checks and print head cleaning.

Performance can be put on hold if you need to send your printer away to be serviced. This has often been the case in the past when maintenance cartridges have become full to capacity with excess ink. Like most modern competitors, the ET-4950 has a user-replaceable maintenance cartridge, which is quick and easy to change if it becomes full. The genuine Epson replacement is inexpensive to buy, at $10.99 / £10.49 / AU$15.99.

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Verdict

I really like the stamina of the Epson EcoTank ET-4950 printer. I find the relatively continuous and arduous task of searching for, ordering and replacing ink cartridges to be a time-wasting and money-wasting chore. The ink tanks are sufficiently large in this printer that I can simply fill them with the supplied ink and forget about them for months on end. I like the speed and quality for mono and color document printing on plain paper, and that the ‘all-in-one’ features stretch to direct faxing as well as just printing, scanning and copying. The auto document feeder for the scanner, auto duplex unit and motorized output tray are further plus points, and so is the intuitive color touchscreen. I’m less impressed by the lack of a secondary paper input tray and glossy photo printing could be better and faster. All in all though, this Epson printer is a very good fit for the busy home office and for productive families taking on anything from general paperwork to homework assignments.

Alternatives

Using its wealth of search data, Google has compiled a list of the trendiest gifts of 2025 – and tucked in among the gift idea gems is the mini photo printer.

Google Trends’ list of top gift ideas for 2025 contains a few obvious choices, including new tech like the Nintendo Switch 2. But the search engine giant also says that searches for “photo printer” have increased by 65 percent this year.

As a photographer, I happen to agree that mini photo printers make fantastic gift ideas – I carry one around in my camera bag so that I can share instant film prints in person. I don’t think you need to be a photographer to appreciate a tiny photo printer though. Sharing on Instagram is great, but there’s nothing like sharing a tiny print in person.

Portable photo printers are compact devices that allow you to print photos straight from your smartphone. But two key types of tech make it possible to pack a printer into a portable device: inkless printing, or Zink, and instant film.

Zink printers look more like a traditional printed photo, just tinier, often in a 2x3 format. One of the things that I love about Zink is that the photos typically come with sticky backs, which makes them great for scrapbooking and doubling as photo printers.

My personal favorite, however, are the printers that use real instant film. This mixes the portable printer trend with the retro trend, exposing digital images onto real instant film. That essentially turns a smartphone – or any camera – into an instant camera.

Here are some of the top deals right now on trendy photo printers. For more ideas, browse the list of the best portable photo printers.

US Deals 🇺🇲

UK Deals 🇬🇧

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High-end photo printers destined for print shops are typically bulky, but Fujifilm has shrunk down one of its popular photo printers for use in mobile labs for on-site event photography printing. The Fujifilm Frontier DX400W is 30 percent smaller than the current model, yet adds two more colors and a higher ink capacity.

Fujifilm Frontier printers are compact inkjets designed for lab-quality images from a smaller printer, making them a popular option for professionals delivering on-site prints (such as at sporting events and amusement parks), as well as for mini-labs and retail shops.

The Fujifilm Frontier DX400W builds on the success of the DX100, a compact printer popular for event and tourism photography, where prints are sold on-site. One of the key changes on the DX400W is the ink. The printer adds two new colors designed to help improve color quality on the final prints, with the printer now using cyan, magenta, yellow, black, sky blue, and pink. Fujifilm says the new colors help create a more faithful reproduction of skin colors.

Despite being 30 percent smaller than earlier models, the DX400W increases ink capacity from 200ml to 250ml. That’s due in part because the printer uses pouches, rather than traditional tanks, a move that helps make the printer that bit more environmentally friendly.

The printer’s six-ink design pairs with what Fujifilm calls Image Intelligence, which automatically corrects things like underexposure, backlighting, and overexposure to produce more accurate prints.

USB and wired LAN connections allow the printer to be used in a variety of scenarios, from being permanently housed at a retail shop to mobile event photography. Printer maintenance is conducted from the front for easy access, while Fujifilm rates the printer's lifetime at 400,000 sheets, an uptick from the previous model's rating.

The Fujifilm DX400W is expected to begin shipping in September. The printer’s price has not yet been announced (the current DX100 model costs around US$2,300)

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I’ve been using Canon inkjet printers for work and pleasure for the last 30 years. I’ve tried other makes but Canon always wins me over for quality, reliability and dependability. I’ve worn various hats during this time in a professional capacity, as a technical author, journalist, copywriter and photographer. In the few weeks leading up to writing this, I’ve tested and reviewed the A3+ / 13-inch format Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 printer and the larger A2+ / 17-inch format Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 printer. Both are epic. Both deliver sumptuous print quality for photographs and artworks, and both are fed with precut sheets of paper. The PRO-2600 takes things up to a whole different level, running on rolls of paper up to 24 inches wide and enabling you to print at any length you like, with the length of the roll being the only limiting factor. Whichever way you look at it, the PRO-2600 is clearly one of the best large-format photo printers on the market.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2600: Specifications

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2600: Price

Right then, here’s the tricky bit. The PRO-2600 costs $3,158 / £2,999 / AU$8,249. You’re going to have to be serious about creating gallery-quality prints for exhibitions or selling your photos to paying clients, if you’re going to spend that kind of money. Even so, the PRO-2600 is a whole lot of printer and ‘only’ costs as much as a single top-quality lens. Each of the 12 cartridges is available in three different capacities, suiting different requirements. For example, if you mainly print black & white, low-capacity color cartridges will suffice, and if you generally print on matte paper, you won’t need to go large on ‘photo black’ ink.

Prices for each cartridge are around $110 / £80 / AU$175 (160ml), $196 / £149 / AU$269 (330ml) and $333 / £276 / AU$369 (700ml). Sure, they’re all costly but, drop for drop, ink works out to between $0.48 / £0.39 / AU$0.53 and $0.69 / £0.50 / AU$1.09 per milliliter, which is very reasonable for an inkjet printer. Other options and service items, if and when you need them, include an optional lower roll feeder at $926 / £740, a user-replaceable maintenance cartridge at $105 / £65, a replacement print head at $699 / £540 and a replacement cutter blade at $100 / £155.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2600: Design & Handling

Sometimes it’s good to think big. And sometimes it’s good to dream even bigger. In terms of logistics, it was no problem for Canon to deliver the PRO-310 and PRO-1100 printers to my door. For the PRO-2600 and PRO-4600 roll-fed printers, it made more sense for me to get in my car and drive to Canon’s Customer Experience Centre in Birmingham UK, which I can’t recommend highly enough. These are much bigger affairs, and are both freestanding printers that look very imposing, if not daunting, more like pieces of industrial machinery. The only real difference between the two is that the PRO-2600 takes rolls of paper up to 24 inches wide, and the PRO-4600 takes rolls of paper up to 44 inches wide.

Let’s start with the roll feeder itself. I have to admit that feeding paper into a printer from a roll caused me some concern but I needn’t have worried. As I’ve come to expect from imagePROGRAF printers, everything works simply, effectively and intuitively. Paper on a choice of rolls with 2-inch or 3-inch cores is automatically fed into the printer. Not only that, but the transport system includes automatic de-skewing, so you can be confident that everything’s going to line up properly and stay on the straight and (not so) narrow, even if you’re creating really long prints.

Something else that simplifies the paper feeding process is the printer’s uncanny ability to work out what paper you’re actually loading. The printer ‘knows’ a whole lot of different papers and has sensors that measures the exact thickness of the paper as well as its reflectivity, so it can recognize the make and model of paper stock. The printer displays its judgment call on paper type on its color touchscreen display panel and if it’s a correct match (which it’s pretty much bound to be) all you need to do is press ‘OK’ and get on with the job in hand. It’s a whole lot quicker and easier than trawling through endless lists of paper stock to select the right one manually.

You can also feed cut sheets of paper into the printer but rolls are the way forward. And if two are better than one, you can buy a secondary roll feeder as an optional extra. This is actually pretty clever. It not only allows you to have two of your favorite paper types on hand and ready to go, but you can alternatively use the secondary feeder as a take-up spool. For really long prints, this gives a handy option of rolling them up as they’re created, instead of sending them to the output basket.

The output basket itself is adjustable. I like that you can stash it away underneath so that it doesn’t take up any additional floorspace, or hang it off the front of the printer. The latter configuration makes created prints easier to get at, if you have the room. In between paper input and output, the paper transport system is incredibly precise, utilizing a suction system to ensure that the paper stays exactly on track. I’ve seen something similar in the PRO-1100, while both of the smaller PRO-1100 and PRO-310 have a similar automatic de-skew facility.

To keep a visual check on prints as the paper is passing through the machine, an upgrade over the previous version of the printer is a bank of LEDs that illuminates your print as it’s being made. It’s another nice touch that gives the reassurance of being able to easily satisfy yourself that everything’s going exactly to plan.

Naturally, paper is only one half of the story. The other is ink. The ink set is actually exactly the same as in the imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 desktop printer, which is great news. The next-generation Lucia Pro II inks represent a significant upgrade. First up, they boost the density and detail in blacks, dark blues and really deep shadows. Secondly, they include wax in their formulation that makes prints more robust and resistant to abrasion and scratches. Fade-resistance from exposure to indoor lighting also gets bumped up from 60 years to 200 years, making prints much more long-lasting if they’re going to be hung on a wall instead of being boxed for archiving. That’s a really important point if you’re making prints to sell to clients, that they’ll want to keep for a lifetime and maybe pass on to future generations.

The line-up includes 12 cartridges but only 11 are actual ‘inks’. One cartridge contains a ‘chroma optimizer’ which helps to deliver an even finish with uniform reflectivity and minimized bronzing when printing on glossy paper. That’s always a big challenge with pigment-based rather than dye-based inks. Better still, you can choose how the chroma optimizer is applied, either coating the whole print or enabling the printer to automatically select when and where to use it, to best effect, or to not use it at all.

The pigment ink set consists of matte black, photo black, grey, photo grey, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow, red and blue. The matte black and photo black inks are for use with matte and glossy papers respectively, while different shades of grey help to enable a huge tonal range for black & white printing as well as further extending the color space or gamut for color printing.

In terms of placement, the 12 cartridges slot into place towards the top rear of the printer. Six cartridges go on the left side, the other six on the right. Again, enabling you to keep a quick and easy visual check on proceedings, the top covers are translucent and there’s an LED status lamp for each cartridge, which you can clearly see from a distance.

As I’ve mentioned, each of the 12 ink cartridges are available in three different sizes. They’ve basically small (160ml), medium (330ml) and large (700ml). As I’d expect, the cost per milliliter is slightly less as you go up in capacity. The more important aspect, to my mind, is that you can buy small cartridges of inks that you don’t use as much, making the printer more cost effective to run.

Especially when creating large format prints that use a lot of ink, there’s a danger of running on empty. That can actually be pretty disastrous. If any of the channels in the print head run dry, not only will you get a ruined print, but it can also destroy the print head, as it relies on the ink for liquid-cooling. I really like that the PRO-2600’s ink cartridges are ‘hot-swappable’. The ink from the cartridge feeds a tank that lies beneath. If you get a notification that a cartridge runs dry while you’re actually making a print, the underlying tank continues to deliver ink to the print head and you can replace the cartridge with a new one, while ongoing printing is uninterrupted.

For the ultimate in look and feel, professional and enthusiast photographers typically have their particular favorites when it comes to paper. There’s direct support for fine art media from top manufacturers like Hahnemühle, Canson and Awagami. Not only does the huge range of media from Canon and other brands give plenty of choice, but it’s supported by particularly good software. Top of the list is Canon’s Professional Print & Layout, which is available as a free download. It works as a standalone program or as a plug-in for Canon Digital Photo Professional and Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, suiting different workflow preferences. The software enables both soft proofing and hard proofing for different paper types, as well as giving you the option of applying individual adjustments to separate images that will be printed on the same page.

One of my favorite features of Professional Print & Layout is that you can create ‘pattern prints’, which include small versions of an image that have subtly different treatments of color rendition and tone. You can then pick your favorite version for making the final print. You can also save the settings for specific print jobs, in case you want to use them again, guaranteeing consistency in the results. And if you’re selling prints or just want to keep a tab on costs, the software can calculate the price of each print, based on the ink and paper used.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2600: Performance

Ultimately, performance boils down to print quality. The 12-ink system delivers an incredible color space or gamut, with spectacular color rendition and tonal range. Mono prints look simply magnificent and in both cases, the printer does an exceptional job of reproducing really dense blacks and the deepest of shadows with immense clarity and detail. And the sheer amount of detail revealed in prints has to be seen to be believed, especially if you’re only used to seeing your photos on-screen or as small-format prints.

You can be confident that print quality isn’t a moveable feast. To ensure the utmost in consistency and that performance stays at its best, there’s a ‘color calibration’ option that you can run automatically from the Maintenance section of the onboard touchscreen menu, or from your computer’s printer driver. Helping to ease the load on your computer, the printer features its own 500GB hard drive. I think it’s also neat that you can switch your computer off altogether and print direct from a flash drive, as the printer has an easily accessible USB port for this exact option, conveniently close to the color touchscreen. For general connectivity, there’s a regular printer USB socket, plus Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

Speed can seem a bit irrelevant when you’re creating prints of the ultimate in quality, to last more than a lifetime. Even so, the PRO-2600 is pretty quick for a pigment-based printer. Typical times for an A1 (23.4x33.1-inch) photo print on coated media are about 1m 40s in standard quality mode, and 3m 15s in high quality mode. For glossy paper, it’s just over 3 minutes in standard mode and 5 minutes in the high quality setting.

One facet of performance that can be frustrating with cut-sheet photo printers is that the size of the paper might well not match the aspect ratio of your actual image. The roll-fed approach puts that right, enabling you to create bordered or borderless prints with exactly the right length to match the width of the paper. And that goes for freeform panoramic images as well. There’s also no need to worry about having to physically cut your print to length either, as the printer features its own cutter that takes care of everything automatically.

I’ve always found that reliability is a big factor in the performance of any printer. Blocked nozzles in the print head can be a major pain, resulting in feint lines that ruin a print. And when you’re talking large-format prints, that’s a lot of waste in terms of money, time and effort. Then there’s the not inconsiderable cost of wasting ink if you have to keep flushing nozzles in the print head to unblock them. I’ve found Canon printers to be much more reliable than various other makes over the years. Canon's ‘FINE’ print heads are particularly resistant to the problem, as there’s significant redundancy in the number of nozzles and the technology can automatically detect blocked nozzles in real time and switch to adjacent nozzles if and when necessary.

Sample prints

By way of example, the following gallery contains a few prints that I actually made with the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 on Canon Premium Fine Art Smooth paper. I’ve included them here as the complete set of 12 Lucia PRO II inks is identical in both printers, as is the resolution of the print head. The images shown are photos of the finished prints, which themselves were created from digital photos taken on the Dorset coast in the UK, under very moody and dramatic skies. There are some really deep blues and blacks in the images and the sky in one photo in particular is almost completely black. They’re therefore a good test of the printer’s ability to recreate really dense blacks, dark blues and ultra-deep shadows, a major plus point of the new inks.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2600: Verdict

I’m seldom lost for words. After all, I do words (and pictures) for a living. Even so, I think the quality and scale of photographic prints from the PRO-2600 are something you have to see to believe. Sadly, the scale and cost of the printer itself are factors that put it out of reach of most photographers. However, if you’ve got the money and the floorspace, this is a printer that can deliver the most sumptuous image quality for both color and black & white photos, on both glossy and matte paper as well as a rich and diverse range of fine art media. And if you’ve got a 45+ megapixel camera, this printer will do it full justice.

Alternatives

Canon inkjet printers and me go back a long way – 30 years, in fact. I’ve tried every other make of printer over those decades but I’ve always found Canon best for quality, reliability and dependability. I’ve worked as a technical author, journalist, copywriter and photographer, so my printing needs have been many and varied. More recently, a few weeks ahead of reviewing this printer, I tested and reviewed the A3+ / 13-inch format Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 printer and the larger A2+ / 17-inch format Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 printer.

Both deliver superb print quality for photographs and artworks, but both are desktop printers which are fed with precut sheets of paper. The PRO-4600 takes things up to a whole different level, accommodating rolls of paper up to 44 inches wide and delivering prints of any length, the length of the roll really being the only limiting factor. Ultimately, the PRO-4600 is undoubtedly one of the best large-format photo printers on the market, if not the best.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4600: Specifications

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4600: Price

Let’s start with the elephant in the room although, to be fair, the PRO-4600 isn’t really as big as an elephant. It costs $4,997 / £5,850 / AU$14,849 to buy. That makes it pretty much unaffordable for most amateur photographers, unless your powers of persuasion are good enough to talk members of a camera club into chipping in. Even professional photographers are going to have to be serious about creating their own gallery-quality prints for exhibitions or selling photos to paying clients, while enjoying being in full control of the printing process.

To ease the finances going forward, each of the 12 ink cartridges is available in three different capacities, suiting different requirements. For example, if you mainly print black & white, low-capacity color cartridges will suffice, and if you generally print on matte paper, you won’t need to go large on ‘photo black’ ink. Prices for each cartridge are around $110 / £80 / AU$175 (160ml), $196 / £149 / AU$269 (330ml) and $333 / £276 / AU$369 (700ml). Sure, they’re all costly but, drop for drop, ink works out to between $0.48 / £0.39 / AU$0.53 and $0.69 / £0.50 / AU$1.09 per milliliter, which is very reasonable for an inkjet printer. Other options and service items, if and when you need them, include an optional lower roll feeder at $1,157 / £870, a user-replaceable maintenance cartridge at $105 / £65, a replacement print head at $699 / £540 and a replacement cutter blade at $100 / £155.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4600: Design & Handling

My first hurdle in reviewing the PRO-4600 was a matter of logistics. It was no problem for Canon to deliver the PRO-310 and PRO-1100 printers to my door, but the PRO-4600 measures 159.3x98.3x116.8cm / 62.7x38.7x46in in size and weighs in at 124kg / 273lb. The natural solution was that if the printer can’t come to me, I’ll go to the printer, so I jumped in my car and drove to Canon’s Customer Experience Centre in Birmingham UK. The ‘experience’ turned out to be pretty amazing, with a dazzling array of Canon equipment on show, but I’ll try to stick to the task (printer) in hand.

Most of the action was based around this PRO-4600 printer, which is a much bigger, freestanding printer than even the largest desktop printers. There’s also a smaller PRO-2600 which is essentially identical except that it takes rolls of paper up to 24 inches wide, instead of the PRO-4600’s 44-inch rolls. There’s also a super-sized imagePROGRAF PRO-6600 60-inch printer but let’s not get too carried away.

What with the PRO-4600 being a roll-fed printer, I’ll start with the roll feeder itself. The whole process can seem a bit daunting to the uninitiated but, as it turns out, feeding paper from rolls instead of cut sheets is quick and easy. You can load rolls with 2-inch or 3-inch cores, and the paper is automatically fed into the printer. Not only that, but the transport system includes automatic de-skewing, so you can be confident that everything’s going to line up properly and stay on the straight and (not so) narrow, even if you’re creating really long prints. That sidesteps any worries about having to line up the paper manually and falling short of the level of precision required.

Not only does the paper get fed automatically, but the printer can also work out what paper stock you’re loading all by itself. That’s thanks to built-in sensors that can measure the exact thickness of the paper as well as its reflectivity. The printer can then identify exactly what make and type of paper you’re using, and pop up its findings on the color touchscreen display. All you need to do is press ‘OK’ and get on with the job in hand, which is a whole lot quicker and easier than trawling through lists of paper types and sizes, in search of the right one to enter manually.

It’s possible to feed cut sheets of paper into the printer but rolls are generally more ideal. In fact, the only thing better than a roll feeder is two roll feeders. With that in mind, you can buy a secondary roll feeder as an optional extra, and it’s rather clever. As well as enabling you to have two of your favorite paper types on hand and ready to go, you can alternatively use the secondary feeder as a take-up spool. For really long prints, this gives a handy option of rolling them up as they’re created, instead of sending them to the output basket and having to roll them up yourself afterwards.

For most jobs, it makes sense to send prints to the output basket, which is adjustable. Typically, you’d stash it away underneath so that it doesn’t take up any additional floorspace. Alternatively, you can hang the basket off the front of the printer, which makes it easier to lift out your prints without stooping. In between paper input and output, the paper transport system is incredibly precise, utilizing a vacuum bed to ensure that the paper stays completely flat and on track. I’ve seen something similar in the PRO-1100, while both of the smaller PRO-1100 and PRO-310 have a similar automatic de-skew facility.

If you’re of a mind to keep a check on progress, or you just like the thrill of seeing your print materialize, you can view the paper as it’s passing beneath the print head. An upgrade over the previous version of the printer is a new bank of LEDs that illuminates your print as it’s being made. It’s another nice touch that gives the reassurance of being able to easily satisfy yourself that everything’s going exactly to plan.

The marriage of inkjet printing is about the coming together of ink and paper. The ink set is actually exactly the same as in the imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 desktop printer, which is brilliant news. These next-generation Lucia Pro II inks represent a significant upgrade. First up, they boost the density and detail in blacks, dark blues and really deep shadows. Secondly, they include wax in their formulation that makes prints much more robust and resistant to abrasion and scratches. Fade-resistance from exposure to indoor lighting also gets bumped up from 60 years to 200 years, making prints much more long-lasting if they’re going to be hung on a wall instead of being boxed for archiving. That’s a really important point if you’re making prints to sell to clients, that they’ll want to keep for a lifetime and maybe pass on to future generations.

The line-up includes 12 cartridges but only 11 are actual ‘inks’. One cartridge contains a ‘chroma optimizer’ which helps to deliver an even finish with uniform reflectivity and minimized bronzing when printing on glossy paper. That’s always a big challenge with pigment-based rather than dye-based inks. Better still, you can choose how the chroma optimizer is applied, either coating the whole print or enabling the printer to automatically select when and where to use it, to best effect, or to not use it at all.

The pigment ink set consists of matte black, photo black, grey, photo grey, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow, red and blue. The matte black and photo black inks are for use with matte and glossy papers respectively, while different shades of grey help to enable a huge tonal range for black & white printing as well as further extending the color space or gamut for color printing.

The 12 cartridges slot into place towards the top rear of the printer. Six cartridges go on the left side, the other six on the right. Again, enabling you to keep a quick and easy visual check on proceedings, the top covers are translucent and there’s an LED status lamp for each cartridge, which you can clearly see from a distance.

As I’ve mentioned, each of the 12 ink cartridges are available in three different sizes. They’ve basically small (160ml), medium (330ml) and large (700ml). As I’d expect, the cost per milliliter is slightly less as you go up in capacity. The more important aspect, to my mind, is that you can buy small cartridges of inks that you don’t use as much, making the printer more cost effective to run.

There’s no getting away from the fact that large-format prints use a lot of ink. There’s therefore a danger of running on empty, which can actually be pretty disastrous. If any of the channels in the print head run dry, not only will you get a ruined print, but it can also destroy the print head, as it relies on the ink for liquid-cooling. I really like that the PRO-2600’s ink cartridges are ‘hot-swappable’. The ink from the cartridge feeds a tank that lies beneath. If you get a notification that a cartridge runs dry while you’re actually making a print, the underlying tank continues to deliver ink to the print head and you can replace the cartridge with a new one, while ongoing printing is uninterrupted.

For the ultimate in look and feel, professional and enthusiast photographers typically have their particular favorites when it comes to paper. There’s direct support for fine art media from top manufacturers like Hahnemühle, Canson and Awagami. Not only does the huge range of media from Canon and other brands give plenty of choice, but it’s supported by particularly good software. Top of the list is Canon’s Professional Print & Layout, which is available as a free download. It works as a standalone program or as a plug-in for Canon Digital Photo Professional and Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, suiting different workflow preferences. The software enables both soft proofing and hard proofing for different paper types, as well as giving you the option of applying individual adjustments to separate images that will be printed on the same page.

One of my favorite features of Professional Print & Layout is that you can create ‘pattern prints’, which include small versions of an image that have subtly different treatments of color rendition and tone. You can then pick your favorite version for making the final print. You can also save the settings for specific print jobs, in case you want to use them again, guaranteeing consistency in the results. And if you’re selling prints or just want to keep a tab on costs, the software can calculate the price of each print, based on the ink and paper used.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4600: Performance

The performance of any printer directly equates to print quality, and it’s right here that the PRO-4600 does so amazingly well. The 12-ink system delivers an incredible color space or gamut, with sumptuous color rendition and epic tonal range. Mono prints look simply magnificent and in both cases, the printer does an exceptional job of reproducing really dense blacks and the deepest of shadows with immense clarity and detail. And the sheer amount of detail revealed in prints has to be seen to be believed, especially if you’re only used to seeing your photos on-screen or as small-format prints.

To ensure the utmost in consistency and that performance stays at its best, there’s a ‘color calibration’ option that you can run automatically from the Maintenance section of the onboard touchscreen menu, or from your computer’s printer driver. Helping to ease the load on your computer, the printer features its own 500GB hard drive. I think it’s also neat that you can switch your computer off altogether and print direct from a flash drive, as the printer has an easily accessible USB port for this exact option, conveniently close to the color touchscreen. For general connectivity, there’s a regular printer USB socket, plus Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

It’s a bit pointless getting too hung up on print speed, as I find it’s best to let pigment-based inks fully dry for 24 hours before doing anything with them. Even so, the PRO-4600 is pretty quick. Typical times for an A0 (33.1x46.8-inch) photo print on coated media are a bit under 3 minutes in standard quality mode, and about 5.5 minutes in high quality mode. For glossy paper, it’s just over 5.5 minutes in standard mode and nearly 9 minutes in the high quality setting.

In practical terms, an aspect of performance that can be frustrating with cut-sheet photo printers is that the size of the paper might well not match the aspect ratio of your actual image. The roll-fed approach puts that right, enabling you to create bordered or borderless prints with exactly the right length to match the width of the paper. And that goes for freeform panoramic images as well. There’s also no need to worry about having to physically cut your print to length either, as the printer features its own cutter that takes care of everything automatically.

A critical factor in performance is the reliability of a printer. Nozzles in the print head that get clogged up can be a huge frustration, resulting in feint lines that ruin a print. And when you’re talking large-format prints, that’s a lot of waste in terms of money, time and effort. Then there’s the not inconsiderable cost of wasting ink if you have to keep flushing nozzles in the print head to unblock them. I’ve found Canon printers to be much more reliable than various other makes over the years. Canon's ‘FINE’ print heads are particularly resistant to the problem, as there’s significant redundancy in the number of nozzles and the technology can automatically detect blocked nozzles in real time and switch to adjacent nozzles if and when necessary.

Sample prints

By way of example, the following gallery contains a few prints that I actually made with the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 on Canon Premium Fine Art Smooth paper. I’ve included them here as the complete set of 12 Lucia PRO II inks is identical in both printers, as is the resolution of the print head. The images shown are photos of the finished prints, which themselves were created from digital photos taken on the Dorset coast in the UK, under very moody and dramatic skies. There are some really deep blues and blacks in the images and the sky in one photo in particular is almost completely black. They’re therefore a good test of the printer’s ability to recreate really dense blacks, dark blues and ultra-deep shadows, a major plus point of the new inks.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4600: Verdict

To use a well-worn adage, seeing is believing. It’s very hard to put into words the emotional tug of seeing your photos printed in the scale and quality that the PRO-4600 can deliver. If you can get past the sheer size and cost of the printer, this Canon rewards you with the most sumptuous image quality for both color and black & white photos, on both glossy and matte paper as well as a rich and diverse range of fine art media. If you’ve ever wondered exactly what 45+ megapixels in a camera is really good for, this printer will give you the answer in spades.

Alternatives

In a nutshell, the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 aims to be not just one of the best large-format desktop photo printers on the market, but to take the ultimate accolade. It has a tough act to follow, as the PRO-1000 has long been adored by professional photographers who want full control over the process of printing. Not only that, but they also want to create prints of the very finest quality for exhibitions and portfolios, as well as being able to sell perfect prints to clients in the knowledge that they’ll last a lifetime.

So yes, the PRO-1000 was and is an epic printer. But in some ways it was slightly overshadowed by the newer and smaller A3+ / 13in imagePROGRAF PRO-300, which ran on reformulated inks (albeit ‘only’ 10 of them) and delivered even deeper and more detailed blacks for the ultimate in drama. The A2+ / 17in PRO-1100 fights back with a whole new range of 12 inks, to retake the title.

Canon ImagePrograf Pro: Specifications

Canon ImagePrograf Pro-1100: Price

Despite being a desktop printer, the Pro-1100 can output supersized A2+ / 43x64cm / 17x25in prints and panoramic output up to 3.27m / 10.75ft in length. That’s a whole lot bigger than the Canon ImagePrograf Pro-300 A3+ / 13in printer, which has just been replaced by the Pro-310. The Pro-1100 costs $1,299 / £1,099 / AU$1,799 to buy, which is getting on for about 40 per cent more than the smaller imagePROGRAF printers.

Even so, I think the Pro-1100 is great value, considering that most pro photographers would spend much more than this on a single lens. As we all know, however, the purchase price of an inkjet printer is just the start of the story and there’s often a sting in the tail when it comes to running costs.

It’s here that the Pro-1100 really wins out against the smaller printers, with 80ml cartridges instead of 14ml cartridges. Drop for drop, ink for the Pro-1100 only costs about half as much, and despite the bigger maximum print size, you’ll need to replace cartridges much less often. Indeed, the cartridges have a greater capacity than many of Canon’s ink bottles for its ‘MegaTank’ printers.

Canon ImagePrograf Pro-1100: Design & Handling

For such a large-format printer, it’s quite easy to find space for the Pro-1100. It has fairly modest dimensions of 723x435x285mm / 28.5x17.1x11.2in although naturally you’ll need to factor in the extending output tray when the printer is actually in use. Regular photo paper is fed in through the top-mounting paper tray, which takes up very little extra space when extended.

However, the flat rear feeder is required for thick, specialist media, which adds considerably to the space required at the back of the printer. The Pro-1100 is certainly no lightweight, tipping the scales at 32.4kg / 71.4lb. That’s down to really solid and suitably professional-grade build quality, which feels of industrial proportions. It even features the legendary red stripe that you’ll find on Canon’s top L-series lenses.

Let’s talk ink. Dye-based inks use in the likes of the Canon Pixma Pro-200 are generally preferred for printing on glossy paper. That’s because the relatively small molecules of the ink are fully absorbed beneath the shiny outer layer of the photo paper. Advantages include uniform reflectivity with no ‘bronzing’ and prints are quicker to output as well as being touch-dry as soon as they land in the output tray.

For matte and fine-art media, however, pigment-based inks enable a much higher-quality finish, are more robust and more resistant to fading. Pigment-based inks are therefore generally the professional’s choice, and the Pro-1100 has no less than 12 of them.

I say 12 inks but in reality there are 12 cartridges but only 11 actual ‘inks’. One cartridge contains a ‘chroma optimizer’ which helps to deliver a uniform finish with uniform reflectivity and no bronzing when printing on glossy paper. It’s a killer feature as it adds much greater versatility when you want to print on different kinds of photo paper and fine-art media.

Previous ImagePrograf printers have featured chroma optimizer but the Pro-1100 brings new flexibility in when and how you use it, giving you even greater control. The pigment ink set consists of matte black, photo black, grey, photo grey, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow, red and blue.

The matte black and photo black inks are for use with matte and glossy papers respectively, while different shades of grey help to enable a mighty tonal range for black & white printing as well as further extending the color space or gamut for color printing.

I’m going to stick with the inks for a little longer – after all, it’s one of the most important facets of any inkjet printer. Compared with the Lucia Pro inks of the Pro-1000, the inks for the Pro-1100 have been significantly upgraded. As well as boosting the density and detail in blacks and really dark shadows, the new inks include wax in their formulation that makes prints more robust and resistant to abrasion.

Fade-resistance from exposure to indoor light also gets bumped up from 60 years to 200 years, making prints much more long-lasting if they’re going to be hung on a wall instead of boxed for archiving.

As with the previous model, the Pro-1100 enables borderless printing on matte and fine-art media, instead of just on glossy photo paper. That’s partly thanks to a very high-precision paper transport system that includes an anti-skew feeding mechanism to ensure the paper is absolutely straight, plus a vacuum bed to keep the paper secure while in transit. Borderless isn’t guaranteed for all matte papers but worked fine in my tests with various Canon matte photo paper and fine-art media.

And the printer isn’t just designed to play nice with own-brand Canon media. Professional and enthusiast photographers who get into printing will often discover specific fine-art papers that they really like. A bonus as far as I’m concerned is that the Pro-1100 directly supports wide-ranging media from top-quality paper manufacturers like Hahnemühle, Canson and Awagami.

Helping to fine-tune the look of your photo output to your exact requirements, Canon’s Professional Print & Layout software is available as a free download. It works as a standalone app or as a plug-in for Canon Digital Photo Professional and Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

This enables both soft proofing and hard proofing for different paper types, as well as giving you the option of applying individual adjustments to separate images that will be printed on the same page. It’s a real help in creating exactly the right look and feel that you want for your photo prints.

As for connectivity, the printer has built-in high-speed USB and wired Ethernet ports. There’s also Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, and compatibility with Canon Print app for iOS and Android, plus Cloud Link, Apple AirPrint and Mopria for Android. Supported computer operating systems include Windows 7 SP1 and later, Mac OS 11.7.10 and later, and Chrome OS.

Supported paper sizes include A5, A4, A3, A3+, A2, B5, B4, B3, Letter, Legal, 89x127mm (L), 210x594mm, KG / 4x6in (10x15cm), 2L / 5x7in (13x18cm), 7x10in (18x25cm), 8x10in (20x25cm), 9x13in (23x33cm), 10x12in (25x30cm), 11x14in, 11x17in (28x43cm), 12x12in (30x30cm), 13x19in (Super B), 14x17in (36x43cm), 16x20in, 17x22in (43x56cm) and 17x25in (43x64cm).

Borderless printing is available for paper sizes including A4, A3, A3+, A2, B4, B3, Letter, Legal, 210x594mm, 8x10in (20x25cm), 10x12in (25x30cm), 13x19in (Super B), 14x17in (36x43cm), 17x22in (43x56cm) and 17x25in (43x64cm). That ought to cover it!

Canon ImagePrograf Pro-1100: Performance

So just how good is the print quality? In a word, stunning. My colleague James Artaius and I have both been able create comparison prints with the Pro-1100 and previous Pro-1000 model, as well as the directly competing Epson SureColor SC-P900 A2 large-format printer.

Prints from the PRO-1000 were far more impressive, with a massive enhancement in the depth and detail of blacks and really dark shadows, more truly representing the digital photo files.

The black density is enhanced by increasing the surface coverage, and more especially by the low-reflectance formula of the new pigment inks. The improvements are obvious, not only for black & white photo printing, but for color prints as well. A new color-matching table greatly improves color reproduction, especially for dark blues.

For further comparison, James printed a shot of a model wearing a dark blue dress, standing against a dark backdrop, using the Pro-1100, Pro-1000 and SC P900. Again, the Pro-1100 was a clear winner.

For me, reliability is a big factor in the performance of any printer. I’ve had problems with other makes of printer, including the directly competing Epson SureColor SC-P900 A2 large-format printer, with nozzles in the print head becoming clogged.

That results in feint lines across the surface of the print. Espceially for large-format printing, that equates to a lot of time, money and effort wasted when the finished product is only fit for the bin, and you also have to waste further ink when cleaning the print heads.

By contrast, I’ve hardly ever had a problem with Canon printers. Canon's ‘FINE’ print heads are particularly resistant to getting blocked, as there’s significant redundancy in the number of nozzles and the technology can automatically detect blocked nozzles in real time and switch to adjacent ones if necessary.

The Pro-1100 can output A2 prints in as little as 3 mins 40 secs on Canon Photo Paper Pro Luster (LU-101) and about 6 mins on Canon Pro Platinum Glossy Photo Paper (PT-101). In my tests, borderless prints took a little longer. Borderless A2 glossy prints took 7 mins 20 secs in high quality mode, and 11 mins in highest quality mode.

A3 borderless prints on matte paper took 4 mins in high quality mode and 5 mins 23 secs in highest quality mode. Even so, that’s pretty quick for a pigment-based printer that delivers this kind of quality and archival life for prints.

Canon ImagePrograf Pro-1100: Sample Images

The following gallery contains a few prints that I made with the Pro-1100 on Canon Premium Fine Art Smooth paper. This paper has a matte finish but I created borderless prints anyway, which is an additional challenge for the accuracy of the printer. The images shown are photos of the finished prints, which themselves are prints of digital photos taken on the Dorset coast in the UK, under very moody and dramatic skies.

There are some really deep blues and blacks in the images and the sky in one photo in particular is almost completely black. On a personal note, I’d like to add that I got extremely cold and completely drenched in the ensuing hailstorm, just after taking the shot. Anyway, the PRO-1100 does these photos justice like no other printer I’ve used.

Canon ImagePrograf Pro-1100: Verdict

I’d heard great things about the Canon ImagePrograf Pro-1100, not only from Canon’s technical gurus but from professional photographers who have bought it for creating gallery prints and for selling prints to customers. I was fully prepared for it to be excellent, but the printer still took my by surprise. It really does take quality up to a whole new level, compared with every other desktop photo printer that I’ve used in the past.

With that in mind, I think it’s a bargain at the price and its high-capacity cartridges make it relatively cost-effective to run. All in all, it’s the pick of the crop for large-format printers if you want to create prints up to A2+ / 43x64cm / 17x25in, or in size, or super-sized 3.27m / 10.75ft panoramic prints and banners.

Alternatives

Typical of Canon’s Maxify ‘MegaTank’ printers, this one claims to save you around 90 per cent on the total cost of ownership, compared with leading laser and inkjet printers. That’s thanks to it running on relatively large tanks that are replenished by bottles of ink, rather than expensive, small-capacity ink cartridges.

Naturally, from a business perspective, there are also savings in time, effort and money if you only have to buy bottles of ink occasionally instead of ordering cartridges on a frequent basis. Indeed, a single set of bottles (as supplied with the printer) should see you through 6,000 mono and 14,000 color document pages, and up to 9,000 mono and 21,000 color in Economy print mode.

With its reasonably compact build, this Canon aims to be one of the best inkjet printers for the small office or home office, as well as for retail outlets, schools and more besides.

Canon Maxify GX6120 / GX6150: Specifications

Canon Maxify GX6120 / GX6150: Price

This printer is sold as the Maxify GX6120 in the USA, and as the GX6150 in Europe, and as the Canon Maxify GX6160 in Australia. As I’m tapping in the numbers, purchase prices vary considerably at different retailers, from $449 to $699 in the USA and from £566 to £645 in the UK, so it pays to shop around. Taking the long view, cheap running costs dramatically reduce the total cost of ownership for high-volume printing, with long-lasting ink bottles costing around $27 / £14 for black and $32 / £20 for each of the three cyan, magenta and yellow colors.

Canon Maxify GX6120 / GX6150: Design & Handling

Good for business, the Maxify GX6120 / GX6150 is designed to pack high-volume printing into a small build. Canon says it should fit right in with real estate agencies, retail outlets, private clinics, educational establishments and a host of other environments. With hybrid working still being on the agenda, I can see it finding a place in the busy home office as well.

The fundamental design principle is that ink tanks are replenished by bottles, banishing pricey and frequently replaced ink cartridges. The flipside is that if you only print documents occasionally, a cartridge printer with a much lower initial purchase price will be a better fit financially, while a printer that runs on dye-based inks rather than this one’s pigment-based inks will be far superior for creating glossy photos.

Back with my business hat on, I feel that this printer has all the same advantages as the preceding Canon Maxify GX 6020 / GX6050. In fact, the two generations look pretty much identical, not only physically but also in the vast majority of features and specifications. The main upgrade reflects changes in working practices, with many of us now working across different locations and in shared office spaces. With that in mind, wireless connectivity has been enhanced for greater stability, and security has been upgraded to include TLS1.3 and WPA3-Personal protocols.

I like that despite being a high-speed, high-volume printer, the Canon is compact and lightweight. It measures 399x410x254mm (16.2x15.8x10") with the trays retracted and weighs in at 11.6kg / 25.6lb. Ensuring its suitability for the small office or home office, it definitely fits into small spaces. I also like that it has two full-sized paper input options. The main one is an internal cassette that slots into the front of the printer and holds up to 250 sheets of paper. The upright rear tray holds 150 sheets of plain paper, but it makes sense to me to use this for specialist media as and when needed, like letterheaded paper or photo paper. You can also use the rear tray for long media, creating banners up to 1.2m / 47” in length.

There’s yet another input tray, in the shape of a 50-sheet ADF (Auto Document Feeder) up on top of the printer. This one is for the built-in scanner, which has an impressive maximum optical resolution of 1200x1200dpi (dots per inch). Unlike in the more expensive Maxify GX7120 / GX7150, it’s only a simplex rather than a duplex scanner, so if you want to scan double-sided documents you’ll need to do it manually.

Naturally, the built-in scanner brings standalone options to the table, or whatever else you’re standing the printer on. Typically, you can use the printer for copying as well as scanning but there’s no direct fax facility. Standalone functions are neatly brought together by a 2.7-inch color touchscreen display, which is logical and intuitive in use.

As I’ve mentioned, enhanced connectivity and security are the main upgrades from the previous model. Connectivity options include wired LAN and dual-band 2.4GHz / 5GHz Wireless LAN, with a comprehensive range of protocols and security options. You can scan and print to or from the cloud, with Cloud Link, Canon Print Service Plugin (Android), Apple AirPrint, Wireless Direct Connection and Mopria (Android). There’s also support for Amazon Alexa and mobile apps including Canon PRINT Inkjet/SELPHY and Easy-PhotoPrint Editor. All in all, it takes far-flung connections with remote co-workers and clients fully onboard, and you can also scan directly to email or network folders, or to a USB stick thanks to a USB socket on the front panel

Canon Maxify GX6120 / GX6150: Performance

The maximum print resolution of 600x1200dpi enables crisp and sharp documents in both mono and color printing, right down to the smallest small print and the likes of barcodes and QR codes. Black text is deep and strong, while color rendition is good on plain paper. Thanks to the formulation of the pigment-based inks, prints are durable and resistant to smudging, not only for the likes of taking envelopes to the postbox in a rain shower, but also for using highlighters to make mark-ups. There’s also less bleed through on plain paper for double-sided printing, compared with many dye-based inkjet printers that I’ve used, and it’s useful that the printer has an auto duplex facility for printing, if not for scanning.

While the pigment-based inks are a top choice for document printing on plain paper, they’re less than ideal for photo printing on glossy paper. As expected, the relatively large molecules of pigment don’t fully sink through the top shiny layer of glossy photo paper, like dye-based inks do, and the results look second-best. Even so, and also taking into account the relatively limited 4-ink line-up for photo printing, the printer does a passable job of photo printing. There’s certainly wide-ranging support in the printer driver for paper types including gloss, semi-gloss and matte photo papers as well as re-stickable photo paper, magnetic photo paper and fabric iron-on transfers.

In terms of print speeds, the printer lived up to its claims in my tests. Mono text documents print at up to 24ipm (impressions per minute) and it’s 15.5ipm for color. That’s pretty impressive, as is the first page print out time of 5.5 seconds for mono and 7 seconds for color, when the printer is switched on and fully ready to roll. Scanning speeds are up to 22.2ipm for mono and 16.9ipm for color, with copying available at speeds of up to 22.2ipm for mono and 12.2ipm for color. Further copying options include manual duplex, 2-on-1 and 4-on1 copies, collated copies with the ADF, ID card copying, and reduction/enlargements with a range of 25-400 per cent. All in all, the Canon is a top performer.

Canon Maxify GX6120 / GX6150: Verdict

I feel that the Canon Maxify GX6120 / GX6150 is an easy printer to live with. It’s simple to set up yet offers a wide range of connectivity, printing, scanning and copying options, all brought together by an intuitive color touchscreen. It’s fast and highly capable, delivering excellent print quality for both mono and color documents. Sure, it doesn’t have a direct fax facility nor auto duplex scanning (only printing) but these aren’t features that I really need anyway. It’s pretty pricey to buy but the cheap running costs means I’ll break even sooner rather than later, and it saves the chore of frequent ink cartridge replacements. For the busy home or small office, this printer is a top contender.

Alternatives

I feel that this Canon printer has a bit of an identity crisis. As a rough generalization, I’d say that Canon’s Pixma line-up of printers is mostly aimed at home users, whereas its Maxify range is geared for business use in the office. This mobile model is a minor refresh of the Canon Pixma TR150, but it seems like the new edition can’t quite decide whether it’s for business or pleasure, or both. It’s badged as the Pixma TR160 in the USA and Australia and as the Maxify BX110 in Europe. Either way, similarities between this and the previous model vastly outweigh the differences.

Canon Pixma TR160 / Maxify BX110: Specifications

Canon Pixma TR160 / Maxify BX110: Price

The previous Canon Pixma TR150 was widely available in two different options, with or without a rechargeable Li-ion battery. The latter makes more sense to me. After all, if you’re going to buy a mobile printer, you’ll generally want to use it anywhere, rather than just in places with a readily available mains electrical outlet. Either way, you could buy the bare-bones TR150 on its own for $180 / £200 / AU$396, or spend $250 / £260 / AU$487 for the complete package with an included Li-ion rechargeable battery. It’s early days for the new model at the time of writing this review but so far, the Pixma TR160 is only available in the USA for $249 without the battery pack, which costs an additional $99 to buy separately. That’s quite a price hike over the older model. In Europe, you can only buy the new Maxify BX110 complete with battery pack for £259, which is pretty much the same price as previously. No model name nor price has yet been announced in Australia. As I say, it’s early days and I guess things will all work out in the wash.

Canon Pixma TR160 / Maxify BX110: Design & Handling

This printer definitely has a space-saving design. With the paper input and output trays retracted, it’s only 66mm or 2.6 inches tall, and easy to stash away in a daily bag or a desk drawer for safe keeping. Typical of inkjet printers large, small and in-between, it takes up more room when the input and output trays are extended for use, but that’s only to be expected. You also need to factor in the power supply, which is a separate unit rather than being built into the printer. Similarly, there’s no internal paper feed cassette, so you need to carry a supply of paper as well as the power supply separately when you’re on the go.

Depending on your geographical region and preference, you might be buying the Li-ion battery separately or it might be bundled with the printer. Either way, this again adds a little to the size and weight, as it clips into a cradle that then screws onto the back of the printer. There are two options for charging the battery. Either you can simply plug it into the supplied mains adapter that you use for mains-powered printing, or you can charge it via the printer’s USB-C socket, using your own USB charger.

Stamina is pretty impressive for a lightweight battery pack. A full charge will power the printer through 330 full-sized pages. If it’s fully exhausted, you can recharge the battery to full capacity in 2 hours 20 minutes using the mains adaptor, or in about 5 hours using a 1.5A USB charger. To help you keep tabs on the progress, there’s a row of 4 LED lamps that light up consecutively to show the amount of charge remaining or the progress of charging.

A lot of people expect touchscreens on all sorts of gadgets these days, including inkjet printers. That would be a tall (or rather large) order for a printer as small as this one and sure enough, there’s a 1.44-inch mono OLED screen instead. Even so, it works really well with its supporting cast of pushbuttons, to enable intuitive control.

Typical of Canon printers, I found this one quick and easy to set up. After removing all the packing pieces and transit tape, all you need to do is to pop in the print head and the two cartridges. After that, there’s an option to run the print head alignment routine, which is well worth doing to ensure optimum accuracy, and it only takes about 5 minutes.

In case you hadn’t guessed already, the printer runs on two cartridges rather than having separate cartridges for each and every color of ink. In this case, the dynamic duo consist of a pigment-based black cartridge and a dye-based tri-color cyan, magenta and yellow cartridge. Canon calls it a ‘hybrid’ ink system and it’s one that I often prefer. The pigment-based black delivers crisp, smudge-resistant mono text on plain paper, while the dye-based inks enable a smooth photo finish on glossy and luster photo paper.

Like the preceding TR150, the new model is compatible USB printing as well as with Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct (dual band, 2.4GHz & 5GHz) the latter being useful when you’re not within range of a router. However, there’s still no Bluetooth nor NFC connectivity. The main upgrades over the previous model are in connectivity and security. As such, Canon says that the wireless connectivity is more stable than before, while multi-level protection now includes WPA3 Wi-Fi security and TLS1.3 encryption support. Well, you can’t be too careful. Further connectivity includes Cloud Link (print only), Apple AirPrint, Canon Print Service Plugin (Android) and Mopria (Android). Mobile apps for using the printer from your phone include the Canon PRINT app and the Easy-PhotoPrint Editor app.

Self-contained features within the printer itself include the ability to store up to 5 different templates, like business forms and so on, so that you can print them at the touch of a button without being connected to the cloud or other devices either wired or wirelessly, like your laptop or mobile phone.

Canon Pixma TR160 / Maxify BX110: Performance

Smaller doesn’t mean faster and mobile printers aren’t renowned for being the quickest. Even so, this one is rated at 9ipm and 5.5ipm (impressions per minute) for mono and color pages respectively. I certainly wouldn’t call that slow. ‘First page’ output in my tests worked out to 7 seconds for a full A4/letter page of mono text, and 20 seconds for a page of mixed text and color graphics. Switching from documents to photos, a 6x4-inch borderless glossy print took 51 seconds, and it was 2 minutes 11 seconds for a full A4 borderless color photo. Sure, this printer isn’t first past the checkered flag but it won’t be the last either.

The pigment-based black ink lives up to expectations, delivering crisp yet solid mono text that’s resistant to smudging. Colored inks aren’t so smudge-resistant on plain paper but I’m glad they’re dye-based. This enables the colored inks to pass completely through the protective outer layer of glossy and luster photo papers, so the results are smooth and uniform, with no bronzing or ‘gloss-differential’. The pigment-based black ink is only for plain paper, so color photos have no black ink and rely solely on a mix of cyan, magenta and yellow to produce ‘composite black’ for photos. With that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised by the richness and detail in dark shadowy areas of glossy photo prints, and by the lifelike color rendition.

I generally lump running costs into the performance factors of a inkjet printer. After all, if ink costs are too expensive, I’m likely to resist creating prints that I’d otherwise want to. The cartridges for this printer last for about 200 mono and 260 color A4/letter pages. Alternatively, the tri-color cartridge has sufficient stamina for around 100 6x4 photos. The replacement cost of cartridges is competitive, at around $20 / £19 for the black cartridge, and $18 / £15.50 for the tri-color cartridge. For 6x4-inch photos, including sheets of high-quality Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, you’re looking at around US 40c / UK 40p, which I think is pretty reasonable.

Canon Pixma TR160 / Maxify BX110: Verdict

I’m surprised that this printer is badged as the Canon Pixma TR160 in the USA and as the Maxify BX110 in Europe. But then again, perhaps it really does have a split personality, suiting it to both business and personal use. I like that it’s sufficiently small and lightweight to take on life’s journeys, and that it feels solid and well-made. I’m impressed with the speed and quality of prints for both mono and color documents, as well as for photo printing. I also think that the purchase price and running costs are reasonable, although it’s a shame that the battery isn’t currently bundled in the USA edition, as it works out being a pricey extra. Ultimately, it’s a good buy but it’s not worth upgrading to the new model if you already have the previous edition.

Alternatives

We all know about those inkjet printers that are incredibly cheap to buy and seem unfeasibly good value. You pay your money, take it home and install it, only to find that the ‘setup’ cartridges run out a few days later and a full set of regular replacement cartridges costs as much as (if not more than) the printer itself. Suddenly they don’t seem such good value after all. The ET-8500 takes the opposite approach. The initial purchase cost is a lot more expensive but it has ‘EcoTanks’ instead of cartridges, which are replenished by bottles of ink. By sharp contrast, the ET-8500 ships with enough ink for creating 2,300 6x4-inch color photos. That can make it much cheaper to run in the long term and can save you bigtime on the ‘total cost of ownership’, if you print in reasonably high volumes. It takes a worthy place as one of the best Epson printers, in a line-up that includes some of the best inkjet printers, the best portable printers, and the best photo printers.

Epson EcoTank ET-8500: Specifications

Epson EcoTank ET-8500: Price

There’s no getting around the fact that the ET-8500 is expensive to buy, especially for an A4/8.5-inch rather than large-format printer. It retails at $650 / £650 / AU$999, which is very pricey even for an EcoTank printer, compared with the likes of the more photo-friendly Canon Pixma G620/G650/G660. The competing Canon is similarly bottle-fed, runs on six dye-based inks and sells for around $249 / £259 / AU$599. Sure, the dramatically reduced running costs of the ET-8500 can save you a lot of money in the long term, but you’ll need to print a lot of documents and photos to see those savings. Indeed, there’s an upscaled A3+/13-inch version of the ET-8500, which goes by the name of the Epson EcoTank ET-8550 and sells for $750 / £780 / AU$1,149. For my money, the relatively modest extra cost of the ET-8550 makes it rather better value, with ability of creating 13x19-inch and large-scale panoramic prints.

Epson EcoTank ET-8500: Design & Handling

Nobody really wants to buy and run two different printers, one for documents and one for photos. The ET-8500 aims to do a good job of both, combining a pigment-based black ink for crisp, smudge-resistant text on plain paper, along with five dye-based inks for color output and more especially for photo printing on glossy and luster papers. The five inks used for photo printing are a slightly curious mix, comprising photo black, cyan, magenta, yellow and grey. We’ll see how that translates into photo fidelity later on, when I get to ‘performance’. For now, let’s just say that the ET-8500 aims to strike a good compromise between document and color printing in one package.

Another plus point in terms of versatility is that the ET-8500 has particularly good media handling capabilities. There are two internal paper input cassettes that slot into the front, one nominally for full-sized plain paper, the other typically for smaller photo paper in sizes like 6x4-inch and 7x5-inch.

The smaller photo paper tray is motorized and glides into place as and when needed. As usual with front feeders, photo paper is inserted face down and is flipped over during the printing process. I’m not a big fan of that, especially for larger A4/8.5-inch photo paper stock. With that in mind, there’s an upright tray at the rear that you can use for any size of photo paper up to A4/8.5-inch, or other specialist media like letterheaded paper. The printer accepts paper weights in the range of 64-90gsm for plain paper, and 102-300gsm for photo paper.

And there’s more. An additional flat input feeder at the rear can accommodate paper and board up to and including 1.3mm thick, while also enabling panoramic printing up to 2m in length. And if you’re old-school, there’s even an extra tray at the front for printing on white-faced CDs and DVDs. Suffice it to say that media types are generously catered to.

The versatility doesn’t end there. Typical of many home/office printers these days, the ET-8500 is a multi-function device. As such it includes a built-in color scanner with a platen size of 8.5x14” and a high optical resolution of 1200x4800dpi. There’s no ADF (Auto Document Feeder) but that at least helps to keep the overall height of the printer to a very manageable 162mm (6.4”) with the rear upright tray retracted.

There’s a good range of connectivity, including Hi-speed USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct and Ethernet. A PictBridge port and an SD/HC/XC card slot are also built into the front, for direct printing from digital cameras and memory cards. The interface for standalone printing, as well as for scanning and copying, is handled by a large 10.9cm / 4.3” color touchscreen. Usefully, this is mounted on a hinge so you can angle it upwards for comfortable viewing and prodding. Going further, connectivity extends to remote use from smart devices via Epson’s printing app, and integration with various cloud-based services.

Let’s dig a little deeper into those running costs. I’m reviewing the ET-8500 hot on the heels of the Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000, which is a more conventional cartridge-based photo printer. Despite being a large-format A3+/13x19” printer (albeit without a scanner), the XP-15000 only costs $400 / £330 / AU$549. In some regions, that’s only about half the price of the ET-8500. However, the XP-15000’s cartridge-based ink delivery works out at about 10 times the price of the ET-8500’s bottled ink.

Ink actually works out at just $0.23 / £0.29 / AU$0.50 per milliliter for the ET-8500, compared with a much pricier $2.25 / £2.23 / AU$4.07 per milliliter for the XP-15000. So not only is the ink a tenth of the price, but you also get enough ink supplied with the ET-8500 for about 2,300 6x4” color photos. You also need to factor in that a full set of cartridges for the XP-15000 costs around $135 / £134 / AU$244, whereas a much longer-lasting set of ink bottles for the ET-8500 costs about $20 / £16 / AU$35. Ultimately, if you print documents and photos on a frequent basis, the ET-8500 should pay for itself sooner rather than later.

The gallery below shows the three main screens for the printer driver, namely Main, More Options and Maintenance. Settings and functions are easy to get at and the interface is typically intuitive for an Epson printer.

Epson EcoTank ET-8500: Performance

The ET-8500 is pretty nippy at printing in standard quality modes. For document printing, it’s rated at 16ppm for mono and 12ppm for color, rising to 32ppm for both in the fastest draft mode setting. Speed and ease are enhanced by an auto duplex facility, for double-sided printing. Epson also claims a print speed of 25 seconds for a 6x4-inch color photo.

In my tests, I found the ET-8500 delivered a single (first page output) speed of 5 seconds for a mono text page, and 9 seconds for a mixed text and graphics color DTP page. It also took 23s to print a borderless 6x4-inch photo. All of these speeds are pretty quick, using standard quality modes for each. The speed takes quite a knock if you switch to the high quality setting, stretching to 1m 22s for a borderless 6x4” color photo. Printing a full A4 borderless color photo in normal and best quality settings took me 59 seconds and 3m 56s respectively.

Mono text is a rich, crisp, deep black and it’s smudge-resistant. Color graphics also look nice and bold. My feelings are a little more mixed about photo quality. Color rendition is good on the whole, and the printer is capable of delivering bright, vibrant color photos. If anything, photos can look a little overly vibrant when using the automatic Photo Enhance function, which is switched on in the printer driver by default. However, darker tones and deep shadows can look a little lacking in depth and density, despite the printer featuring photo black and grey inks. For outright quality, the Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000 certainly wins out for photo printing, whereas the ET-8500 is the better all-rounder, especially if you major on documents without demanding the very finest fidelity for photos.

Epson EcoTank ET-8500: Verdict

I love the cheap running costs and the way that relatively high-capacity ink bottles enable me to spend less time ordering and replacing ink cartridges. For relatively high-volume printing, especially with color-rich documents and photos, I’m confident that the ET-8500 would save me a lot of money in the long run. Even so, the relatively high initial purchase price is a bit of a sticking point for me. I’d actually rather spend a bit more and get the larger-format ET-8550 printer, which seems better overall value to me. Both are very good all-rounders but, if photo printing is your main interest, image quality is good rather than entirely great.

Alternatives

I’m partial to big photo prints. Sure, A4 prints look great close-up but hang them on the wall and they look a little lost and unimposing. A3 is the next step up but A3+ is even better, with a page size of 13x19 inches. There are quite a few A3+ printers on the market, including the likes of the Canon Pixma PRO-200 dye-based printer and the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 pigment-based printer. These are properly pro-grade machines to suit photographers who sell prints for a living, with sets of 8 or 10 cartridges respectively for an epic color space and a spectacular tonal range. Epson’s own SureColor SC-P700 pigment-based cartridge printer falls into the same category. But there’s that word, ‘cartridges’. The need to frequently replace cartridges in these printers can work out very expensive, as well as being a time-wasting chore. The Epson ET-18100 is an ‘EcoTank’ printer that’s based on relatively large tanks of ink, replenished by bottles that are very much cheaper to buy. It sets out to be one of the best Epson printers, in a line-up that includes some of the best inkjet printers, the best portable printers, and the best photo printers.

Epson EcoTank ET-18100: Specifications

Epson EcoTank ET-18100: Price

Availability is a sore point for the ET-18100. I live in the UK where it’s been on sale since March 2023. Two years down the line and counting, it’s never been available in the USA nor in Australia and various other world regions. I’m sure Epson must have a reason for this but I’m at a complete loss to fathom what it is. Long story short, it sells in the UK for around £699. That makes it about 50 per cent more expensive than the Canon Pixma PRO-200 and more than twice the price of the Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000. However, the purchase price of any printer is only the start of a very long story. With ink costs that are only about a tenth or less of the price of cartridge-based printers, the ET-18100 can potentially pay for itself sooner rather than later, with a much lower total cost of ownership.

Epson EcoTank ET-18100: Design & Handling

High-end A3+ photo printers tend to come with weighty price tags and a heavyweight build. The two Canon models that I mentioned above both weigh more than 14kg. The ET-18100 is a comparatively lightweight affair, tipping the scales at just 8kg. It’s also refreshingly compact and easy to find room for, measuring a mere 523‎x369x150mm. It certainly looks neat and tidy, but there are precious few extras.

The front panel has four pushbutton controls at the top right, but that’s your lot. There’s no nice color touchscreen, nor any info screen at all. There’s also no built-in scanner, which would have come in handy for copying as well as scanning.

The output tray is a push-pull affair, rather than being motorized, there’s only one single paper feed and no auto duplex unit. For comparison, various top-end large-format photo printers some of these kinds of extras, but they’re featured on various other Epson A3+ printers, including the Epson EcoTank ET-8550. In fairness though, the ET-8550 is designed as a multi-purpose document/photo printer rather than majoring on photo printing, and like the ET-8550, the ET-18100 does at least include a tray for printing on white-faced CDs and DVDs (if anyone actually does that anymore).

Personally, I’d like to have seen more than one paper input tray, even if it’s just for stashing plain paper inside the printer for general document printing. Another problem is that, without a flat paper path via a slot in the rear (again, as featured in the ET-8550) the maximum weight of paper you can use is 300gsm. That’s sufficient for most photo paper stock, but inadequate for various varieties of fine art paper, and for thicker card and board media.

Adding to the printer’s photographic credentials, it runs on a classic line-up of cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks, plus light cyan and light magenta. It’s a very conventional six-ink set that’s been used for decades. The main upside is that it enables a wide color space (or gamut) and delivers a high level of photo fidelity and realism. At least, that’s the case for color photo printing. The ink set is less well suited to black & white photo printing, for which top-ranking photo printers generally include multiple black and grey cartridges, to enhance the tonal range and monochrome neutrality.

Epson states that a complete set of ink bottles should be enough for up to 2,100 color photos. Considering they’re 70cl bottles and priced at £10 each, that equates to 14p per milliliter in the UK. That’s amazingly cheap, even for a bottled ink system. By comparison, cartridge-based inks for the Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000 cost around £2.23 per milliliter, which is about 16 times as expensive. The bottom line is that the cost of ink for a 6x4-inch photo averages out to around 2.9p. Naturally, you have to add the price of photo paper but even so, that’s amazingly good value.

There’s no PictBridge port nor a memory card slot for direct, standalone printing. And as I’ve said, there are no onboard controls nor a display screen for standalone printing either. On the plus side, the computer-based printer driver is intuitive and straightforward. The following gallery includes images of the driver’s three main screens, namely Main, More Options and Maintenance.

Epson EcoTank ET-18100: Performance

Print speeds are swift in standard quality modes. In my tests, the ET-18100 took just 7 seconds to output an A4 mono text page and 8 seconds for a mixed text and graphicsex color A4 page. Switching to the main event of photo printing, I created borderless prints on glossy paper in standard photo quality mode of 6x4-inch in 25 seconds, A4 in 1m 03s and A3 in 1m 51s. That’s again impressively quick but, swapping to high print quality mode, borderless photo prints slowed down to 1m 05s for 6x4-inch, 2m 59s for A4 and 5m 06s for A3. Any actual differences in print quality on glossy photo paper are generally almost imperceptible, making ‘standard’ quality the preferred option if you’ve got a lot of printing to do in a hurry.

Print quality for color photos is actually very satisfying. Color rendition is vibrant but very natural. Whereas the ET-8550 only uses five dye-based inks for photo printing, and lacks a light cyan and light magenta, the ET-18100 has a relatively generous overall color space. More surprisingly, it also delivers much more depth, density and detail in dark tones and shadows than the ET-8550. For example, landscape photos with brooding dark skies tend to look much more dramatic when printed on the ET-18100 compared with the ET-8500.

As a dye-based printer, the ET-18100 is best suited to glossy and luster photo papers, with which the ink is fully absorbed beneath the shiny and protective top layer of the paper. Results also look very passable on matte photo papers but, as I’ve mentioned, the maximum compatible paper thickness can cause problems with some fine art media, and there’s no possibility of printing on thick card or board.

Epson EcoTank ET-18100: Verdict

Like many people, I prefer to give house room to just one printer, rather than buying and running two printers – one for documents and the other for photos. The ET-18100 is primarily a large-format photo printer but makes decent quality mono and color documents. The only niggle is that, with just one paper feed at the back and no internal paper cassette, you have to keep chopping and changing between the loaded paper every time you want to switch between printing documents and photos. The lack of a display screen and the fact that there’s no built-in scanner also limits versatility as a household printer. On the plus side, the rock-bottom running costs make the ET-18100 a great choice if you want to print a lot of photos in a variety of sizes, from super-small right up to A3+/13x19-inch.

Alternatives

If you asked me what my favorite piece of gear in my kit bag is, you might expect me to say my Fujifilm GFX camera or a particular lens. But the real MVP is my Instax Share SP-3 Square Printer.

I know, an instant printer isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of essential photography gear. But this little device has become invaluable on location, in the field, and during shoots. The ability to print and share images instantly changes the whole dynamic of a shoot.

I use the Instax app or print directly from my Fujifilm GFX 50S II to create instant prints that develop right in front of my eyes, and let me tell you, people love it! Models, hair and makeup artists, assistants, everyone appreciates a physical keepsake from the day. There’s something special about holding an actual print rather than just scrolling past an image on a screen, even if it's simply an Instax print.

In an industry where everything is digital and fleeting, handing someone a print makes the moment tangible. It creates a connection, sparks conversation, and adds an unexpected, personal touch to the shoot. And here’s the thing, they always remember the person who gave them a print!

It’s like a business card, but better. I even add a QR code on the back, linking to my website or Instagram, making it easy for people to find me later. It’s a simple touch that has led to repeat collaborations and new gigs.

Of course I still love high-quality fine art prints, and I have been meaning to test out other portable printers, but there’s something uniquely satisfying about the spontaneity of Instax prints. Whether it’s a behind-the-scenes moment or a frame from the shoot, having the ability to instantly print an image makes the whole process feel more real and engaging.

Sometimes, the best tools aren’t the most expensive or high-tech, they’re the ones that make photography feel more personal; and for me, that’s why the Instax Share SP-3 has earned a permanent place in my kit.

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The ability to print your own images with some of the best photo printers is one of the most rewarding experiences a photographer can have. Seeing your work displayed on a screen is one thing, but holding a physical print in your hands or hanging a large-format masterpiece on a gallery wall (even in your home) is an entirely different level of satisfaction.

The display of the Epson SureColor P20500 printer at The Photography & Video Show 2025 shows that this is the kind of printer that makes dreams a reality, offering professional photographers and fine art creators the ability to print at an astonishing scale with unmatched quality.

With its 64-inch wide-format capability, the SureColor P20500 enables photographers to create prints that go beyond standard sizing. Whether it’s a panoramic landscape stretching across a gallery wall or a towering portrait capturing every intricate detail, this printer delivers.

The UltraChrome Pro12 ink set, featuring 12 colors including orange, green, and violet, ensures an exceptionally wide color gamut. It also boasts Black Enhance Overcoat technology, which deepens blacks and increases contrast – perfect for photographers who want to showcase the finest nuances in their work.

Speed is often a concern with large-format printing, but Epson has addressed this without compromising quality. The SureColor P20500 can print up to 19.2 square meters per hour, meaning professional photographers and studios can maintain productivity while achieving gallery-level results.

Bulk ink solutions with 1.6-liter ink bags reduce interruptions and minimize costs, making high-volume printing more efficient and environmentally friendly by cutting down on plastic waste.

Beyond technical performance, ease of use is another major draw. The printer features a 4.3-inch LCD touchscreen, making it intuitive to operate even for those new to large-format printing.

The spindle-less roll adapter simplifies media loading, and Epson’s Nozzle Verification Technology ensures print consistency by automatically detecting and adjusting any nozzle issues. These user-friendly innovations mean photographers can focus on their craft rather than wrestling with printer complications.

Epson has also integrated advanced software solutions, eliminating the need for third-party RIP (Raster Imaging Processor) software. The included Epson Edge Print Pro software streamlines workflow, while Epson Cloud Solution Port enables users to monitor their printer remotely, ensuring smooth operation.

These enhancements make it easier than ever for photographers to take control of their printing process, transforming their digital files into breathtaking physical prints without relying on expensive third-party services.

The Epson SureColor P20500 is a game-changer for any photographer who dreams of printing their work at massive scales without sacrificing quality. From capturing a fleeting moment in high resolution to producing wall-sized prints that demand attention, this printer makes it all possible.

In a world where digital images are fleeting, the ability to create museum-quality prints that stand the test of time is an investment that any serious photographer should consider.

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I’ve long been a fan of Canon inkjet printers. Over the last three decades, I’ve found them to give unbeatable performance in terms of print quality and reliability. Most of the Canon inkjets that I’ve used and owned have been desktop models, ranging from A4/letter sized cartridge-based and ‘MegaTank’ printers, right up to large-format photo printers like the Canon Pixma Pro-200 and Canon ImagePrograf Pro-300.

The Pixma TR150 is a relatively small-scale affair, designed for a life on the road. It’s ideally suited to travelling workers who need to create hard copies when visiting clients, but also does a surprisingly good job of printing color photos on glossy paper, at sizes up to and including A4/letter borderless prints. As such it sets its sights on being one of the best compact printers on the market.

Canon Pixma TR150: Specifications

Canon Pixma TR150: Price

Miniaturization often comes at a high cost. Gadgets that are designed to be really compact and lightweight typically come with inflated price tags and, unsurprisingly, the Canon Pixma TR150 costs more than many desktop printers. Even so, I think it’s reasonably priced and the cost is quite similar to that of the Epson WorkForce WF-110W mobile printer. I like that there are two purchase options, so you can buy the printer on its own for $180 / £200 / AU$396 without the optional battery back, or for $250 / £260 / AU$487 complete with the Li-ion rechargeable battery.

Inkjet printers have long been criticized for the price of replacement ink cartridges and, in some cases, a single set costs as much as the printer itself, typically sold with ‘setup cartridges’. Running costs for this mobile printer are actually pretty reasonable, based on dual mono and tri-color cartridges that are competitively priced and have pretty good stamina.

Canon Pixma TR150: Design & Handling

The Canon Pixma TR150 is the fruition of some clever design work. It’s super-quick and easy to lift out the paper input and output trays for operation, and to fold them in again for stowage. I like that it folds down so small that it can fit in a desk drawer or small carrying bag. The only catch is that the power supply is separate and the paper can’t be stored in the printer with the input tray closed, so these items need to be carried separately. Even so, the printer itself only measures 322 x 185 x 66mm and weighs just 2.1kg, so it’s eminently portable.

The size and weight increase a little if you opt for the Li-ion battery pack, either buying it as a package with the printer or as an optional extra, further down the line. The battery clips into a holder and the complete assembly screws to the back of the printer. The battery can be charged via the printer’s regular mains power adapter, or from a USB charger connected to the printer’s USB-C socket.

The battery is good for 330 prints on a full charge, and an exhausted battery takes about 2 hours 20 minutes from the power pack or 5 hours from a 1.5A USB charger. A row of 4 status LEDs show charging progress and how much battery life remains during use.

Setting the printer up for first use is quick and easy. It comes with a print head in a separate bag, and two cartridges. After removing packing pieces, it’s a simple case of fitting the print head and inserting the cartridges.

Once the print head and cartridges are fitted, there’s an optional print head alignment routine which takes about 5 minutes to complete. It’s well worth running this to ensure optimum print quality.

The two ink cartridges themselves consist of a pigment-based black cartridge and a dye-based tri-color cyan, magenta and yellow cartridge. I like this ‘hybrid’ arrangement as it enables robust, smudge-resistant mono text on plain paper, as well as smooth output on glossy and luster photo paper. More on that later.

Typical of Canon printers, the software driver for PC and Mac is very straightforward and intuitive, whether you’re using a USB or Wi-Fi connection. For wireless printing, the TR150 is compatible with Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, the latter being useful when you’re not within range of a router. However, there’s no Bluetooth nor NFC connectivity. Back on the plus side, the printer works with the Canon PRINT app, AirPrint (iOS) and Mopria (Android). I also like that you can store up to 5 different templates in the printer, for example business forms and the like, and print them at the touch of a button without any other devices being connected.

This gallery of screenshots shows the main sections of the Windows printer driver.

A color touchscreen would be a very tight fit in such a small printer but I actually prefer the 1.44-inch mono OLED screen and its supporting range of buttons. These all work together to provide a very versatile and intuitive control system.

Canon Pixma TR150: Performance

Compact printers can often be rather pedestrian when it comes to print speed but the TR150 is no slouch. It’s rated at 9ipm (impressions per minute) for mono and 5.5ipm for color. In my tests, I found that the ‘first page’ output was also brisk, at 7 seconds for a full A4/letter page of mono text, and 20 seconds for a page of mixed text and color graphics. 6x4-inch borderless color photos took 51 seconds each, and a full A4 borderless color photo took 2 minutes 11 seconds.

As I’ve mentioned, the pigment-based black ink enables solid mono text that’s resistant to smudging. I’m glad that the tri-color cartridge contains dye-based inks for cyan, magenta and yellow. Unlike with pigment-based inks, this enables the colored inks to pass completely through the protective outer layer of glossy and luster photo papers, so the results are smooth and uniform, with no bronzing or ‘gloss-differential’. What surprised me is just how good color photos look from this printer. The pigment-based black ink is only for plain paper, so color photos have no black ink and rely solely on a mix of cyan, magenta and yellow to produce ‘composite black’ for photos. This often results in a lack of richness and detail for areas of dark shadow but the TR150 very much impressed me with its color rendition and solid-looking blacks.

As well as speed and print quality, I always think that running costs are a key performance factor of any inkjet printer. The TR150’s cartridges are good for around 200 mono and 260 color A4/letter pages. The tri-color cartridge also has sufficient capacity for around 100 6x4 photos. The replacement cost of cartridges is competitive, at around US $200 / UK £19 / AU$ for the clack cartridge, and US $18 / UK £15.50 / AU $39. For 6x4-inch photos, including sheets of high-quality Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, you’re looking at around US 40c / UK 40p / AU 120c per print.

Canon Pixma TR150: Verdict

I really like the little Canon Pixma TR150. It’s small enough to take pretty much anywhere and everywhere, and it feels sufficiently robust to tackle the journey. I like that print speeds are pretty fast for mobile printer, and that print quality is very impressive for both mono/color documents as well as for color photos. I’m also pleased about the range of USB-C, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity, although there’s no Bluetooth nor NFC. 

The purchase price and running costs are reasonable, but I feel the pricier kit with the ‘optional’ Li-ion battery pack is much the better buy, so you can print on the move without needing to find a mains electricity outlet.

Alternatives

Canon has launched a new A3+ / 13" printer in its professional-grade imagePROGRAF PRO series. The imagePROGRAF PRO-310 replaces the excellent PRO-300 and fits between the existing PRO-200S and PRO-1100 in the range. The PRO-310 is designed to be as compact as possible for an A3+ design, measuring 639 x 379 x 200mm with trays closed, but still offers premium-grade print quality.

10 individual Lucia Pro II pigment ink cartridges ensure rich, smoothly graduated colors, while a special matte black ink is present to improve monochrome output on fine art paper. There's also a Chroma Optimizer cartridge to give printed output a softer sheen - ideal when producing gallery-quality artwork - with Canon claiming prints could last up to 200 years without being degraded by light. Borderless printing is possible on glossy or fine art paper, and there's the option to print panoramas of up to 1,800mm long. Canon rates print speed at 4 minutes 15 seconds for an A3+ print with border, either in color or black and white.

The PRO-310 can be configured via a 3-inch (7.5cm) color screen, which also displays the ink level in each cartridge. The printer is compatible with Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, iOS and Android devices, and can be connected via USB, Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

The Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 is available to buy now from B&H, priced at $849.99, or it can be pre-ordered from Wex in the UK for £699.

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Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 review

The Instax Mini Link 3 allows smartphone photographers to turn their device into a digital instant film camera – and an usual collaboration now gives the printer both more style and speed. On September 26, Fujifilm US shared a collaboration with Google that gives the Instax Mini Link 3 printer an exterior makeover to match the Rose Quartz color option on the Google Pixel 9. The collaboration edition also includes Google Fast Pair, a feature designed for more seamless connection of Bluetooth devices.

The Instax Mini Link 3 is a mobile smartphone printer that uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to transfer digital images onto real instant film. While the gadget effectively turns a smartphone into an instant camera, that necessary wireless connection isn’t quite as quick as using an actual instant film camera.

Collaborating with Google, however, enables Google Fast Pair. The feature uses Bluetooth to look for then quickly connect with new Bluetooth devices. Fast Pair devices can also be easier to customize. Fast Pair also automatically links accessories to a Google account.

Notably, Fast Pair devices must be certified by Google, which makes the feature the likely reason for opting for the collaboration model over the existing printer. The second part of the collaboration is a matching color to the Google Pixel Rose Quartz, though the Instax Mini Link already had a different Rose Pink color as well as Clay and Sage Green.

The most disappointing part of the collaboration, however, is price. The Google Pixel collaboration model is expected to list for $129 shipping at the end of November in the US, while the non-Google branded model sells for $99 / £95 / AU$ 160.

The third-generation Mini Link printer overhauls the design to use built-in LEDs to indicate the printer’s status. Another key change over the earlier rendition is the switch to a USB-C port.

I own the Instax Mini Link 3 myself and I love using it to print out wedding photos before I even leave the reception. Because it’s so widely compatible with a wide range of smartphones, it also makes a great gift, particularly for smartphone photographers and Instagrammers.

As an iPhone user, however, I can’t help but wonder if Fujifilm will ever launch a model to match an iOS device. That would certainly make choosing what color Instax Mini Link 3 to order simpler.

The Instax Mini Link 3 makes a great gift for photographers, while Black Friday camera deals can drop the price on the non-Google model. Or, browse our favorites for the best smartphone photo printer.

Canon has updated its entry-level Pixma range of printers. The TS3750i series of all-in-one printers are the successor models to the TS3550i series, and come equipped with new WLAN security standards – as well as a snazzy new gray-blue colorway, if you're not a fan of boring black or white.

The Pixma TS3750i-series inkjet printers are equipped with a new WLAN module, bringing them bang up to date with the latest security standards, such as the WPA3 standard, to make printing even more secure. They also have an intelligent WLAN connection function, so that the printer automatically connects to the wireless access point with the best signal quality.

The TS3752i is the model to select if you fancy a modern gray-blue aesthetic, but if you'd prefer a more sober black or white look, the models to go for are the TS3750i and TS3751i respectively.

It has to be said that they don't compare to the best photo printers, but they are perfect for everyday printing tasks. They feature two FINE print heads that are particularly easy to change, while quick setup ensures the printers are ready to go in no time, and as with other printers in the Pixma range, they can be controlled via the Canon Print app. As with the previous models they replace, borderless printing is possible on photo paper in formats 10x15cm and up to 13x18 cm.

The new Pixma TS3750i-series sell for around £50. 

This printer was released in North America in the summer as the Canon PIXMA TS3720 series, but so far can only be found in white or black, which retail for $50.

Canon Pixma TR4750i-series new colors

Canon has also updated the color options for the TR4750i series. Previously only available in black and white, the TR4755i is now available as a model in gray-black and the TR4756i is now in gray-white.

These 4-in-1 multifunctional systems feature a flatbed scanner, so they can copy, print, scan and even fax, should you ever feel the need. Canon says they are even more user-friendly than their predecessors, with an automatic paper feeder for up to 20 sheets and automatic double-sided printing included in the features list.

The Pixma TR4750i series printers sell for around £70. In the US, this is sold as the Pixma TR4720 series and is available in white or black for an RRP of $99.99.

Canon’s PIXMA TR7650 promises to squeeze in all of the features you could want from a home and office printer into one neat, space-saving unit. This model is sold as the Pixma TR7520 in North America.

As a 4-in-1 printer, the TR7650 manages to fit a printer, scanner, copier, and fax machine all under one roof, and boasts Cloud printing, Wi-Fi, double-sided, and an automatic document feeder for copying thrown in for good measure too!

Bundling all of these components together is always going to be a compromise, and it’s worth noting that if you’re looking to make prints that you can sell you’d most likely be better off with a dedicated printer such as the Canon PIXMA iP8750 (£239) which can print much larger A3+ and has a higher maximum resolution of 9600x2400dpi, or the newly announced Canon imagePrograf PRO-1100 (£1,099) which uses 12 pigment inks for even better archival quality.

The same can be said of its scanner which is only 1200x2400dpi, while a dedicated scanner like Epson’s Perfection V39 II (£119) can scan at up to A4 in size with a resolution of 4800x4800dpi.

Its unique selling point is that it brings heaps of tech into a very small unit you can easily place on a desk or cabinet and not take up the space that four separate devices would. It’s not a bad value when you consider its versatility and the space-saving design will be priceless to those with very limited real estate and needs all of those features.

So it’s not designed to create professional prints or super high definition scans on the market, but hopefully, it does a good enough job of all of its various functions for the average person, doing a mixture of printing documents, faxing, scanning, kid's homework, copying for clerical office jobs and so on. So is it a jack of all trades and master of none, or is Canon's PIXMA TR7650 the ultimate home and office printer? We put it to the test to find out...

Canon PIXMA TR7650: Specifications

Max print size: A4
Borderless printing: Yes (up to A4)
Max print resolution: 4800x1200 dpi
Input trays: Front and rear
Scanner: A4 1200x2400 dpi
Display screen: 3in Touch Color LCD
Interfaces: Wi-Fi, LAN, Hi-Speed USB, Fax
Dimensions (WxDxH): 438x350x190mm
Weight: 7.9kg / 17.3 lbs

Canon PIXMA TR7650: Features

With dimensions of 438x350x190mm the PIXMA TR7650 is quite small and it’s impressive that Canon has been able to squeeze in so much tech, so even if you only need a couple of its features, such as printer and scanner, or the copier and fax machine, bringing it all under one roof makes it a compact option with great versatility.

As mentioned, it’s a 4-in-1 printer with copy, scan, and fax features. Though it also boasts 2.4GHz WLAN Wi-Fi, Cloud printing and scanning, a 20-page Auto Document Feeder (ADF), 100-page paper cassette, and two-sided (Duplex) printing too - not too shabby!

While many 'all-in-one' home and office printers are the 3-in-1 type with print, scan, and copy functions, Canon’s TR7650 goes one better and includes a Fax function. Believe it or not, there’s still a very valid need for faxing in 2024, with many professions such as the medical and legal fields still relying on it. To fax, it uses a desktop transceiver with a modem speed of 33.6 Kbps. It has group dialing of up to 99 locations, coded speed dialing of up to 100 locations, and a fax memory of 250 pages. Fax resolution is 200x200 dpi and speeds vary from three seconds for mono to about one minute for a color document.

For standard printing, the TR7650 can print black and white documents at 15 pages per minute, or 10 pages per minute when switched to color, so it’s quite the speed machine for office use, documents, and kids’ homework.

It’s no slouch when it comes to higher quality photos either with a borderless 10x15cm taking about 37 seconds, though I’ll come on to print quality in more detail later in our performance section, but the TLDR is that it’s very good!

The PIXMA TR7650 features borderless printing which is fantastic for creating high-quality photos on glossy or matte paper without a border, and this is available up to its maximum print size of A4. It can also print at a very respectable resolution of 4800x1200dpi and uses five individual inks: magenta, yellow, cyan, and black as well as an extra ‘pigment’ black for better contrast in photos and particularly black and white prints. Its inks are also Canon’s ChromaLife100 inks which Canon says delivers exceptional color, quality, and longevity.

The printer has been designed to be used via a computer or smartphone, though on the front you’ll find the 3-inch LCD Color display which is also a touchscreen. There are also a few buttons, namely for Power, Home, Cancel, and Back, there’s also buttons for Color or B&W copying, and there’s a status indicator light. The whole front panel has to be tilted upwards when printing, this also makes it a little easier to read the display when it's at a low angle, or you’re standing above it.

Also on the front is the paper cassette tray which holds a maximum of 100 sheets of plain A4 paper. When using a specialist matte or glossy photo paper you’ll want to use the rear-loading paper feed instead, this has a flap that folds down to prevent dust ingress when it’s not in use, it also pulls up and extends to support your paper medium and stop it flopping backward.

On top you’ll find the copier which folds out and allows you to neatly insert your A4 documents for copying, this is also where you’ll find the ADF that can take up to 20 sheets of A4 paper at a time.

The entire top section also flips up to reveal the flatbed scanner hidden underneath. The scanner is A4-size (216x297mm) and has a maximum resolution of 1200x2400 dpi. It’s not high enough resolution to be usable to say scan 35mm film negatives, but for larger photos and documents it's perfectly serviceable. The scanner section also flips upwards once more revealing the inner workings of the printer, and allows you access to swap out any ink cartridges which have been depleted.

The printer is compatible with the Canon PRINT app, as well as Apple AirPrint and Mopria for Android. This, combined with Wi-Fi connectivity initialized by QR code, means the TR7650 is ready for seamless photo printing from smartphones and tablets. Smartphone apps that the PIXMA TR7650 is compatible with include the Canon PRINT, Easy-PhotoPrint Editor, and Creative Park apps. It also features PIXMA Cloud Link and cloud printing is possible from Dropbox, Google Drive, and Evernote.

On the back of the printer, you’ll find ports for the USB Type B connection as well as two ADSL ports for LINE and EXT for the fax function. There’s no Ethernet port, though most routers can be set up by its USB for network printing nowadays. There are also no memory card slots so you’re unable to print directly from your camera’s SD, SDHC, or SDXC cards and so on.

Canon PIXMA TR7650: Performance

The Canon PIXMA TR7650 packs a whole lot of handy features into a neat little bundle that would happily sit in a home or office.

It takes a total of five inks: the Black (BK), Yellow (Y), Cyan (C), and Magenta (M) all belong to the 581 series and come with between 5.1 and 5.6ml of ink and cost about £10 each, while the large Pigment Black ink belongs to the 580 series and is filled with 11.2ml and costs about £11. So the total for a full set of inks will set you back about £50 - ouch! There are also XL and XXL versions of each of these inks which work out better value.

The standard inks should be able to produce anywhere between 237 and 257 A4 color documents, though this extends up to as much as 824 pages with the XXL cartridges. With a full set of standard inks costing £50 that means it costs around £0.20 for each color A4 document, or £0.06 if you get the XXL inks, and somewhere in-between if you buy the XL inks. The standard 581 Black (BK) claims to be capable of printing 1505 A4 documents, extending to 3120 with the XL ink, or a whopping 6360 pages with the XXL, so you can rattle off a lot more documents when set to black and white. It also prints mono 50% faster at speeds of 15 pages per minute.

It’s worth noting that while the inks are expensive they have the print head built into each of them individually. Inkjet heads can clog when not used regularly, which can lead to streaks appearing on your prints and also costly waste from flushing ink through the heads to clean them.

This does however mean that should you come across this problem you can pop a new cartridge in with its brand-new FINE print head and you’ll be set to go. It’s a pricy solution, though much more convenient for the casual user than manually cleaning your print heads through, which from experience I can tell you is a messy job.

A 10x15cm photo takes about 37 secs to print and it should be possible to print between 83 and 108 images at this size before your color inks run out using the standard cartridges, though the black should last for 231 prints and the beefier Pigment Black cartridge should last for 1448 photos.

For the standard cartridge sizes, this makes each 10x15cm photo cost about 0.52p, though this comes down to about 33p per photo with the XXL inks (under optimal conditions). This also doesn't include the cost of the paper.

I was concerned that with so much tech squeezed into a small package that the print quality would be compromised but I’m thrilled to report this wasn’t the case! Its resolution of 4800x1200dpi creates razor sharp details even down to fine single strands of hairs on a model, and the colours are really punchy and vibrant too.

This is even more so when using Canon’s Photo Paper Plus Glossy II than matte papers. It’s also great that you can print A4 borderless, though obviously if you need to print at larger sizes of A3 or A3+ you’ll need to consider a bigger printer.

The spec sheet for the PIXMA TR7650 shows it has an acoustic noise level of approximately 46.5(A), and in short, it is a little loud, but not especially any louder than its competition, it’s about what you’d expect, and in a busy office you’d probably not even notice it was there.

The scanner was notably louder in operation, but again this will be more of an issue for quiet households or small offices, rather than big office spaces. When scanning you also have the option to save to a PC, attach to an email, or save to the Cloud.

Canon’s PIXMA TR7650 was very easy to set up both from a computer and a smartphone. I tried all manner of setup options, when setting it up to our computer wirelessly the provided manual shows you which website you need to visit to download the correct software and drivers, and it’s all pretty seamless. Once connected to your router the printer automatically knows your Wi-Fi password so you don’t have to manually type it in, any other devices connected to the same network can then print to it.

It also comes with a USB cable if you prefer to print from your computer directly or plug this into the back of your router to cut down on delay, I did notice our printer stuttered and took a little longer when printing wirelessly compared to when it was hardwired. So if you have a really bad Wi-Fi connection it might be worth plugging your printer directly into your computer via the USB cable, or into the back of your router to cut down on the amount of wireless transmission.

To print remotely from our smartphone I used the Canon Print app which is free to download. During testing I found it really simple to find and ‘register’ our printer on the app, it also saves any Canon printers you’ve used previously so you can switch between them, this is handy if you also have a Selphy printer too, for example. In the app, you have the option to Document Print, Photo Print, Scan, Smartphone Copy, Cloud, and Create Photo Items. Photo printing was really easy, you just choose your picture saved on your phone, or in the cloud, you can also use the option ‘Import from Canon Camera Connect’.

Canon PIXMA TR7650: Verdict

Canon's PIXMA TR7650 scores highly for its compact size and convenience. It will be a brilliant addition to a home or small office space where you don’t have room for an individual printer, scanner, copier, or fax machine and that’s where this model excels. Its scan quality isn’t the highest around and it’s a bit noisy when scanning too, but it will no doubt be more than serviceable for the needs of most users. Its print quality however blew me away and I was seriously impressed with the fine details and punchy colors, particularly when printing on Canon’s Photo Paper Plus Glossy II. It’ll be ideal for printing your favorite photos or family holiday snaps to display at home, or even to give to relatives.

It’s no office slouch either, it has a 20-page Automatic Document Feeder, double-sided printing, fax and copy functions, Wi-Fi, and Cloud printing so it’s simply mind-boggling how much tech has been packed into such a compact unit. It’s also really quick at printing documents.

The drawbacks are that the inks are expensive so you really want to get the XL or XXL cartridges which work out better value. You’ll also need to be using your PIXMA TR7650 fairly regularly to prevent the print heads from clogging up as this can be costly, as the printer will use the pricey ink to flush any clogged print heads through.

I vividly remember the first time I printed a photograph. It was during a black-and-white photography course when we were learning to use the darkroom. I had practised running test strips in the enlarger, but now it was time for a full print. I placed the paper into the enlarger and ran the developer over it for the first time. Although photographs are typically developed upside down in the chemical bath, our tutor allowed us to develop our first photograph right-side up so we could watch the image gradually appear on the paper. It was a truly magical experience.

For most of its 200-year history, photography has revolved around physical mediums—from the original glass plates to tintypes and, eventually, paper. However, digital photography has changed that. Now, photographs are just files. Mere images. You can no longer thumb through family photos; instead, you depend on devices to view memories and captured events. I firmly believe that photographs should be printed, placed in albums, displayed on walls, and integrated into our lives.

With digital photography, there is a serious risk of losing your images if you don't back them up. If you don't save your photographs in at least two places, you effectively don't have them at all. The sheer number of pictures lost due to broken phones, stolen laptops, and failed hard drives is staggering. Printing regularly can mitigate this. Printing allows you to create tangible memories that you can hold in your hand.

While I no longer print in the darkroom regularly, I still use inkjet technology. The joy of holding a print remains unchanged. Printed photographs feel more special; they represent a combination of my camera skills and editing talents, ready to share with the world.

In the digital age, images often seem disposable, but receiving a print feels like something special. Printing takes time and effort, even when using online services. You have to upload images, select sizes, and choose papers. This process requires effort, and when you share these prints with others, it feels significant. Giving someone a printed photograph to keep feels like offering a gift.

There’s also a fun aspect to printed photos. Viewing a wedding album in print is still an occasion, and sharing photos over coffee with friends is more tactile and immediate. Even this weekend I was part of a scouting anniversary where prints from events over the years were displayed for all to share in the memories. We should all print more. 

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Canon has launched a new dye-sub pocket printer: the Selphy QX20. Designed for wireless use with smartphones and portable devices, it prints 2.7 x 2.7-inch or 2.1 x 3.4-inch photos on thermal sticker paper in around 40 seconds. Choose from bordered or borderless printing, Canon claims that its thermal dye sublimation printing technology produces rich, vibrant colors, while the water-resistant printed output can last up to 100 years.

As the QX20 is designed to be a go-anywhere printer, it measures just 102.2 x 145.8 x 32.9mm (4.0 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches), and weighs a mere 455g. To enable truly wireless use, it contains a built-in battery that can be fully charged in around 80 minutes via a USB-C connection. 

The Selphy QX20 is compatible with iOS and Android smart devices via Canon's Selphy Photo Layout 4.0 app, which enables you to scan a QR code on the printer for a hassle-free wireless connection. The app can then be used to edit, customize, and decorate photos with stickers and effects before printing.

We expect the SX20 to be a companion model to the similar Canon Selphy QX10, which only offers square prints with borders, and which uses doesn't have a USB-C charging socket.

The Selphy QX20 is compatible with Canon XS-20L, XC-20L, and XC-60L photo paper packs, and these also contain the necessary ink cartridge for printing. Pack prices start from $14.99. When it goes on sale in the US October, the QX20 will retail for $149.99 / AU$249 and will be available in white, red or dark gray color options. Availability and pricing for the UK and Europe have yet to be announced.

Pre order the Canon Selphy QX20 Compact Photo Printer from B&H

See our Canon Selphy QX10 review for a look at how this type of dye sublimation printer performs

Canon has announced a new flagship product, the Canon ImagePrograf Pro-1100 – an update to the nearly decade-old ImagePrograf Pro-1000 professional printer aimed at studios, professional photographers and businesses.

It boasts the exact same physical dimensions (723 x 435 x 285mm) and weight (32.4kg) as its predecessor, but don;t be fooled by its similar appearance; inside it's brimming with new exciting tech, such as 5G WiFi.

The Pro-1100 can print at sizes up to A2+ or 17". However, using paper roll, the Pro-1100 can now make prints well over twice as wide as the Pro-1000 could; while its predecessor could produce panoramas up to 1.2m wide, the Pro-1100 can create panos up to 3.27m. 

The ImagePrograf Pro-1100 is designed for high yields using a wide range of 11 inks and Chroma Optimizer. "By being applied over the printed image to cover the bumps between ink droplets, Chroma Optimizer levels the ink droplet height in order to enhance the glossiness and flatten the print surface, as well as expanding color gamut," explains Canon.

Like its predecessor, the Pro-1100 takes 11 inks – each of which has a large 80ml capacity, though they are new PFI-41000 inks. 

Dye is good for speed, color and vibrancy, but Canon says the color can break down as quickly as within seven years. The Pro-1100 instead uses pigment ink, which is better for contrast, black and white prints, and also longevity. Canon claims that its prints have a lightfastness of 200 years (or 180 years on fine art paper), which is a significant bump up from the conventional 60 years.

The new Lucia Pro II inks are also said to improve dark colors as well as black density on art paper, by densely arranging coloring materials to achieve rich colors and improving fine gradation in dark areas. 

The ink 'wettability' is also increased for a better coverage of black pigment particles, and pigments have a lower reflectance to improve black density as well. This also helps to cut down reflections that cause bronzing: a detrimental effect where prints can look metallic.

The new inks also have wax added to them, to make them more scratch resistant on glossy paper. This should cut down on waste and also save time from having to make another print, which could take several minutes. Canon classes the Pro-1100 as a medium yield printer, only exceeded by Canon printers with larger MegaTanks.

You can of course use Canon's Auto Replenishment Service to reorder ink automatically when you’re running low. This is set to 10% by default, but can be customized for each ink – handy if you know you're going to be using more of some colors than others.

Speaking of print times, the Pro-1100 uses the same PF-10 head as its predecessor so its speed is unchanged. An A2 (LU-101 color) print should take about 3 minutes 35 secs, while an A2 (PT-101 color or mono) print should take about 6 minutes.

Borderless printing uses a vacuum system and starts at A2 size, which is a bit limiting if you want to print borderless at smaller sizes.

It's not just the printer itself that has been overhauled, either. There are some handy features added to Canon's Professional Print & Layout software, including improvements to Crystal Fidelity – which can now extract extra information from Canon cameras such as the EOS R5 and R5 Mark II, for proofing in certain environments or to prevent highlights blowing out under harsh exhibition lighting.

There's also a new Black & White print mode, the Chrome Optimizer now has a trio of settings (On, Off or Partial) and it supports a host of new print sizes ranging from 7x10" up to 12x12".

Canon also recognizes that users might not want to jump between software programs, so its drivers can also be picked up in Adobe packages such as Photoshop CC and Lightroom Classic CC to streamline the printing process.

Another new neat addition is the Custom Media Registration Flow. This gives users more options for how long the Pro-1100 holds onto paper when drying, as well as the height of the printer head. 

Sales for the Canon ImagePrograf Pro-1100 are due to start in September at a price of £1,099.99 (US and Australian pricing to be confirmed).

You might be interested in the best photo printers and the best large format printers – or alternatively, check out the best portable printers.

The Munbyn RealWriter 401 AirPrint Printer is a fantastic printer that limits cables thanks to its masterful WiFi and AirPrint functionality. This makes it possible to print from almost any device including mobile phones. The 300 dpi print resolution is as high as it needs to be to deliver great-looking labels every single time.

Support for labels between 1.57 and 4.3 inches wide gives the necessary flexibility to be useful for both shipping labels and smaller, more decorative labels. Label rolls are perfect for smaller circular labels, which are great for fixing to bags, while the fanfold alternative delivers everything required for standard-size shipping labels.

The Munbyn Print App is available on both iOS and Android devices and allows users to adopt mobile working without the need for printer drives, or large and bulky computers. The app is free of charge and incredibly easy to use so there are no problems there. Print speed is pretty rapid, with the capability to print up to 150 mm per second. Considering this speed is achievable at 300 dpi, it is very impressive.

The printer works across all major platforms and will print labels from Etsy, Shopify, eBay, Amazon, Poshmark, Ship Station, Shipping Easy, Shippo, Ordoro, Endicia Dazzle, Shipwire, Shipworks, Stockx, Xps Ship, and all other major shipping and selling platforms. The printer is also able to instantly convert from 8x11 to 4x6 labels, which drastically reduces the conversion workload that is common in other workflows.

Munbyn RealWriter 401 AirPrint Printer: Specifications

Munbyn RealWriter 401 AirPrint Printer: Design & Handling

The build quality of the Munbyn RealWriter 401 AirPrint Printer is very good, although there are a lot of plastic materials. At this price point, I would like to have seen a metal case, thereby increasing durability. The plastic is thick enough so I don't have many concerns that the unit would break easily but I think a more rugged case would have taken the ruggedness rating to a higher level.

The top cover is opened using a top cover button located on the side of the unit. The button is fairly robust, although a button that required the user to pull upwards would really have helped with single-hand opening. In its current form, two hands are very much required.

The hinge is very similar to most other Munbyn label printers in that it's solid enough to cope with regular label roll changes. You won't encounter any hinge breakages with this unit. Unfortunately, the hinge does become quite stiff through the last 20 degrees of its opening angle. Again, this means two hands are required for the opening operation.

There is no in-built location to store the labels, although a separate roll holder can be purchased separately if required. The lack of a holder keeps the unit small but has the downside of users having to store the labels behind, often leading to an untidy setup.

Munbyn RealWriter 401 AirPrint Printer: Performance

The RealWriter 401 AirPrint Printer from Munbyn performs excellently in almost every regard. The label feed is responsive and reliable, ensuring labels are fed accurately and, most importantly, straight. Changing rolls or fanfolds is easy and predictable, with no problems getting back up and running.

The printer can handle up to 150 mm of printing per second, which is pretty average for this price. Any small business or individual is unlikely to need anything faster. An automatic cutting tool would make the printing and labeling process faster but unfortunately, users are limited to using the manual serrated edge for this.

The 300 dpi print resolution performance is excellent. Every label looks the part with bar codes printing super clear and curved lines avoiding any jagged edges. I think all printers should have at least this resolution so it's great to see Munbyn delivering the goods here.

The printer performed reliably and predictably during all my tests and I would have absolutely no problems recommending this printer for either shipping or decorative labels.

Munbyn RealWriter 401 AirPrint Printer: Verdict

I love pretty much everything about the Munbyn RealWriter 401 AirPrint Printer. It prints high-definition labels reliably and predictably. It lacks color printing but will accept color labels to provide decorative label printing. The wireless connectivity makes it a breeze to use with any device, including phones and tablets. Voice commands are fun to have but the lack of enough voice commands results in a lack of use case in a production environment. This is an excellent label printer, as long as you're happy to part with a fair amount of money for the privilege.

The MUNBYN Shipping Label Printer 941 is one of the fastest-label printers on the market. This printer is most at home in busy working environments and its excellent build quality enables it to withstand any knocks that come its way. Labels up to 4.3 inches in width are accepted but the 203 DPI is a little disappointing. The unit is compatible with all the most popular operating systems and supports USB-A connectivity.

The ability to print labels between 1.57 inches and 4.3 inches makes this a very useful printer indeed. The printer does all the hard work of detecting the printer size and printing accordingly.

It's not the fastest on the market but it's not far off. At 150mm per second, the MUNBYN 941 is able to shift through around 72 labels per minute. That's the sort of speed that will suit any small- to medium-sized setup.

The printer works across all major platforms and will print labels from Etsy, Shopify, eBay, Amazon, Poshmark, Ship Station, Shipping Easy, Shippo, Ordoro, Endicia Dazzle, Shipwire, Shipworks, Stockx, Xps Ship, and all other major shipping and selling platforms.

The MUNBYN 941 is able to instantly convert from 8x11 to 4x6 labels, which drastically reduces the conversion workload that is common in other workflows.

MUNBYN Label Printer RealWriter 941: Specifications

MUNBYN Label Printer RealWriter 941: Design & Handling

The build quality of the MUNBYN Shipping Label Printer 941 is almost as good as it gets at this price point. The plastic case is made from a mixture of black and white plastic, which makes it robust enough to handle regular usage. I think the unit would benefit from a little bit more weight to ensure it stands more sturdily on a desk but aside from that, it's hard to find anything problematic with the build quality.

The labels are loaded by pressing the 'open' button on top and opening the lid. The hinge is off to one side and is substantial enough for there to be no issues with constant opening and closing. The 'arm' also clicks nicely when it has reached a 90-degree position and does not suffer from being able to be rotated beyond its limit.

I think the biggest issue with this design is that there is nowhere to store the labels so they have to sit annoyingly behind the unit on the desk. That is unless you purchase a separate roll holder. I much prefer the Brother QL-1100c, which is able to store the roll of labels inside itself. This provides a much tidier solution.

MUNBYN Label Printer RealWriter 941: Performance

Two of the most important things for a label printer are speed and reliability. The MUNBYN 941 delivers on both fronts. The printing of 72 labels per minute puts it in direct competition with the Brother QL-1100c. This speed is pretty impressive and is only let down by the lack of an automatic cutting tool. For completeness, there is a serrated edge for manual cutting.

I didn't experience any reliability problems and even if I had to open the top, the machine was able to recalibrate and reposition the labels quickly and accurately.

I know these are only labels but I think the performance of the printer is let down by only being able to print 203 DPI. The definition of text is not as clear as it could be so only get this printer if high resolution isn't paramount.

MUNBYN Label Printer RealWriter 941: Verdict

The MUNBYN 941 label printer is a well-made label printer that does the basics well but lacks any advanced features that might set it apart from the rest. The device is really easy to set up and only requires connecting to a power source and your computer via USB-A. The lack of wireless printing is a shame and limits the usability of the printer. The benefit of a cabled solution is speed and that's where the MUNBYN 941 comes into its own. Not only is it instant but it's also able to print 150mm per second, which equates to 72 labels per minute. MUNBYN has done well to create a good-performing printer at a budget-friendly price point.

The Brother VC-500W is a lightweight, small-format label printer that has wireless connectivity. Thanks to its ZINK paper, it is possible to print color with no problems such as smudges and tears. The printer is not particularly quick, with 0.3 inches printed per second. Operating system support spans across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Thanks to the ZINK paper, it is possible to print color labels with no trouble at all. This paper avoids the pitfalls of traditional color printing with no problems like smudges, tears, or water damage. 

The printer can accept roll widths of 9, 12, 19, 25, and 50 mm, although the included roll is only 25mm. What is more impressive is the 420mm length that this printer is capable of printing up to.

Wireless connectivity makes this one of the more flexible label printers, with the possibility to print straight from a phone's camera roll or social media. This makes it perfect to create labels for around the house or for special events. The free Color Label Editor 2 app offers a wide array of design tools for creating perfect layouts.

Brother VC-500W: Specifications

Brother VC-500W: Design & Handling

Brother continues its long-standing history of making great products. The VC-500W is a beautiful-looking unit with a mix of white and black plastic that will help it stand out on any desk. The top face includes three LED lights that act as status indicators, as well as two buttons. These buttons are not depressable, which makes it a little tricky to know if you've pressed them or not. The on-off button, on the other hand, located on the right-hand side, is a physical button that provides the necessary pressing feedback. The power port is located underneath the unit, and there's a handy cable trail that ensures the power cable is neatly placed out of the way.

The roll is located at the rear of the unit, with no flap or panel to protect it. The benefit of this is that the roll can be removed quickly and without fuss, but the downside is that it could get knocked and damaged. The roll clicks in and out of the unit really nicely, but if you remove and reinsert it mid-roll then you'll need to make sure the front strip of the roll is fed properly back into the printer. 

Brother VC-500W: Performance

The Brother VC-500W performs pretty well considering its printing colour at 313 dpi. Photos and text are printed to a high resolution with no visible separation of dots. The speed at which the labels are printed is pretty slow and it does take a while to receive the necessary printing data and warm up to the point of being print-ready. The cutting of the labels is automatic but there is around 5 to 10mm of roll wastage between labels when printed on different print runs. Connection with the Brother Color Label 2 app was reliable and efficient.

Brother VC-500W: Verdict

The Brother VC-500W is a very capable color printer. At a resolution of 313 dpi, prints are produced at a top-quality resolution. Colors are not hugely accurate, with natural skin tones skewing significantly towards magenta. The ZINK paper is top quality with no smudging or tearing problems. Label width tops out at 2 inches, which is plenty for creating event labels or home-based labeling but is lacking for anything bigger. The 420mm maximum length is fantastic for creating long labels. The printer works across all major operating systems and is even able to connect wirelessly to mobile devices.

The Brother P-touch CUBE Plus is a small, compact, and lightweight label and ribbon printer. At 180 dpi resolution, it is far from the highest resolution printer, and there is a visible lack of resolution on both pictures, logos, and text. Tape width goes up to a maximum of 1 inch, with options for smaller widths too.

The printer contains a small yet powerful Lithium Ion battery, which makes it possible to store a charge even when it's not connected to a power source. It can be easily recharged using the USB-A cable that is connected to a laptop. The P-touch CUBE Plus is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and Apple devices with Bluetooth functionality for wireless printing. 

The iPrint&Label app provides a range of different label templates for easy label generation. It is also possible to use Brother's P-touch Editor design software to create more customized labels, including barcodes, images, and logos. Both of these applications are free.

This printer supports tape widths of 6, 9, 12, 18, or 24mm. Brother TZe tapes are available in up to 60 different color and size combinations.

Brother PT-P710BT: Specifications

Brother PT-P710BT: Design & Handling

At only 670g, the P-touch CUBE Plus is really lightweight, and despite the name, the printer is more of a squashed cube rather than a cube in the strictest sense. The curved edges and sides follow other Brother printer designs, although I think it could have benefited from a sharper design. The all-white plastic case is more than adequate, but again, visually, it would look better with a black strip or panel to create some contrast. 

The top of the printer includes a small window, so users can quickly see what tape is currently installed. This is a great design feature, especially if you regularly find yourself working with different types of tape. Tape cassettes can be quickly swapped out with a process that reminds me of listening to music on cassettes in the 1990s. The hinge for the top panel is a little under-engineered, so you'll need to be careful when performing a swap out. 

There are two power indicators, one to say it's plugged into a power source and the other to say that the unit is turned on. The inclusion, on the side of the printer, of a QR code for downloading the software was really handy for getting up and running quickly.

Brother PT-P710BT: Performance

The P-touch CUBE Plus is quick, with labels printed and cut at a super fast pace. Unfortunately, the resolution is far from ideal, and at 180 dpi, it is really low, even for printers specifically designed for text. Diagonal letters such as 'V' and the curved letter 'O' were printed with visible jagged edges, which is fine if you're more than 50 cm away from the label, but closer inspection shows the lack of quality. The printer is not particularly power-hungry so the built-in battery delivers great life after a full charge.

Brother PT-P710BT: Verdict

Wirelessly printing narrow plastic labels doesn't come much better than with the Brother P-touch CUBE Plus. With great build quality and robust materials, the printer itself is sure to stand the test of time. The hinge to the cassette draw is a little lacking in strength, but as long as users are careful, there won't be any problems. The range of up to 60 different Brother TZe tapes provides a huge range of creative possibilities. At 600g and with a built-in battery, this thermal printer is one of the most portable options around at the moment.

The Brother QL-1100c has a top of the range specification that is matched by great build quality. 300 dpi ensures labels are printed at high resolution, with the ability to generate up to 69 labels every single minute. This is a mono only printer, and the wide format design makes it possible to accept rolls up to 4 inches wide. Operating system compatibility spreads across Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android.

This Brother printer accepts labels in a range of sizes, all the way up to 4 inches wide. At all sizes, it is possible to print up to 69 labels per minute. Each individual label is cut as part of the printing process. 

Getting the printer setup is as simple as plugging it into a power outlet and then connecting the USB-A cable to your computer. With support for both PC and Mac, this printer is great for all systems, including hybrid setups. The free P-touch Editor label design software is easy to use and lets you add text, images, and barcodes to your labels.

If you're printing labels through FBA, then the special PDF crop print function will help to ensure everything is consistent and meets the necessary requirements. The drive detects, extracts, and prints each individual label, making it easy to mark up items to be shipped to Amazon.

Brother QL-1100c: Specifications

Brother QL-1100c: Design & Handling

The build quality of the Brother QL-1100c is second to none. The unit is predominately made up of two types of plastic, both thick enough to avoid damage during use. The hinge is strong enough to cope with regular roll changes, and the release catches are equally well manufactured. 

The roll inserts into three notches with no clips or latches. The lack of moving parts here helps to ensure the device's longevity. Its notched design means the printer can accept labels at a variety of different widths, all the way up to 4 inches wide. 

Loading the roll was a little fiddly, and at first I didn't realise that the roll needed to be located underneath a guide panel. After becoming familiar with the process, I had no problems swapping rolls out quickly and efficiently.

The inclusion of four different function buttons—power, feed, and cut—helps give users access to the most commonly required functions.

Brother QL-1100c: Performance

This particular type of printer is most commonly utilized for producing wide-format labels that feature a combination of text and bar codes. It excels in rendering vector-based elements with exceptional sharpness and clarity, owing to its impressive 300 dots per inch (dpi) resolution. However, when it comes to graphic elements such as photos, the printer's performance is not quite as impressive, with visible dots and some slight vertical streakiness across the images. 

On the positive side, the printer boasts incredibly fast printing speeds, and its label-feeding and cutting functions are consistently precise and reliable. If your primary use case involves simply printing wide-format labels, you won't be disappointed by the print quality and overall performance.

Brother QL-1100c: Verdict

The Brother QL-1100c has a really impressive specification. With compatibility across all major operating systems and an easy-to-use design package, it is possible to use this printer with whatever hardware you're using. Support for a range of different label widths all the way up to 4 inches makes this a versatile option for users needing a lot of flexibility. 

The print quality reaches 300 dpi but is limited to mono output. This will be absolutely fine for almost all users, but if you need a color printer, then this Brother isn't for you. 

The modern curved design means it'll look great in any setting, and a top-quality build ensures it'll last a long time, even in a busy warehouse environment.

What is it about printer ink? Somehow it contrives to spread all over a standard sheet of paper, getting into the gaps, and when you print a barcode for postage it doesn't always scan properly unless you use very expensive paper. And when the ink cartridge explodes onto your hand, it manages to give you a pretty effective temporary tattoo.

Now it could've looked a little bit more "murdery", I admit, but it's not great. My Canon Pixma Pro 9000, released in 2007, has 8 colors including a red and a green – so if I had red ink all over my hands, it would definitely look a lot more like blood. But today it's a brand new magenta that is dripped out.

The question is, do I actually have a right to be upset about this? You see, I'm not actually using Canon-branded ink cartridges. 

For many years of this more-than-a-decade-old printer's life, I doggedly stuck to the idea that I had to use the manufacturer's own-brand inks. But about five years ago I found it very hard to get hold of Canon cartridges, at least without taking out a bank loan, so switched to site I found offering equivalent. This seems a more environmentally rational approach than simply junking the printer, which more or less still works (although admittedly it could do with a clean).

I also continue to be surprised that, several versions, later macOS still supports it. I've owned a fair few computers in that time – I think the Mac I had when I bought the printer was a G4, so I've gone Intel (the first intel Mac was announced in 2006) and back. For me at least, buying a printer is less exciting than a computer. I just want it to work.

Now admittedly I've had to replace the inks more than I'd like, and while the photo quality is great if I've got all-new inks and I've got high-quality photo paper, perhaps I haven't used it as much as I should've done. Most of the time the printer sits and waits, the inks gently evaporating… until, like today, I have a minor printing task and I end up having to swap one of the tanks.

Actually, I had to swap three. The green and the black went just fine. Then the magenta… well, you can see the picture of my hand above. The design of the tanks requires you to take off a clip at the bottom, which seals the point thing that comes out and protects the chip, and then remove a small cover. 

This mess reminds me of a time when I used to have an Acorn Archimedes computer, and a Canon BJ-10ex bubble jet printer. With a special piece of software, my dad and I could make this black-and-white printer print in color by flushing some old cartridges with water and then injecting cyan, magenta and yellow ink. You then had to print a page four times through the printer, but the result was color – and, in the mid-Nineties at least, that's pretty impressive. On our budget, anyway.

As you can imagine, though, flushing out used ink cartridges and then injecting new ink wasn't the cleanest of processes. The thing is, here and now, a quarter of a century later, using dedicated cartridges, I don't understand why I'm getting into more (or at least the same) amount of mess.

With cartridges at over $20 apiece for a set of 8 for genuine ones (if you can find them at all) or about the same for a set of "fakes" and it being a lot easier to reliably order them, is a bit of ink on my hand worth the risk? Canon's cartridges might have had better manufacturing standards, but the design principles were the same so ink drips weren't beyond the bounds of possibility after all…

Check out guide to the best photo printers and best large format printers.

Forget about Letter-sized prints or even A3 blow-ups - Canon's latest large format inkjet printers offer huge, huge prints that can be up to 60 inches wide. Aimed at professional photographers who sell their prints, the trio of new printers offer a new ink formulation, that will see your prints outlive you, your children and your children's children - with an incredible 200-year longevity. 

The new additions are additions to Canon's highly successful imagePROGRAF Pro large format printers - a 60in (imagePROGRAF PRO-6600), 44in (PRO-4600), and finally a 24in (PRO-2600). These three new models will replace the imagePROGRAF PRO-6100, PRO-4100, and PRO-2100 respectively. Each offers a new 12-color pigment ink set (Lucia Pro II) to produce the highest quality prints available from any imagePROGRAF offered by Canon.

Launching this new series of large format printers addresses market demand for greater image durability and light resistance to help increase long-term print storage and offers new environmental benefits over previous models.

The new Lucia Pro II ink set also allows users to futureproof their print output as the new inks provide substantially improved scratch resistance on photographic papers, to make handling, mounting, and finishing easier, such as for fine art printers (PSPs). In contrast, a very light-resistant pigment in the ink set dramatically increases color fastness . This in theory enhances their value, as photographic and fine art prints can now be produced in even higher quality with the new series of large format printers and be preserved for up to 200 years without the colors fading.

This new series also focuses on environmental considerations, for instance, complying with Canon’s goal of reducing the environmental footprint of its products and operations by using resources responsibly, minimizing waste, increasing efficiency, and supporting innovation.

 To co-inside with those goals Canon has reduced the amount of expanded polystyrene packaging material used with the new imagePrograf Pro series – for example, the company says it uses 89.5% less polystyrene foam for the PRO-4600 than for its predecessor. In addition, its reduced power consumption – using 85W or less during operation and 2.3W or less during standby.

“We’ve raised the bar for print quality as well as significantly increasing image robustness in terms of light and abrasion resistance, which is crucial for fine art printers and professional photographers", comments Canon Europe's Mathew Faulkner. 

The new imagePrograf Pro series will be available from March 2024 either directly from Canon or through one of its accredited resellers.

The HP Sprocket Photobooth enhances the capabilities of the HP Sprocket ink-free photo printer series, with some added fun of a photobooth (as opposed to the more personal Sprocket Panorama we also saw at CES).

The Sprocket Photobooth has a much lower entry point, and is far more portable, than other photobooths on the market. As a working pro, I have owned a few in the past for events and such and let me tell you, they are a royal pain to set up and maintain; especially if they have a thermal printer to contend with. 

With the new Sprocket Photobooth, you can select filters, capture photos, and print them directly from the device itself in 3.5” x 4.25” format, sticky-backed paper. Notably, this gadget, roughly the size of a large coffee table book at 21” high x 13” wide (53 x 33cm), comes equipped with a built-in kickstand, providing portability for on-the-go usage. You can also mount the Photobooth on the wall. (Personally, I hope a picture-style frame surround will be added to make it a bit more pleasing to look at, but perhaps that'll be the job of the customer).

The goal is to make the fun of photography work at home or in an event setting with this all-in-one easy-to-use device. 

The screen is 10.1 inches, with 1280 x 800 pixels on LCD, and runs Android built-in. It also has a camera, so is essentially a camera. It has a surrounding “beauty” light that can be modified in brightness on the given slider. While the screen resolution isn't crazy high it is bright and seemed to work fine in the bright lights of the CES halls. It’s also not very heavy weighing in at 8lbs adding to its portability.

I wasn't sure from a quick test at CES 2024 whether the device would accept images via wireless – say Bluetooth – or would only print pictures it took itself using the 3-2-1-Go approach. 

Priced at $449, the HP Sprocket Photobooth is fantastic value given its feature set, but is a tad more expensive than its peers in the portable instant photo printer space while still using 'Zink' ink-free tech (the dedicated printer paper will cost around 30-50$ for 50 sheets and will be easily available through many online retailers and HP’s website.)

However, the concept may well offer better value than renting a full-size photobooth for your upcoming events, and it provides the advantage of unlimited usage without being constrained by time or the number of events. When it finally goes on sale in Q3 2024 it'll be possible to assess the value proposition.

HP Sprocket is just one of the best photo printers available – and check out the best portable printers.

It's been a while since we’ve welcomed a new large-format photo printer and the Epson SureColor P5300 series inkjet introduces a new high-capacity ten-colour pigmented ink set called UltraChrome PRO10. 

Known as the P5370 in the USA, the P5300 in Europe and P5360 in Australasia, the pro  printer comes in high-capacity 200 millilitre cartridges and includes a new color – Violet Ink – which is designed to give an extended range of blue hues. Additionally, there are dedicated channels for the photo and matte black inks, so there’s no need for ink switching which not only saves time, but also reduces ink waste. 

The P5300/P5360/P5370 is a 17-inch format printer which means that it can print up to A2 size (17x22in) on cut sheets, but it will also accept paper rolls for panoramas. 

The printer has an updated version of Epson’s  ‘Micro Piezo AMC’ print head which uses the company’s ‘Variable Sized Droplet Technology’ (VSDT) to give a maximum resolution of 5760x1440 dpi, ensuring the finer detailing delivered by the higher-resolution digital camera can be accurately reproduced. VSDT also gives smoother tonal gradations. Additionally, there’s a ‘Carbon Black’ mode which increases the DMax value, giving richer blacks and enhanced contrast when printing on glossy papers. The print head employs 180 nozzles per color.

The SureColor P5300 series also incorporates the Epson Media Installer which is a software application designed to help control the parameters for printing on a variety of media, including the thicker fine-art photo papers.

Other notable features include a large 4.3in color LCD touchscreen control panel; Ethernet, USB and WiFi connectivity; built-in roll paper cutter and the Epson Print Layout software for easier and more efficient print production.

The Epson SureColor P5300/5370/5360 is priced at £2035 / $2,095 / AU$3,495 and is due to go on sale from this month.

The 200ml UltraChrome PRO10 ink cartridges for this model are priced at $96/£70/$169 each (note that the printer only comes with 80 millilitres ‘starter’ cartridges). 

HP Sprocket Panorama is a new photo printer that can print fun photo booth strips, custom labels, and custom photo projects. As the newest addition to HP Sprocket’s existing photo printer lineup, the Panorama provides you with a new way to customize your favorite photos, ensuring there is a printer to meet every need.

The HP Sprocket Panorama’s Bluetooth capabilities enable users to snap new photos on any smartphone (iOS or Android) before using the free HP Sprocket Panorama app to edit and print. 

With the Panorama, users can instantly roll out beautiful and fun sticky-backed pictures of various sizes ranging from 0.5” to 9”, custom 2" x 9" photo booth strips, or vibrant labels as small as 0.5" x 2". The Panorama is perfect for decorating walls and lockers, creating text and/or photo labels for home organization, bringing the photo booth experience home and so much more. Although this is aimed at a younger demographic, I think even I would buy one for the fun element of it.

Within the app, you can simply choose from ready-made templates or create your own. The app also allows you to get creative and enhance photos or labels with stylish frames, stickers, filters, text, and more. Customized photos can then be shared on social media directly, without ever leaving the app.

The Panorama will even alert you when it is safe to use the paper cutter button to easily separate your photo booth strips or labels.

The HP Sprocket Panorama is available now on Amazon and sprocketprinters.com. The MSRP is $149.99. In addition to the HP Sprocket Panorama, the HP Sprocket lineup includes four other instant photo printers:

Check our guides to the best portable printers and the best compact printers.

The Canon MAXIFY GX6550 is from Canon’s range of MegaTank printers, which feature large ink tanks that are refilled by bottles, rather than conventional cartridges. As usual for this type of printer, you need to pay more up-front but the running costs are very much lower. You’re unlikely to see any savings if you only create prints occasionally but, for higher-volume printing, the ‘total cost of ownership’ over the lifetime of the printer can be considerable – saving you around 90%.

Sold as the GX6560 in Australia, the GX6550 one of Canon’s ‘MAXIFY’ printers, it’s aimed at the small office or home office, and should prove a good fit for hybrid workers who split their hours between home and office. Pricewise, it’s less expensive than the bigger GX7050 but a little pricier than the GX4050, rather more so than the single-function GX5050 that lacks a scanner. Unlike the other two multi-function printers, the GX6550 doesn’t feature a direct fax facility but, with the comparative ease of emails with attachments, the chances are you might not even remember the last time you sent or received a fax.

Specifications

eInks/type: 4x pigment, CMYK
Max print size: 8.5x14-inch/A4, letter, legal
Max print speed: 24 ipm mono, 15.5 ipm color
Max print resolution: 600x1200dpi
Input trays: 1 front, 1 rear
Scanner: 1200x1200dpi, ADF
Display screen: 2.7-inch color touchscreen
Interfaces: 2x USB, Wi-Fi, Ethernet
Dimensions (WxDxH): 399 x 410 x 254mm
Weight: 11.5kg

Key features

Geared for mono and color document printing, the GX6550 features four pigment-based inks for the usual mix of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, with no dye-based inks in the line-up. This makes for robust output on plain paper, with good resistance to smudging from drops of water and the use of highlighter or marker pens. The flipside is that photo printing on glossy paper is comparatively lackluster, as pigment ink isn’t fully absorbed beneath the top glossy surface.

The ink tanks themselves, and their related refill bottles, have sufficient capacity for printing around 6,000 pages in mono, and 14,000 pages in color. Switch to ‘Economy’ printing mode and the page counts rise to 9,000 and 21,000 respectively. Taking the relatively high purchase price of the printer, you’ll soon break even if you print in fairly large volumes. Let’s not forget that the ‘setup’ cartridges usually supplied with conventional inkjet printers typically run out very quickly, and a replacement set of genuine cartridges can often cost as much or even more than the printer itself. That’s another point in the MegaTank printer’s favor.

For high-resolution output, the GX6550 features 600x1200dpi print heads and scanning is similarly detailed, with a built-in 1200x1200dpi scanner. An unusual feature of the printer is that the scanner’s 35-sheet ADF (Auto Document Feeder) is front-loading, rather than being positioned on the side. This enables the printer to squeeze into fairly tight spaces without the need to flip out a side-facing input tray for the scanner.

The same goes for the paper input cassette, which fits into the base of the printer, although there’s a secondary tray at the rear for using thicker paper or specialist media, which requires more headroom if you need to use it.

The GX6550 is well-connected, with USB, and Ethernet ports built-in, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity. There’s also a USB slot for printing direct from memory sticks. For remote use, you can also scan and print direct to and from cloud-based services.

Build and handling

Typical of Canon MAXIFY printers, built quality feels solid and robust. From a handling perspective, standalone tasks for printing, copying and scanning are enhanced by a tilting 2.7-inch color touchscreen. You can also use this for maintenance tasks like print head alignment and nozzle checks. For wireless remote scanning and printing, the printer is compatible with the Canon PRINT app, AirPrint and Mopria.

Another handling bonus is that the 35-sheet ADF enables duplex (double-sided) scanning and copying automatically. The main paper feed cassette can accommodate 250 sheets of plain paper, which is pretty generous, while the upright rear tray can hold a further 100 sheets of standard thickness paper.

There can be a worry over refilling ink tanks with bottles of ink, with the potential for it to be a messy task. There’s no cause for concern here, as the bottles of ink feature built-in valves which only open when the bottle is correctly inserted in the tank, and shut off automatically when the tank becomes full. Each tank and bottle is individually keyed, making it impossible to pour the wrong color of ink into any of the tanks.

Performance

MAXIFY MegaTank printers are built with reasonably high print volumes in mind, so speed can be of the essence if you’ve got a big print job on your hands. The GX6550 obliges with fast print speeds of around 24ipm (impressions per minute) for mono and 15.5ipm for color pages. Auto duplex printing is supported and. for single-sided output, the first page print-out times are about 7 seconds for mono and 8 seconds for color. Naturally though, if the printer has been standing idle for a while and feels the need to run a mini cleaning cycle on power-up, the first page takes rather longer to print.

Print quality is very good for both mono and color documents, with accurate color rendition and plenty of fine detail, ideal if you need to be able to read ‘the small print’ in documents. Living up to its claims, the pigment-based inks are resistant to smudging and to the application of highlighter and marker pens.

A speed boost for scanning ID cards and other small pages, in practical terms, is that the scanner has a neat design in which you don’t need to fully open the cover to pop them in. All in all, performance is very good indeed, from the quality of output to the speed with which it’s delivered.

Verdict

Designed for the small or home office, and with hybrid workers in mind, this Canon printer runs on four pigment-based inks which are bottle-fed, claiming to reduce the total cost of ownership by 90%, compared with many popular inkjet and laser printers. It takes printing, scanning and copying in its stride, thanks to an intuitive touchscreen control panel. For the latter two tasks, it also features a 35-sheet ADF which, unusually, enables front-loading rather than from the side, potentially saving space and adding to its compact credentials. It’s a fast and versatile printer that’s easy to live with and cheap to run.

Read more: check out our guide to the best all-in-one printer or best photo printer available right now

Everyone needs a home printer, whether it's for study, work or photos, and while the new Canon PIXMA TS7650i and PIXMA TS7750i are not specifically photo printers, each can pop out a high-quality borderless 6" x 4" photo in just 19 seconds.

Photo printing is always useful in a home printer, and while neither the PIXMA TS7650i and PIXMA TS7750i are going to make our list of the best photo printers, they could well qualify among the best all-in-one printers.

Perhaps the most interesting feature, though, is the 'i' at the end of the model name, which indicates these printers are compatible with Canon's PIXMA Print Plan, currently available in the US starting at $3.99 per month and in the UK at £2.49 per month for 'Occasional' or 'Light' users who need around 30 prints per month. You can roll over unused pages and replacement inks can be sent automatically. Canon reckons the PIXMA Print Plan can save you up to 50% on ink costs.

This will appeal particular to those who think printer inks are a rip-off, and with a subscription plan you will at least stay in control of your printer usage and costs.

Specs-wise, these printers are the same, except that the TS7750i model adds a 35-sheet ADF (automatic document feeder). Both printers come in white, like Canon's existing PIXMA Print Plan models, as opposed to the usual black.

The PIXMA TS7650i and PIXMA TS7750i are designed for simplicity and ease of use for multiple users. Indeed, they feature a 'Switch AI' function for loading control/function profiles for different household members, depending on the features they need. The controls are on a tilting front panel with a 2.7-inch colour touchscreen and an LED status light. 

Automatic two-sided printing helps save paper and it's possible make copies with a single button press. The PIXMA TS7650i and PIXMA TS7750i both offer wireless printing, and it's even possible to set up Wireless Direct printing that doesn't even require a router, and uses a direct connection between the printer and a mobile device. 

In fact these are printers designed to work directly with mobile devices rather than simply being tied to desktop computers. The Canon PRINT app offers PC-free printing along with compatibility with Apple AirPrint and Mopria for Android. There are others apps and software too, including Canon's Creative Park app, Easy-Photo Print Editor, Easy-Layout Editor and PosterArtist Web. 

The new printers sit above the existing PIXMA TS5350a and PIXMA TS7450a models, and below the 5-ink Canon PIXMA TS6350a, which is more geared towards the creative community. For those especially interested in photo printing, there's also a new New Canon PIXMA TS8751, a multi-function home printer at the upper end of the PIXMA range.

Canon says the PIXMA TS7650i and PIXMA TS7750i will be available from October 2023. We don't have official US/UK pricing yet, but Canon has quoted a price of 145 euros for the PIXMA TS7650i (about $157 / £125 / AU$244) and 169 euros for the PIXMA TS7750i (about $183 / £145 / AU$285).

• The best photo printer
• The best portable printer: share your shots instantly
• Best printer inks: inkjet printer cartridges explained
• The best compact printer
• Best ink refill printers
• The best large-format printer for photographers
• Best photo paper for inkjet printers
• Best student printers

If you're in the market for a new inkjet printer, those super-cheap entry level machines you see when ordering your options by 'price lowest' can be really tempting. But don't go thinking that means you're getting a good deal - quite the opposite. Just as a drug dealer might give you a cheap first 'sample' to get you hooked, then hikes the price for all future transactions, printer manufacturers adopt a similar business model. They can easily recoup any shortfall from the discounted sale of the printer by selling its ink cartridges at massively overinflated prices. You're then kept on the hook, paying these exorbitant ink fees for the lifetime of the printer - a very lucrative earner for the printer companies. I vaguely recall a statistic that printer ink - at least the stuff you get in those tiny ink cartridges - is the most expensive liquid in the world by millilitre.

Then just to ensure you don't try to take your repeat business elsewhere, original cartridges from the likes of Canon and Epson are also likely to have electronic chips on the cartridge body, coding them to the printer and thereby preventing you from using cheaper, third-party cartridges instead.

But in spite of all this, at least when you buy one of these rip-off cartridges, you're getting the amount of ink you pay so much for, right? Well now it appears even this might not be the case. In a very revealing exposé by Fstoppers, we see an ink cartridge being taken apart to see just how much ink is actually inside.

The first potential concern is the cartridge in question uses an opaque black plastic construction, hiding the ink (or lack there of) within. The advertised ink volume of this particular cartridge is 11.9 millilitres. That's already a disgustingly low amount given how much the cartridge likely costs, but when the casing is cracked open, not even a drop of ink falls out. Instead, we see the entire space inside filled by two pieces of foam, each only lightly and partially coated with ink. When squeezed, barely a drop is released from this foam.

And don't go thinking this was one of those 'sample' cartridges included with the printer, containing just enough ink to get the printer up and running. No, this was actually a high-capacity, 'XL' cartridge.

We knew printer ink was a rip-off, but now it appears it's also a blatant scam. So please, please, don't fall for the lure of a really cheap inkjet printer. Pay the extra up-front for an ink refill printer with refillable ink tanks, such as an Epson EcoTank 8550 or Canon MegaTank G650 machine. Sure, they're not cheap, but at least you're actually getting what you pay for. Alternatively, consider the best online photo printing services instead - that's the option I personally choose for my own photo printing.

Story credit: Fstoppers

Read more:

• The best photo printer: desktop photo printers compared
• The best photo printing online: top services from around the web
• Best wireless printers
• The best portable printers
• The best all-in-one printer
• Best 3D printers
• Best budget printers

Refillable ink tanks beat cartridges for running costs and convenience. Conventional cartridge-based inkjet printers are generally sold with ‘setup cartridges’ that last next to no time, and a full set of regular replacement cartridges often costs as much or even more than the printer itself, so it’s easy to see where manufacturers make their money. And as for the lack of convenience, you can almost count on cartridges running out just when you need them most, which can be a big problem if you don’t have spares to hand. All in all, cartridges can be a pain and a financial drain. There has to be a better way.

As their names suggest, Canon MegaTank, Epson EcoTank and HP Smart Tank printers are fitted with relatively high-capacity ink tanks which last very much longer before they need refilling. Ink levels are clearly visible through transparent panels in the front of the printers, avoiding any nasty surprises. Refilling the tanks is based on large bottles of ink which work out massively cheaper. There’s also an upside in that ink bottles are more environmentally friendly with less raw materials and a much more straightforward manufacturing process, especially if you’re in the habit of binning used cartridges rather than sending them for recycling.

The net result is that if you print in fairly large volumes that run into hundreds of pages per month, you can reduce the ‘total cost of ownership’ of a printer by as much as 85 to 90 per cent, over its whole lifetime. Naturally, the initial purchase price is typically higher but there’s the prospect of huge savings further down the line. The flipside is that if you only print around 60 pages per month or less, it can make more financial sense to stick with a conventional cartridge-based printer.

You might worry that refilling ink tanks with bottles might be a messy business. That often used to be the case but times have changed. Nowadays, ink bottles generally have individually keyed tops, so each one only fits in the correct tank. What’s more, they’re gravity fed so there’s no squeezing involved, and ink is only released via an internal valve once the bottle is safely positioned in the receptacle at the top of the tank. The valve will also shut off automatically once the tank is full.

Let’s take a look at which refillable printers are the best buys on the market right now, to suit a wide range of requirements.

The best ink refill printers

Fast but not furious, this printer is ever-helpful and very easy to live with. It’s ideally suited to busy individuals, families and anyone who has a lot of printing on their hands. Full bottles of ink will see you through 6,000 mono pages and 14,000 color pages, stretching to 9,000 and 21,000 in Economy mode. Printing itself is super-quick at 24ipm (impressions per minute) mono and 15.5ipm for color. Copying and scanning tasks are simplified by a 50-sheet ADF, functions being brought together by a 2.7-inch color touchscreen with an intuitive interface. Nice touches we liked include an additional rear paper input tray for specialist media and 1.2m banner printing. The full set of pigment-based inks gives very robust mono and color output but we found during testing that it is less well suited to photo printing on glossy paper.

With an initial purchase price that’s only about the same as for some conventional cartridge-based printers, this Canon gives you a very affordable route into tank-based printing. Even so, its set of ink bottles is good for 6,000 mono pages and 7,700 in color. With a pigment-based black ink and dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow, it makes a good stab at photo printing, delivering around 2,200 6x4-inch color photos from full tanks. There’s no color touchscreen but controls are nevertheless intuitive, based on a 2-line mono LCD. 1.2m banner printing is also supported but duplex printing needs to be done manually and we found that it is not particularly fast.

Let’s face it, not everyone needs a printer with a built-in scanner for scanning and copying. If you don’t, this printer will give you high performance with a terrific turn of speed for relatively little initial outlay. Like a number of competing printers, it runs on pigment-based black ink and dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks. The result is crisp and robust, smudge-resistant black text, and decent photo output on glossy paper. It has a nifty turn of speed too, at 13ipm for mono and 6.8ipm for color, with enough ink capacity for 6,000 and 7,700 pages respectively, or 2,200 6x4-inch color photos. Wide-ranging connectivity includes USB, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, and there’s a 350-sheet input cassette plus a 100-sheet rear tray, along with auto duplex printing.

Despite being keenly priced, this HP printer is well-connected with USB, WI-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct and Ethernet all built-in, as well as Bluetooth (low energy) for easy pairing with smart devices. It’s supplied with two bottles of pigment-based black ink and one each of dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks, sufficient for printing up to 12,000 mono pages and 8,000 color. Unusually, replacement bottles of black ink are available in standard or high-yield options, with a life of 4,000 or 6,000 pages respectively. The printer features a 35-sheet ADF for scanning and copying but has fairly rudimentary controls based around a small mono screen. There’s only one paper input cassette and no additional tray, so you need to swap out plain paper if you want to print photos.

Although fairly compact and lightweight, this Epson printer is packed with features that are ideal for the busy home environment. Taking on everything from kids’ homework assignments to all your grown-up printing needs, it features a scanner with a 30-sheet ADF and boasts advanced scanning, copying and fax facilities, all brought together by a neat 2.4-inch color touchscreen. Auto duplex printing is also available but there’s no additional paper input tray for photo paper or specialist media. We calculate that a set of ink bottles should last for 7,500 mono pages and 6,000 color – which Epson says is equivalent to as many as 72 cartridges. We liked that the printer is actually supplied with two black ink bottles for up to 15,000 mono pages - which we think is remarkably generous

Like a number of other Canon MAXIFY printers, this one runs on four pigment-based CMYK inks, with bottles rated at 6,000/14,000 mono and color pages, stretching to 9,000/21,000 in economy mode. An upside of the all-pigment inks is that you get robust prints for both mono and color documents on plain paper, which are resistant to smudging from water and highlighter pens. The downside is that photo quality on glossy paper is comparatively poor. Home office-friendly features include a 35-sheet ADF which feeds a scanner for scanning and copying, as well as direct fax. Controls are intuitive, based on a 2.7-inch color touchscreen. There’s an internal 250-sheet paper cassette, plus a 100-sheet rear feeder for photo paper and other specialist media.

A particularly business oriented printer, this one builds on the core features of the Canon MAXIFY GX6021/GX6050. It has all the same benefits of super-fast print speeds, great stamina with up to 6,000 mono pages and 14,000 color pages per set of bottles (9,000 and 21,000 in Economy mode), auto duplex printing, a color tilting touchscreen interface and 1.2m banner printing. On top of this it adds a secondary paper input cassette, so you get two 250-sheet cassettes plus the same additional 100-sheet rear tray. Scanning and copying for double-sided pages is much quicker, thanks to both sides each page being scanned in a single pass, and the printer also adds a direct fax facility.

Less ideal for document printing, this is more of a specialist photo printer, featuring six dye based inks. As well as the usual CMYK, you also get red and gray inks, which extend the gamut for color photo printing and increase the tonal range and definition for black & white photo prints. There’s no internal paper feed cassette, so paper is only inputted from an upright rear tray, but the printer features a high-resolution 1200dpi scanner, ideal for copying existing photo prints. A set of ink bottles is good for 3,800 color 6x4-inch photo prints but print speeds are pretty pedestrian. Mono and color documents are printed at 3.9ipm, and a borderless 6x4-inch photo takes about 47 seconds.

A good choice for creatives who want to print documents, photos and craft projects from a single printer, this Epson features a pigment black ink along with dye-based CMYK and gray inks. This enables crisp, smudge-resistant black text along with excellent photo quality on glossy paper for both color and black & white images. The paper input system is suitably accommodating, with internal cassettes for both A4/letter paper and smaller photo paper, plus a rear tray for other photo paper or specialist media. The ink bottles have an expected life of around 2,300 6x4-inch color photo prints. For regular document printed, they’re rated at 6,700 mono pages and 6,200 for color.

Given how much ink a single A3+/13x19-inch photo print requires, a printer with refillable tanks is particularly ideal. This Epson fits the bill nicely, running on the same ink line-up and replacement bottles as the A4/8.5-inch ET-8500. As such, you can expect around 2,300 6x4-inch photo prints or 6,700/6,200 mono/color pages from a full set of bottles. Naturally, the printer comes into its own for large-format photo printing, which is pretty speedy at about 2 minutes for a borderless A3+/13x19-inch color print. As well as scanning and copying, the printer also supports direct printing from SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards and is PictBridge compliant. Standalone printing and copying is enhanced by a 4.3-inch color touchscreen.

How we test printers

Printers come in many shapes and sizes, from pocket photo printers to large-format professional models. We check the suitability for wide-ranging tasks from printing office documents to high-end photographic output and, consequently, the type and quantity of dye/pigment inks. Additional features can include a built-in scanner, a standalone control panel, a touchscreen interface, Wi-Fi connectivity, direct fax functions, and a card reader slot.

Our test procedure begins with installing the latest software drivers and running nozzle check and print head alignment routines. We then create test prints from mono documents, mixed text and graphics color documents, and a wide range of digital photos that include landscapes, portraits, and black & white images. 

We use the various available quality modes, including optional image enhancement features. We also create prints from our own specially created test chart, to test the printer's accuracy in terms of color reproduction, tonal range, retention of detail in bright highlights and dark shadows, and the ability to deliver smooth gradations in subtle color variations. The printer manufacturer’s own-brand inks and papers are used throughout the entire testing procedure.

For output speed, we record the time taken to produce various sizes of prints at different quality settings. Ink costs are calculated on typical page yield against average prices for the manufacturer’s own-brand cartridges or bottles.

To learn more about how Digital Camera World tests products for reviews and buying guides please visit our how we test and review page.

The near-immediate gratification provided by instant print cameras means they’re great fun, as well as an ideal way to introduce photography to the younger generation. They’ll further raise a nostalgic smile from older family members who recall Polaroid cameras from their own childhoods. But while the Polaroid brand which was once a byword for instant prints has made a comeback in recent years, several other players have now muscled in on the scene, including Canon, Lomography, and Fujifilm.

Like Fujifilm, Kodak was once world-renowned for its expertise in film. So it makes sense that the re-emergence of Kodak sees the brand name adorning an instant print camera. However, in something of a twist, there is no film actually involved when it comes to the Kodak Step Touch Instant Print Digital Camera. Though most instant cameras are all-analog devices, this one is essentially a point-and-shoot digital camera and printer in one. 

We get a rear screen for composition and review, just like on a regular digital compact, plus the ability to output 2x3-inch credit card-sized prints. Like other cameras from this manufacturer, dry-to-the-touch Zink (zero ink technology) is employed here, with prints emerging fully finished.

So, unlike with competing Fuji and Lomography instant print cameras – both utilizing instant film packs – there is not the same process of waiting for the shot to develop before our eyes. However, it can still be argued that seeing any hard copy print emerge from the same device we’ve just taken a picture on still provides an element of theatre.

And giving the user a photographic 'experience' is ultimately what the Kodak Step Touch Instant Print Digital Camera is all about, as we shall see…

Specifications

Sensor: 16 megapixels 
Sensitivity range: Automatic
Video: 1080P/720P
Lens: 2.97mm, f2.2
Monitor: Yes, 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen
Viewfinder: No
Battery life: 40 prints per charge
Dimensions: 6.81x6.34x2.01 inches
Weight: 453.6g

Key features

As expected, the Kodak Step Touch Instant Print Digital Camera is a fixed focus, fixed f/22 aperture camera, meaning that all we have to do is point it at our subject and squeeze the prominent red shutter release button. Friendly on-screen prompts guide us through the operational process from the get-go. 

A neat feature here is the pop-up flash that also includes a barely noticeable 'selfie' mirror alongside it. With a tap of the flash icon via the camera's LCD, we can either set the flash to auto, to always fire or leave it switched off. The clever bit is that while this device is no thicker than the average box of matches it still finds room to hide both a built-in printer and a stack of 10 sheets of Kodak-branded Zink photo paper beneath its backplate LCD screen. The screen flips open to allow us to load the paper. If we’ve one grumble here it’s that the bundled starter pack provides just five sheets of paper.

Another difference when comparing this with Instax instant print cameras from rival Fuji is that the Kodak prints are automatically adhesive-backed so that you can enjoy using them as stickers. The rechargeable battery life is good for 40 prints per charge. Though that sounds unspectacular, how often will we actually attempt to sequentially print 40 images? Almost never.

Unusually for an instant print camera, another advantage of the Kodak Step Touch’s digital engine is that it’s capable of not just capturing still photos up to 13 megapixels in size, but also shooting Full HD 1920x1080 resolution video sequences. There’s the option to insert a microSD card of up to 256GB capacity into the base of the unit in order to save both for posterity.

While there is no optical viewfinder here, the large 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen provides intuitive operation, even if it does essentially turn into a mirror in direct sunlight, rendering the ability to see whatever the lens is seeing, rather than what’s reflecting onto the screen, somewhat difficult. 

If you are tempted to buy this instant print camera be aware its manufacturer also offers an outwardly similar but less expensive Kodak Step instant print digital camera – without the touch element. The Step comes without an LCD screen and features a pop-up optical viewfinder whereas the Touch instead features a screen and its pop-up flash.

Build & handling

Like instant print photography itself, the Kodak Step Touch Instant Print Digital Camera suggests cross-generational appeal courtesy of a minimalist yet sporty design, complete with a retro 'go faster' stripe in on-brand Kodak yellow and black. Another old school feature is that raised flash directly above the lens, a placement that means there’s a greater likelihood of avoiding instances of 'red eye' than if the flash was actually incorporated into the body. Since the camera’s f/22 aperture is hardly the brightest, the flash is handy for those inevitable party pictures.

Held in the palm, the device is shorter than the average mobile phone handset, while at the same time being two or three times the depth, to allow for the printer element. That said it’s a lot less bulky overall than even competing Fujifilm Instax 'mini' instant print cameras. By contrast, as its blurb suggests, the Kodak Step Touch Instant Print Digital Camera will indeed fit neatly into a pocket or purse. Plastic-y in construction, in the hand the device feels somewhere between a toy and a 'proper' camera, which, given the breadth and age range of its possible audience, is perfectly pitched.

A press of the small latch secreted within the bezel of the back screen opens the back of the camera, providing a recess into which we load our smudge-proof and water-resistant Kodak Zink photo paper, 10 sheets at a time. Before any printing can begin, the blue color calibration sheet included with each fresh pack is ejected. And then we’re ready to go.

Helpfully provided out of the box is a wrist strap, a USB cable for recharging the non-removable internal lithium battery, a small printed beginner’s guide, plus a packet of five sheets to get us started. There's no USB mains plug provided in case we’re thinking of charging it that way rather than via an available port on the PC, but any USB-enabled smartphone plug will do.

Performance

Like all instant print cameras, as far as operation goes the Kodak Step Touch Instant Print Digital Camera is point-and-shoot all the way. If we have got a grumble it’s that the rear LCD screen utilized for shot composition and review is highly reflective, meaning it’s trickier than usual to view outdoors in sunlight.

Squeeze the shutter release button – red on our all-white review sample, although an all-black alternative is additionally available – and, after the camera has considered its options for a little while, we hear the familiar whirring and grinding of internal gears before our sheet of the pre-loaded paper begins to slowly and emerge from a narrow slit in the left-hand side of the device, if viewed lens-on.

While we love the above bit of theatre, unfortunately, the print output doesn’t force us to revise our long-held impressions of ‘Zink’ prints. Disappointingly they still closely resemble glossy color photocopies rather than proper photo lab-developed prints. That’s fine for when we want to peel off the back of our prints and stick them on the fridge or in a scrapbook, but these aren’t images we’d want to display on a mantelpiece or in the family album for future generations, nor do they have the charm of an original Polaroid or even current generation Fuji Instax print.

Still, in an age when most of our photographs are only stored in the Cloud or on our smartphones, credit card-sized stickers – ultimately disposable as they are –suggest marginally more permanence.

Verdict

While dry-to-the-touch zero ink, or Zink technology has its advantages when it comes to the fast and easy production, sharing, and application of prints and stickers, to our eyes the results straight out of the camera are still no match for the original film era Polaroid cameras, or indeed the modern era Fuji Instax cameras that successfully ape them. 

That said, the Kodak Step Touch Instant Print Digital Camera is much more compact and portable than either a modern Fuji or old-school Polaroid, so perhaps it’s the camera we’re more likely to take out and about and have with us when inspiration for a selfie or a pictorial memento strikes. If we further view Kodak’s LCD incorporating camera and printer combo as the bit of fun it’s intended to be, then any criticism of plastic-y build and washed-out looking prints feels somewhat churlish – as long as we can nab one for a value-added price.

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As mentioned in our introduction, alternative instant print cameras are offered in the form of Fujifilm's Instax range such as the Instax Mini 12, or Instax Wide 300, or from  Polaroid with the Polaroid Now. Canon also provides a connected printer for printing photos quickly from phones with its Zoe Mini range. 

Simplistic though it may at first seem, the Kodak Step Touch Instant Print Digital Camera has a lot going for it though, including the backplate touch screen with helpful operational prompts, Bluetooth connectivity, and the ability to save photos and videos to an optional microSD card, just like a regular digital camera – albeit one that output prints for us too. 

There is a seemingly endless list of different types of best document and photo scanners you can buy to copy and archive old photographs, from the best compact scanners to the best flatbed scanners, each device type has its pros and cons.

Compact scanners tend to be light, easy to use, and fast, but suffer from low resolutions that might not bring out the best in your images. Flatbed scanners usually offer much higher resolutions but are very large, slow, and cumbersome to use. What's more, both these types of scanners require you to manually feed and scan each individual photo.

So what if a device was the best of both worlds and had fantastic scan quality and was fast and effortless to use? Well, that is where the Epson FastFoto FF-680W proposes something different, offering a small compact form factor, fast and automated photo and document scanning, and a photo quality resolution. But can it deliver successfully on all its lofty promises?

Specifications

Type: Sheetfed scanner
Image sensor: RGB LED
Max scan size: 216 mm x 910 mm
Max scan resolution: 600 DPI (1200 DPI Interpolated)
Color: 24 Bits Color / 8 Bits Monochrome
Scanning speed: 45 pages/min at 300DPI
Capacity: 100 Sheets Standard, 36 Photo Sheets
Weight: 3.7kg
Dimensions (WxDxH): 296‎ x 169 x 176 mm
Connectivity: USB 3.0, Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11b/g/n
Operating system: Windows 7 onwards / Mac OS X 10.7 onwards

Key features

This FF-680W from Epson aims to make digitizing your collection of old printed photos and instant prints as fast and convenient as possible. Based on Epson's quick scanning technology and the scanners auto feeder, you can scan batches of up to 30 photos in 30 seconds at 300 DPI, with 600DPI taking only a fraction longer. You can even scan up to 1200 DPI using Epson's digital interpolation. 

You are not limited to any photo size, the FF-680W is able to scan the most common 6x4 prints, but also square, panoramic, and instant photos, with sizes from 9x13cm up to 21x91cm. The scanner is also capable of scanning both sides of the image at the same time, so if you are the type of person who takes notes on your photos, these can be saved along with the photo itself, the Epson even has software to detect writing so it won't scan the blank backs of images.

The FF-680W comes with Epson's FastFoto scanning software, which has powerful options for automatically cropping and rotating photos, as well as restoring colors in faded photos and enhancing brightness, contrast, and color. You don't have to choose the original or enhances scan, as you have the option to save both simultaneously.

You can scan using WiFi or the dedicated USB cable, offering file types including small and shareable JPEGs or large TIFFs for increased image quality for reprinting or post-editing. FastFoto can also automatically upload images to cloud services such as Dropbox and Google Drive.

Not just limited to photo scanning, the FF-680W extends its usefulness by offering single or double-sided document scanning, documents up to ISO A4 sizes can be scanned using the auto feeder at up to 45 pages per minute. Using OCR software, scanned documents are editable in Word or Excel and PDFs are searchable.

Build & handling

The Epson FF-680W is a very compact device, easily slotting into most desk setups, it won't take up too much room, and also isn't a bad-looking device to have on display. Made from the usual black plastic shell on this kind of device, it is exceptionally light for easily moving around, but feels rigid and well made, with the trays and extensions all feeling solid and secure. The black plastic is a fingerprint magnet though, which for a design that you will open and close frequently, is a bit of an issue.

The scanner scans and advances batches of photos automatically, which is incredible to see, and very fast. However, one flaw in the design, is occasionally photos would get stuck in the scanner during batch scanning, this was easily rectified by taking the trapped photo out and restarting the scan, but a couple of the photos that did get stuck came away with slight indentations on the original print. This would make me wary about using this scanner for especially precious memories.

Performance

The clue is in the FastFoto branding, but still, I was blown away by how fast the Epson FF-680W scanned by large batches of prints. Compared to flatbed scanning this is a revelation. I managed to scan hundreds of 6x4 prints, as well as Polaroid and Instax Mini prints in a matter of minutes, with each scan taking just a few seconds to complete. After dropping your stack of photos into the in-tray, you can just put your feet up during the whole process.

While processing on the computer after scanning each batch does take a little while depending on the number of scans in a batch, but the entire process is automated. The scanner can produce three separate images from each scan, the original scan of the front, the back, and a software-enhanced scan. Enhanced photos use Epson's automated color and lighting corrections, as well as removing red eyes from flash photography.

The Epson FastFoto software is a breath of fresh air in a world of terrible bundled software, and it is some of the best scanner software I have ever used. It is incredibly easy and intuitive to use, and even looks nice, the software handles pretty much everything from scanning, processing, and saving, so you really don't need to do much except click continue.

The enhancements are good, and really do restore some older and more faded photos. The downside is they have a strong processed look and can make film images take on a more digital aesthetic, and will not be to everyone's tastes. The non-enhanced images are very useable and much more true to life, matching the original photos' exposure and colors, which is a starting point to apply your own corrections if needed.

I found my oldest, beat-up, and least cared-for photo, this 30-year-old print of a beach, I assumed it was beyond saving, having completely faded, and become discolored on one side. The automatic corrections in the Epson FastFoto software exceeded what I was expecting. The photo is not perfect but is a lifeline for salvaging any photos you thought were past saving. You can see the results above.

Verdict

The compact Epson FastFoto FF-680W is a revelation in home photo scanning. With huge batches of printed photos taking just minutes to scan in high-quality 600 DPI, and more useful for today's instant photographers, the FF-680W can provide quick and detailed scans of Polaroid and Instax film (although somewhat temperamentally), giving you a new way to share high-quality versions of your instant photos. Also to expand its usefulness, the FF-680W can also scan documents up to A4 in size.

While the experience of bundled scanner software usually makes you want to tear your hair out, the Epson FastFoto and ScanSmart software is a joy to use, it looks good, is easy to follow, and has lots of clever tricks to enhance old or faded photos, although this is hit and miss. 

There are better options out there for getting more consistent quality in your photos, with the FF-680W's speed sometimes at the sacrifice of consistency, with some photos having scanning artifacts like skipped lines. The added benefits of automatic photo corrections will also have limited mileage based on your own personal tastes. 

The Epson FastFoto is arguably too expensive for most home photo scanning needs. With huge back catalogs of photos being able to be scanned in moments, you need to ask yourself if you have a steady flow of new incoming photos that justify the need to own this scanner, or is this a one-use-only purchase? For this reason, perhaps, you can find companies renting these machines. But with the added bonus of scanning documents, this scanner can find a new lease on lifee - after those shoeboxes of old prints have been brought back to life in the digital age.

If you have a lot of old negatives and are interested in how to scan your negative film properly, you can read our guide to how to scan negatives and transparencies. You can also find the film scanner for your needs in our guides to the best film scanners. Finally, if you have a lot of mounted slides, you can check out our guide to the best slide viewers.

It's no secret that Canon is a major player in the printer sector, producing everything from tiny portable printers, through some of the best photo printers, right up to serious large format printers for enthusiasts and galleries. But did you know Canon also makes gargantuan, industrial printers? Turns out it does, and there's a new offering, the ProStream 3000 Series.

Intended for use by industrial printers, including online photo printing services, the machine can be used for printing postcards, posters, calendars, photobooks and much, much more. In fact, 'more' really is the right word, as the top-of-the-range ProStream 3133 is so named as it's capable of printing a barely-believable 133 meters per minute, on paper widths up to 558mm and side lengths up to 1524mm. Alternatively, the ProStream will also churn out 11,300 B2-sized (500×707 mm) sheets per minute, or 1790 A4 sheets per minute, which equates to an incredible 58 million A4 sheets per month!

The machine isn't exactly fussy about the grade of paper you load it with, as it'll print on a wide variety of substrates including coated, uncoated and inkjet-optimized paper. Paper weights of up to 300gsm are supported, though print speed must be reduced when printing on heavyweight paper.

Print quality is rated at 1,200 dpi, utilising piezo drop-on-demand print heads in combination with water-based Polymer pigment inks. Then there's the clever print optimization, like Smart ColorGrip, which conditions the paper so certain areas can be customised for stronger or weaker ink coverage. Cameras are also on hand to automatically keep tabs on print quality, reducing the need for operator intervention.

When printing in such large volumes, ensuring each printout is sufficiently dry is a must. Therefore the ProStream 3000 uses a controlled air flow at all stages of the paper run to protect each printout and dry it evenly.

"Customers around the world already have the ProStream's exceptional productivity for everything from high-margin books to Premium direct mail production, learned to appreciate - while benefiting from minimal Waste and very long operating times."

Jennifer Kolloczek, European Planning, Marketing & Innovation Senior Director, Production Print at Canon Europe

According to Canon, the new ProStream 3000 printers are available now. There's no mention of price, but you can safely assume it'll cost an arm and a leg, and likely your remaining limbs and several internal organs.

Read more:

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Best photo printers
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The Kodak Step Slim printer is a very specific device, for a very specific audience. It's not dissimilar in size to a mobile phone, albeit with a squarer shape. It runs off a rechargeable battery, so you can use it pretty much anywhere. It uses Zink (as in 'zero ink') paper, which is embedded with special color crystals, so you don't need to load it with a separate ink cartridge. And it allows you to generate small (2 x 3 inch) prints of the photos on your smartphone or social media accounts, via a free app. 

In other words, this is a pocket-sized portable printer you could bring to a wedding, party, festival or any other event, and use to print out pictures you've just taken, as a nice gift for others. A bit like the Polaroid cameras of old then, only it doesn't contain the camera bit, only the printer bit, and the prints are much smaller.

In all honesty, we don't know how useful the average person would find this, but it seems to be selling, so some people must like the idea. If you're among them, read on, and we'll explain what it's like to use in practice, and what the prints actually look like.

Kodak Step Slim: Specifications

Paper type: Zink
Print size: 2 × 3 inches
Connectivity: Bluetooth
Dimensions: 0.9 x 3.3 x 4.9 inches / 22.9 x 82.6 x 124.5mm
Weight: 8.4 oz / 40g
Battery: Rechargeable lithium metal battery; 25 prints on one charge
Compatibility: iOS/Android

Kodak Step Slim: Key features

The Kodak Step Slim is pretty limited in what it can do, although that can be seen as a positive, as it makes the device simple to understand and use. 

Specifically, you can only print from your smartphone via Bluetooth. There's no option for a wired connection, and nor can you connect up a laptop, Chromebook, USB stick or SD card. 

You can, however, print photos from your gallery or social media accounts via the free iOS or Android app, in just a few clicks. Note, though, that if your photos are in a 4:3 ratio you'll first have to crop them to fill the 3:2 size of the paper; you have the option to do this within the app. 

Furthermore, if you want to tweak your image further, there are a number of adjustment tools and filters you can play with within the app, as well as adding borders, graphics, and text to your images. These aren't exactly the most sophisticated, but they do the job well enough.

Kodak Step Slim: Setup

Setting up the printer is pretty easy. First you plug in the supplied micro USB charger and charge the battery (there's a light that shows when it's ready). Then you need to load the Zink paper, which comes in packs of 20. 

To insert it, you first have to separate the two halves of the printer, which I found a bit tricky. You really have to give it some force, which makes you feel like you're about to break it. But once you've done it a few times, you soon get used to it.

Once the paper's inside the device, you have to wait for it to spit out the blue card at the bottom, which is used for color calibration. Finally, when you want to print, you need to download the Canon Selphy app to your phone. In general, this is a pretty well organised and easy-to-use app. 

Unfortunately, the first time I downloaded it, I simply couldn't get the app to connect my Android phone to the device, even though my phone's Bluetooth widget said it was there. Tech support gave me a load of things to try, none of which worked. 

Eventually I walked away, came back a few weeks later, performed a suggested firmware update, and then everything started functioning normally. None of this was necessarily Kodak's fault: it could have been a problem with my phone or the Wi-Fi network. But I share this as a cautionary tale nonetheless.

Kodak Step Slim: Performance

In my tests, the Kodak Step Slim printer functioned well, consistently producing prints within around 40-50 seconds, with a little bit of whirring, but nothing too noisy or distracting. But the key question is: do the prints look any good? 

The short answer is no. Well at least not when compared with a normal inkjet printer (the type that make the best photo printers in general), or even the inferior-quality dye sublimation printers (a technology often used in the best portable printers). 

Zink printers, in comparison, offer lower-grade results, and that's definitely the case here. So you certainly wouldn't want to use this for professional work, or even photos of family and friends that you want to stick in an album and treasure forever.

With that expectation in mind, though, the prints I got from the Kodak Step Slim were good enough for sharing at events, if you're more interested in "capturing the moment" than presenting polished and professional images. 

The main issues for me included a little too much contrast and gloominess in the prints, although I could largely get around this by editing the originals and printing versions with less contrast and brightness. Although I do wonder how many people would be bothered to do this.

On the positive side, the colors in my prints matched well, and while the finest details sometimes got lost, at this size it didn't really matter a great deal.

Kodak Step Slim: Verdict

The Kodak Step Slim is well and truly a one-trick pony: you can use it to print 2 x 3 inch photos from your phone, and nothing else. So assuming you like the sound of this trick, is it worth buying? 

The short answer is yes, as long as your main interest is portability: this is a very small and light device that really does merit the description 'pocket sized'. It's also easy to use, making it a good choice for young children, as well as adults who don't want to faff around too much. 

The big downside is the picture quality, which is lower than what you'd expect from inkjet or dye-sub printers, although it stacks up fine against other Zink printers, not least its sibling, the Kodak Step. At time of press, that model costs about $10 / £10 less, but weighs a lot more (453g), so the main reason to spend extra on the Kodak Step Slim is to save weight in your bag: that's about all.

See also our guides to the best instant cameras,  the best digital instant cameras, and the best iPhone printers

Film photography has seen a resurgence like no one ever expected, from old users going back for nostalgia purposes to millennials and Gen-Z picking up film photography for the first time. If you've been shooting with one of the best film cameras and or want to scan in old negatives, you'll need the best film scanner. 

Once scanned, your negatives can be edited via computer, printed on a large scale, or shared on social media – all without setting foot into a darkroom.

The vast appeal of the Canon Canonscan 9000F Mark II is that this flatbed scanner, which is also a good scanner for documents and photos, has a built-in light for scanning your 35mm or 120 medium format film. With a simple click to remove the whiteboard cover for documents, the added light source is exposed to help you get quality scans out of your color or black-and-white negatives.

Read more: Here's how to scan film if you're not sure.

Canon CanoScan 900F Mark II Specifications

Image sensor: CCD 12-line color
Light source: White LED
Max scan resolution: 9600 dpi for film / 4,800 for photos/documents
Color: 48-bit input, 48/24-bit output
Grayscale: 48-bit input,16-bit for film / 8-bit output for photos/documents
Dynamic range: n/a
Infrared: Built-in
Scanning speed: 4800 dpi Color - approx. 4 minutes per image / B&W 4800 dpi - approx. 3 minutes
Scanning area (W x L): 216 x 297mm
Interface: USB 2.0
Net weight: 4.6kg / 10.14 Ibs
Dimensions (W x D x H): 270 x 480 x 111mm
Operating system: Windows XP onwards / Mac OS X 10.6.8 onwards
Bundled software: ScanGear, Scan Utility, My Image Garden

Canon Canoscan 9000F Mark II Key features

This flatbed scanner is capable of scanning photos or documents to a massive 4,800 DPI. It's also able to automatically allow the scanner to choose the right settings for documents, and auto selects for simply greyscale or color pdf scanning, while also being able to scan a document or photo and have it email-ready thanks to the handy email button provided on the front of the scanner. These seven buttons are a very quick and handy solution when you have multiple documents or photos that you need to send off or sign in a day.

However, the best features are saved for film photographers. One key feature of the Canon CanoScan 900F Mark II is its ability to be able to scan 35mm film, 120 medium format and slides without much hassle.

This is done by removing the whiteboard held within the scanner to reveal an additional white LED light source that helps to scan your negatives or slides. Supplied with the 9000F Mark II are three film holders that allow you to scan 12 frames of 35mm film at a time, 4 slides or 120 format film at a maximum 6cm x 22cm filmstrip to a massive 9,800 DPI.

This makes the CanoScan 9000F Mark II one of the most versatile flatbed scanners on the market today offering a competitive solution for photographers wanting an all-in-one solution. 

Canon Canonscan 9000F Mark II Build & Handling

Material

Like many scanners today, the Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II is made from hard-duty plastic, which can stand up to a world of abuse. After five years and many house moves, it still produces fantastic results today.

Durability

If you're the type that moves around a lot or simply does not have the desk space for it constantly – or only needs a film scanner when you shoot the occasional film – Canon actually equipped the 9000F Mark II with a locking switch that will lock the whole scanning mechanism in place so you are less likely to damage or misalign anything while in transit or in storage.

Size

This is a full A4 flatbed document scanner, and therefore it does take up a large amount of space either on your desk or table stand. I currently have mine mounted onto my PC case and it does just fine there, but if you want a more stable solution you might have to rearrange your current computer setup if you're anything like me and have more than one or two monitors.

Flimsy film holders 

Also, even though in my five years of ownership I have never had a problem with the film holders, they are made out of flimsy plastic and don't feel like the most premium items. I tend to bear this in mind each time I use and treat them rather delicately. I've never had an issue, but it's worth being made aware of in case you want to try this scanner out for yourself.

Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II Performance

The CanoScan 9000F Mark II performance for document scanning is outstanding, I find the standard settings that Canon has applied are perfect for producing 300 DPI PDFs or JPEGs and are only a few MBs each, perfect for quickly sending across on email.

I have found scanning a whole mortgage document of 20-odd pages a total breeze thanks to the added benefit of ScanUtility having the option to 'scan again' to scan multiple pages and then incorporate them into a single PDF, this makes office life so much simpler and means that your time is not affected too much either, so it's a win/win scenario. 

Now film scanning is where things get interesting, the included ScanGear software is great for beginners to scan film, it will automatically detect if you're wanting to scan either color or black and white film and will scan between 2,400 or 4,800 DPI. 

For the more advanced users, the included ScanGear software has an advanced feature where you can manually input for film settings, if you want your converted negatives as JPEGs, TIFFs, or as a DNG RAW file, while also being able to scan from 300 DPI all the way up to the whopping 9,600 DPI. 

With testing various settings on different film formats  I found that the sweet spot for optimal performance if you just want to scan your negatives once and file them away would be to set the scanner to 4,800 DPI. Depending on if you scan color or B&W this usually takes around 4 minutes per image – so it's a long process, but worth it.

I tend to use a workflow of scanning a whole roll of film at 1,200 DPI and once I have found the images I like I then re-scan the negatives at 4,800 DPI, RAW DNG for Color and TIFFs for Black and white negatives. 

For those wondering about the CanoScan's 9,600 DPI setting, I find this to have no real benefit over 4,800 DPI and it will bring your already long 4 minutes up to between 8-10minutes per image... if you have time for that, then set it to 9,600 DPI, but if you want a solid workflow setup for scanning multiple rolls in a day, leave it a 4,800 DPI. 

CanoScan 9000F Mark II film scanning samples

Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II Verdict

If you're looking for a scanner that can handle the day-to-day running of your photography business, signing contracts, and sending them off to clients – or you need old printed photos – the Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II can do all those things perfectly. 

If you're looking for a scanner that can help you scan 35mm and 120 film then the Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II is the best option. This is a scanner that can grow with your photography.

This scanner will automatically convert your color negatives or slide film for ease of use. More advanced users can scan a full DNG in 16-Bit to have a workable file to convert in either Adobe Lightroom or Photoshoot. It's a scanner that can cater to every photographer's needs.

If you are interested in finding out more about how to scan your negative film properly, you can read our guide to how to scan negatives and transparencies. 

You can also find the film scanner for your needs in our guides to the best film scanners, or to view your mounted slides before you scan them, you can check out our guide to the best slide viewers.

The Instax Square Link is the manufacturer's latest portable instant printer, which uses real Instax film as its medium. So in short, if you've ever wanted to print your photos onto a "Polaroid" and give them to somebody, this is what you're looking for. 

As you might have guessed, the Instax Square Link uses Instax Square film. As such, this printer completes the lineup of Instax printers using the manufacturer's three different formats – if you want to print on smaller Instax Mini film, then the Instax Mini Link / Instax Mini Link 2 is for you, while the Instax Link Wide is the one to go for if you want prints on the larger Instax Wide film. The Square Link replaces the now discontinued Instax Share SP-3. 

Polaroid also offers a spin on the idea, in the form of the Polaroid Lab. However, while this does print your photos onto real Polaroid film, it goes about it i a different way – effectively taking a photograph of your phone screen, and developing a print using Polaroid photochemistry. While this produces unique results, it's more experimental and produces less satisfying images if judged purely on 'print quality'.

So, how does the Instax Square Link stack up against its big and little brothers? 

Instax Square Link: Specifications

Paper type: Instax Square film
Print size: 2.8 × 3.4 in / 72 × 86mm
Image size: 2.4 × 2.4 in / 62 × 62mm
Resolution: 12.5 dots/mm (318 dpi, 80 μm dot pitch)
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB-C (charging only)
Dimensions: 105 × 37.5 × 127.5 mm
Weight: 236g (without film pack)
Battery: Internal lithium-ion, approx 100 shots, 80-120 minutes charging time
Compatibility: iOS/Android
Supported formats: JPEG, PNG, HEIF, DNG
Available colors: Ash White, Midnight Green

Instax Square Link: Key features

Obviously the key feature of the Instax Square Link is that it prints square-format pictures on Instax Square film, which makes it distinct from the Mini Link and Link Wide in terms of aspect ratio. It does, of course, share a similar format to the Polaroid Lab (though Polaroids are slightly larger, but also slightly more expensive).

Like the other members of the Link family, the Square has its own bespoke (and free) app for smart devices. Where other models have their own unique app features (such as light painting on the Mini Link 2), here there are two exclusive features: AR Print and Instax Connect.

The former enables you to add augmented reality features, such as animations, and print a QR code onto images so that the effects can be scanned (using the Instax Link app) and viewed by the recipient. The latter works as a sort of instant messenger or Post-It Note, where you can choose a background and send electronic messages that are overlaid on top – and can then be printed out as a keepsake.

Instax Square Link: Build and handling

Instax has clearly done a bit of spring cleaning with its Square products when it comes to their design. Much as the Instax Square SQ1 instant camera ditched the more dramatic look of the Instax Square SQ6 that it replaced, so the Instax Square Link foregoes the striking art deco design of the discontinued Instax Share SP-3 in favor of a more unified look that's more in line with the other Link printers.

The printer is a smaller, sleeker, more streamlined affair than its predecessor, with a subtle 'wave' pattern that both imbues the device with some aesthetic interest and also gives it some physical purchase for handling (rather than it being smooth like a bar of soap). 

Like the other Links, and unlike the SP-3, it lacks any indicator to tell you how many prints are left in your cartridge, and its integrated lithium-ion battery cannot be replaced. Unlike its siblings, however, Instax has finally given it a USB-C connection for recharging. 

Another welcome difference from the other Links is the addition of a function button that enables you to instantly reprint a picture, making this an ideal party printer for when five people all say, "Can I have one too!" While the apps for other Links enable you to print the last picture, and the Mini Link enabled you to turn the printer upside-down to perform a reprint, having an on-body button is much better.

Size wise, the Instax Square Link is marginally bigger than the Mini Link and substantially smaller than the Link Wide (as you can see below). 

Instax Square Link: Performance

The quality of the prints on the Square Link – as with the Mini Link and Link Wide – is excellent. The nature of the printing / developing process means that you are inherently getting a more contrasty look, but the "Instax look" is a brilliant one that complements virtually any scene or subject you print out.

The Instax Square Link app now applies Instax Rich mode as standard, which produces superior colors on virtually every shot – though this can be disabled if you prefer the original, more natural look (where colors are slightly less vibrant / more washed out). 

The app is by and large brilliant, enabling you to make basic exposure and saturation adjustments, as well as rotation and cropping tweaks… BUT it can also be a huge pain in the butt. Perhaps due to the amount of bleed that it's programmed to keep around the edge of a photograph, it can be impossible to recompose and / or resize your images exactly as you want.

Trying to enlarge an image sometimes results in the app making it 'bounce' back to its previous size, and dragging it too close to the native picture's edge likewise can 'bounce' it back to its previous position – which can make it a real pain, when trying to recompose a rectangular image into the square frame. 

The app also has a nasty habit, when making a minor readjustment to the image position (or even just tapping the image) of throwing you back out to the image folders and making you select an image all over again. This is a problem with the app (and the Mini Link app, for that matter) rather than the printer itself, so it can be patched or firmwared out, but it's still an annoyance. 

In operational terms, a minor niggle is that the Square Link is no longer compatible with any Fujifilm camera – not even the Fujifilm X-S10, which still works with the Mini Link, Link Wide and Share SP-3. This is a minor inconvenience, and one that most people (who print from their phones) probably won't experience. But it feels a shame that you can no longer directly print from a Fujifilm camera to a Fujifilm printer. 

Instax Square Link: Verdict

Although we'd still love an indicator to show us how many prints are left in the current cartridge, we otherwise have no gripes with the Instax Square Link printer itself. The prints are great quality, the reprint button is a life saver, and it's a real Goldilocks in terms of its price and the size of its pictures, compared to the other Instax Link options.

The AR features are interesting, though we're not sure how much you'll use them past the first few times. And the app, despite a couple of really annoying quirks, is overall easy to use and makes it simple to turn images on your phone into pleasing, physical instant prints. 

As someone who owns all the alternatives, I can safely say that the Instax Square Link is my favorite instant printer – and, for my money, the best all-rounder on the market. 

Canon has launched a new large-format printer, but one with a key difference. Where most large-format printers are gargantuan, intimidating beasts aimed squarely at professional users, the new imagePROGRAF TC-20 is a more approachable device designed to bridge the gap between novice and professional requirements.

Measuring a (relatively) compact 96.8 x 52.5 x 24.5cm, the imagePROGRAF TC-20 can print paper sizes ranging from A4 up to 24"/A1+ roll. Like typical large-format printers, the iPF TC-20 can be used on a dedicated stand, but it can also be placed on a desk, or even a shelf.

The latter is made possible by front-accessed paper loading and ink refilling. Canon has designed the paper roll holder to be "axisless", further simplifying the paper load process, especially in small spaces. When not printing large-format work, the iPF TC-20 supports continuous printing of up to 100 A4 or up to 50 A3 sheets.

The iPF TC-20's target audience is said to be architectural, engineering and construction offices, educational institutions and the hospitality industry. Consequently, Canon has envisaged the print output to be drawings, diagrams and plans, rather than gallery-quality photographic prints. Top that end, the imagePROGRAF TC-20's uses only four 70ml pigment ink bottles - black, cyan, magenta and yellow - which makes for simplified, cost-effective printing, with pigment ink better suited to outdoor display and reproducing graphics and typography. But don't expect photo print quality to rival the standard set by Canon's more photography-orientated printers like the imagePROGRAF PRO-300 and PRO-1000, with their 10+ ink tank designs.

The printer is supplied with Canon's free Direct Print Plus printing software. Compatible with both PC and Mac, this utility has been designed with simplicity and easy of use in mind. It can be used to check the layout of multiple files in different file formats such as PDF, JPEG and TIFF, while the printer's on-screen preview lets you print directly without the need to load another application. With the aid of the Canon Print Inkjet/SELPHY2 smartphone app, it's possible to remotely monitor paper and ink levels, as well as apply printer firmware updates.

The Canon imagePROGRAF TC-20  is available to order now from Canon USA, priced at $795 and including a full 280ml compliment of ink; in the UK retails for £839.

Read more:

Best portable printers
Best all-in-one printer
Best large format printer
Best inkjet printers
Best photo paperfor inkjet printers
Best online photo printing services
Best wireless printer
Best 3D printers
Best laser printers

Taking home office duties in their stride, the best all-in-one printers do more than just print documents and photos. They also enable you to scan and copy documents and other paperwork, some even send and receive faxes as well, plugged directly into a phone socket. I've reviewed many of them to help you choose the best all-in-one printers, also known as multifunction printers or MFPs, which you can check out in my following guide.

It's an important buying consideration to remember that the initial purchase price of a printer is just the start. Historically, most conventional inkjet printers have been sold with 'installation' cartridges, which can run dry quite quickly. The latest vogue is for the likes of Canon MegaTank and Epson EcoTank printers, which are more expensive initially but use a bottle-based ink system that can work out much cheaper in the long run, especially in the context of a busy home office.

Whether you’re setting up a full-time home office, or if you’re from the growing ranks of hybrid workers, splitting your time between the home and office, space is always at a premium. After all, working at home has to fit around actually living there. If you only want to scan and don’t need to print, see our guide on the best scanners instead. Conversely, I’ve included a particularly small printer in this guide, even though it’s not a multi-function device, for reasons that will become apparent. Compared with laser printers, inkjet printers tend to take up less room and are generally more affordable, but I’ve included a budget-friendly color laser printer as one of the best options, especially if you really need to output smudge-proof pages.

Best all-in-one printer overall

We’ve all been complaining about the exorbitant price of ink cartridges for years. Sure, this Canon printer costs more to buy than many inkjet printers but, with its ‘MegaTank’ bottle-fed inks, it can reduce the total cost of ownership by around 85 per cent. That has to be a good thing for your bottom line when working at home.

Capable of fast, crisp output, its 600x1200dpi print engine is fed by no less than three separate paper input options. There’s a 250-page main tray that slots in underneath, a rear upright tray for specialist media and a flat rear tray that enables printing banners of up to 1.2m long. Meanwhile, a 1200x2400dpi scanner up top enables not only scanning and copying, but also direct faxing, complete with a 35-page ADF unit and storage for up to 100 speed-dial numbers and group dialing for up to 99 locations.

Build quality feels really good and the printer is easy to use, either hooked up to a computer or standalone via its color touchscreen interface. A full range of connectivity includes USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and fax. Helping to keep tabs on a busy lifestyle, it’s also compatible with Canon’s mobile printing apps for Apple and Android, as well as cloud-based services and can work with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Read our full Canon MAXIFY GX4020/GX4050/GX4060 review

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Best all-in-one laser printer

I've mainly recommended inkjet printers in this guide, since I think they produce better images. However, a laser printer might be better for you if you want to print high volumes of text documents, because they're faster and produce sharp type.

If you're going to use all the functions on your printer (printing, scanning, and copying) on a regular basis, I think this color multifunctional laser printer is ideal. I was pleased with the speed of printing, including in automatic duplex (double-sided) printing, and I liked the intuitive color touchscreen interface. In my review, I also highlighted the excellent connectivity options. There are the usual USB 2.0, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi direct, but an additional USB 2.0 port allows scanning/printing and directly to/from a memory stick and there's support for cloud platforms like Google Drive, OneDrive and DropBox.

Scanning double-sided documents takes longer than with some more expensive printers, as the paper is fed twice (once for each side) but the scan quality is good. Competitively priced and with reasonable running costs, I think this is smart and relatively compact color laser printer for the busy household.

Read our full Canon i-SENSYS MF655Cdw / imageCLASS MF653Cdw review.

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Best Epson all-in-one printer

Having been working from home for 25 years, I’ve generally favored Canon printers for quality and reliability but Epson runs a close second. I like that the ET-4950 ticks all the right boxes for hybrid/home workers, combining quick mono and color document printing with quick and easy scanning, copying and even direct fax facilities. That’s all taken care of with a built-in auto document feeder and a neat color touchscreen interface.

I also like that, unlike some of Epson’s first ‘EctoTank’ bottle-fed printers, the ET-4950 has a reasonably affordable up-front purchase price, backed up by super-cheap running costs that make for a great bottom line in the long run. My only slight complaints are that it only has one paper input tray, which can be a pain if you use different sizes of paper or letterheaded stationery, and glossy photo output could be better and faster. All in all though, the ET-4950 is a very sound purchase at the price.

Read our full Epson EcoTank ET-4950 review

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Best for photos

If your hybrid working requires glossy photo output on a regular basis, the Canon MegaTank G620 (G650 in Europe and G660 in Australia) is a cartridge-free machine that has relatively high-volume ink tanks, topped up by 60ml bottles of ink. With my money-saving head on, that works out to about an eighth of the cost of most cartridge-based printers. I also like that the printer itself is very affordable to buy, compared with many bottle-fed printers.

The photo-friendly line-up of six dye-based inks includes CMYK plus red and grey inks, aiming for a wide color space and enhanced mono photo quality. The individually keyed, squeeze-free bottles ensure simple, mess-free top-ups and make it impossible to pour any color of ink into the wrong tank. There’s no color touchscreen but the small mono LCD enables an intuitive pushbutton interface. It makes short work of creating mono or color photocopies, courtesy of the built-in scanner. Connectivity is good too, with USB and Wi-Fi, the latter enabling PIXMA Cloud Link for smartphones and tablets, Apple AirPrint, Mopria for Android and Wireless Direct.

A set of ink bottles is sufficient for 3,800 6x4-inch photos, or around 3,700 mono documents, or 8,000 color documents. Despite lacking a pigment-based black ink, mono text is pretty crisp. I find that print speeds are a little pedestrian, taking around 47 seconds to create a 4x6-inch glossy photo, but a borderless A4 photo print only takes a couple of minutes in standard photo quality mode. Color rendition is impressively accurate, tonal range is very good and the printer makes a good stab at black & white photo printing. In the long run, it’s great value for a highly capable and compact photo printer.

See our full Canon PIXMA G620/G650/G660 review

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Best A3+ / 13-inch printer

For most home-office needs, an A4/letter-sized printer will suffice. However, if you need to create larger output, or maybe fold a larger sheet of paper in half to effectively make a four-page A4/letter-sized pamphlet, there are some all-in-one printers capable of that, and I think this 13-inch Epson printer is the ideal solution.

A major frustration of most large-format printers is that you can find yourself perpetually running on empty, for at least one or more of the ink cartridges. However, typical of Epson’s EcoTank range, this printer has high-volume ink tanks instead of cartridges. This is similar to the Canon Maxxify system that I mentioned earlier, and it reduces long-term costs considerably.

The printer comes supplied with sufficient ink to create thousands of mono and color documents, or up to 3,400 6x4-inch photos, with correspondingly smaller amounts of larger sizes. Speaking of photos, although this printer has a relatively limited color space for photo printing, I found it capable of producing rich and vibrant A3+/13x19-inch photo prints.

The images I produced using the default ‘Photo Enhance’ feature looked way oversaturated and unnatural for my taste, but when I switched to the ‘Custom’ setting and turned Photo Enhance off, results were much better. The definition and tonal range in the black-and-white photos I tested were also impressive for a printer of this kind. Printing speed is somewhat slow compared with most dye-based, cartridge-fuelled printers, but for if you're looking for an all-in-one that can print at big sizes, I don't think there's a better option for long-term value.

Read our full Epson EcoTank ET-8550 review

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Best mobile printer

If your ‘hybrid’ working extends to sitting on the train or in a coffee shop, or you need to print output to share with clients on the road, this Epson printer is ideal. Built as a fully mobile printer, it’s small enough to pop into your daily bag and can run on its own rechargeable battery so you can use it anywhere and everywhere. The only real downside is that, unlike all of the other printers in this guide, it’s a single-function device that can’t scan or copy.

When I tested it, I found it very easy to set up and get started with. I also liked the results of the pigment-based inks on plain paper, with smudge-resistant crisp black text and vibrant color in graphics. However, while they can print on glossy paper, the results for photos are less impressive. Pigment inks in general are less suited to glossy paper, and the total of four inks isn’t enough for the best photorealistic output. The printer is also a little slower than some other compact printers, and its inkjet cartridges are on the pricey side, so it can work out expensive if you're going to be printing in large quantities.

Read our full Epson WorkForce WF-110W review

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How to choose the best all-in-one printer?

The best multifunction printer for you will depend on what you want to print and scan, how often, in what quantity and at what size. For general office use, to print text documents, you may want to go for an economical inkjet printer option: either one that's economical to buy, or one that costs more upfront but is cheaper to supply with ink, such as the Canon Maxify range.

Be aware the initial price of buying a printer is not the only cost consideration. Most inkjet printers are sold with standard-capacity or 'installation' cartridges, which can run dry surprisingly quickly. Canon Maxify and Epson's EcoTank printers are quite expensive initially but use a more efficient bottle-based ink system that's cheaper in the long run.

Photographers looking to make prints will have much higher demands in terms of print quality, and will benefit from an option with more inks, such as the Canon PIXMA TS8320 / TS8350, since this allows for much smoother gradations.

I generally recommend inkjet printers for general use, especially if you want to print images. However, if you need to print large volumes of text documents, you might want to consider an all-in-one laser printer. These are more expensive initially, but they print large quantities faster. Finally, most all-in-one printers print at up to A4 size. If you're looking to print at larger sizes, the number of multifunction options is much smaller, but I have included a large-format A3 all-in-one printer in my list.

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How we tested the best all-in-one printers

We test as many all-in-one printers as we can get our hands on, and we look at the speed and quality at which they can print documents and photos. We test using a range of printing jobs, from monochrome A4 documents to full-color photographs, and assess the level of detail and color rendition the printer achieves.

We also look at the running cost of the printer – how quickly it burns through ink, and how much its cartridges cost to replace – to get an idea of how it will perform in the long term. Plus we assess how easy the printer is to use – how easy its menus are to navigate, and the options it provides for connectivity (USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc).

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FAQs

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The days of producing cheap cameras and printers is a thing of the past for Canon, with its CEO recently stating the completion of a 14-year mission to transform the business into a high-value-added industry.

"We have changed the industry that used to make cheap cameras and cheap printers," said Fujio Mitarai, CEO and chairman of Canon. 

• Check out the best Canon Black Friday deals 

His strategy came to prominence in the Japanese media, following Canon's improved financial results due to the weaker yen, when he noted that Canon planned to bring its main factory back to Japan.

"The company has never produced high-end SLR cameras overseas," he told Tokyo Keizai Online (machine translated). "Domestic production has continued by streamlining and automating processes. Meanwhile, this year it closed a factory in China that was making the cheapest low-end cameras."

Mitarai explains that his new "foreign exchange policy" unites two key factors: Firstly that the depreciating yen makes it advantageous to export products from Japan, especially when focused on high-added-value products. 

Secondly, and related, chasing low-value products that rely on cheap overseas production will always leave the company at the mercy of exchange rate fluctuations. Hence, streamlining and centralizing production in Japan.

This has also been driven by changes and declines in the core businesses in which Canon specializes.

"With the IT revolution (since the 2000s) and the advent of smartphones, cheap cameras were wiped out. Sales of Canon cameras have fallen by a third. Despite having the top market share, sales are steadily declining. This was my first experience. The move to the cloud has led to a shift to paperless operations, and printers and office machines have also been affected.

"Based on this experience, we have aimed to change the business structure, thinking that we must change the big trend. By telling all employees that 'change is evolution, transformation is progress,' we have changed the industry that used to make cheap cameras and cheap printers."

This paints an interesting picture for Canon's future. Obviously, there will always be entry-level products when it comes to cameras and printers. However, there is no doubt that the company is shifting resources toward the big ticket items – rather than cutting costs by making cheaper products in countries with cheaper labor. 

We highly recommend reading the full interview (for which you'll need to create an account), which goes into everything from Canon's investment in surveillance cameras to its heritage as a company with lifetime employees (with a culture where all executives go to work at 6:50 am!). 

Read more: 

Best Canon cameras
Best Canon printers
Best Canon lenses
Best Canon RF lenses

Canon has expanded its range of inkjet printers that make use of refillable ink tanks, which Canon has coined "MegaTank". The cartridgeless system is designed for more economical print costs over conventional ink cartridges which have typically been expensive, ineffecient and wasteful.

The six new printers to feature Canon's MegaTank technology are spread across its MAXIFY and PIXMA ranges. Canon Europe adds two new printers to its MAXIFY range, the Maxify GX3050 and Maxify GX4050, and also broadens the PIXMA range with an additional four - the Canon PIXMA G4570, PIXMA G3570, PIXMA G2570 and the PIXMA G1530. The models have not yet been announced in North America - and would, as is customary, likely to have slightly different names.

Ink cartridges are known for being expensive and inefficient, especially if your printer uses a tri-color cartridge which combines all three magenta, cyan and yellow colors into a single cartridge, meaning if any one color becomes low you'll need to replace the whole lot. Ink tank printers have grown in popularity over recent years as they break away from the cartridge format and allow consumers to buy large bottles of ink to refill the ink tanks in their printers as they need and are often more cost-effective with higher yields.

Here's everything you need to know about all six new MegaTank models…

Four new PIXMA models for home printing and students

Canon's latest four PIXMA inkjet printers are said to be fast, high quality and offer high yields with their refillable ink tanks, ideal for families and students wanting to save costs on how printing. Canon also states they have a streamlined interface for easier printing.

As a 4-in-1 printer, Canon's PIXMA G4570 is the most advanced of the four PIXMA models. It can print, scan, copy and fax as well as features a 35-sheet Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) to scan and copy multi-page documents quickly, helping to improve productivity. It features a 1.3" LCD, has a 100-sheet capacity, and has WiFi built-in.

The PIXMA G3570 is a 3-in-1 printer that makes use of the MegaTank system, capable of printing, scanning and copying and has a 1.3" LCD as well as WiFi. It's also available to buy in three colorways - black, white or red.

The PIXMA G2570 is a 3-in-1 multifunction printer capable of printing, scanning and copying and has a 1.2" LCD, while the PIXMA G1530 is the most basic of the bunch which is purely for printing (no scan, copy or fax capability) and has LED indicators on the operation panel rather than an LCD.

Low running costs are boasted with Canon claiming a single black ink bottle can last for 6,000 pages, or 7,600 in Eco mode, and 7,600 color pages or 8,100 in Eco mode. All four models are also designed to be capable of 11 images per minute (black and white) or 6ipm for color.

Two new MAXIFY models for office spaces

Canon's MAXIFY printer range is aimed more at small businesses, home offices and those working from home and hybrid working. Both the new MAXIFY GX3050 and MAXIFY GX4050 are said to have a low downtime and high volume printing of up to 14,000 pages from a set of color ink bottles, increasing to a huge 21,000 pages when used in Eco mode. They're also designed to be low maintenance and easy to use with a 350 sheet paper capacity and user replaceable maintenance cartridge.

Canon also claims both models have quick print speeds of 18ipm for black and 13ipm for color. They both offer a more compact alternative to conventional office laser printers with a competitive high yield and Canon is keen to stress crisp and easily readable text, ideal for printing office documents and PDFs. 

The Canon MAXIFY GX3050 is a 3-in1 printer with print, scan and copy functions as well as a 1.35" mono square LCD screen and featrues WiFi. The MAXIFY GX4050 is the more advanced of the duo as a 4-in-1 model it also has a fax function, 35 sheet ADF, 2.7" color touch screen as well as WiFi and the addition of Ethernet.

Read more:

Best ink refill printer
Best portable printers
Best all-in-one printer
Best large format printer
Best photo paperfor inkjet printers
Best online photo printing services
Best wireless printer
Best 3D printers
Best laser printers

If you enjoyed this article, you might also want to check out the best photo printers, the best digital instant hybrid cameras and the best wireless printers.

If you’re sick of screens, the best portable printers can be an ideal way to give your images some physical presence. A real photo print is a whole different experience to a digital file, becoming a snippet of history that can be shared with family and friends and enjoyed for generations to come. With the printers on this list, you can quickly and easily take images out of the cloud and make them something tangible that can be held in a hand.

There’s a reason that the best instant cameras remain popular – I myself own several. They give you a permanent physical keepsake to a loved one or friend of a moment you shared together. Mini prints are a great way to do this, and if you bring out a mini printer for a wedding or other big event, I can attest it’s a great way to make yourself popular.

The best portable printers, and even the best iPhone printers, do involve some expense, but I’ve picked a lot of printers here that are pretty cheap to run, with different options for different budgets. Unlike the best photo printers and all-in-one printers these can be taken pretty much everywhere, and can easily connect to your smart device or laptop for instant printing.

The Quick List

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The best portable printers

Best for square prints

Instagram has brought the square photo back into fashion, and the Canon Selphy Square QX20 is the best portable printer for this format. It produces 2.7 x 2.7-inch (6.8cm x 6.8cm) prints that are claimed to last more than 100 years if stored responsibly. Unlike its predecessor, the Selphy Square QX10, this model can also produce more rectangular 2.1 x 3.4-inch images – so you get a choice of aspect ratios to suit your shots.

It boasts enviable dye-sub printing, whereby the cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes are embedded on a ribbon that’s contained in a cartridge and laid on the paper in three successive passes before a final protective overcoat is applied that's smudge-proof and water-protected. Not bad for something that's produced in as little as 43 seconds!

The QX20 is small enough to squeeze into the top of a camera bag, or even my partner's handbag, making it perfect for travel and parties. "I’m impressed with the detail, contrast and color rendition of prints from the QX20… Color quality and vibrancy look a bit better than I’m used to seeing in dye-sub prints, although still lag behind that of high-end inkjet photo printers.," says our reviewer Matthew Richards.

Read our full Canon Selphy QX20 review for more details

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Best retro photo printer

I've had a version of Fujifilm's Instax portable printer tucked in my camera bag for years – and the Instax Mini Link+, new in 2026, is the best one yet. I love Instax's line of portable printers because they use real instant film, the same kind that slots inside Instax's instant cameras. That gives the final photo a timeless feel.

Instant film traditionally won't print out colors perfectly, but the Link+ has the best quality coming from an instant film printer that I've seen so far. Colors are close to the digital file, and sharp enough to even add larger text to the prints. The classic white instant film border still gives it a classic look.

The Instax Mini Link+ is easy to use. The film cartridges are simple to load, and the app is fairly straightforward. You can print any photos from your phone, whether you took them on your phone or from a dedicated camera.

My only complaint? Sometimes I wish the photos were larger than credit-card-sized, and the film packs can be pricey. The Link+ also sits at a little higher price point than earlier versions – if you're on a tight budget, the Instax Mini Link 3 is still a good budget alternative that uses the same film.

Read the Instax Mini Link+ review

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Most compact

The Polaroid Hi·Print 2x3 is only about an inch thick and weighs a mere 255g, complete with a built-in rechargeable battery. When paired to your smartphone via Bluetooth, it has a companion app that enables you to create 2x3-inch photo prints of your smartphone snaps, and outputs them with speed and style, delivering impressive image quality from its dye-sublimation technology.

All in all, this portable printer is quick, convenient, and compact. Competing with other mobile photo printers like the Canon Selphy Square QX10, the Polaroid Hi–Print 2x3 Pocket Photo Printer uses tried and trusted dye-sublimation or ‘dye-sub’ technology that predates inkjet printing.

"For small-format photo prints, the Polaroid does a good job of creating high-quality output in a simple and fairly speedy fashion," said Matthew Richards in our review. "The tear-off strip along one edge enables borderless printing and the peel-able back makes for stick-on versatility."

Read our full Polaroid Hi–Print 2x3 review for more details

Best budget portable printer

The Kodak name has associations of retro cool, and the firm has shown little compunction about trading off that, releasing plenty of nostalgia-baiting products like the Mini 2 Retro printer. Design-wise, it's got a bit more style to it than many comparable portable printers – though one bit of retro tech I could have done without is the port that's micro USB rather than USB-C!

Otherwise, the Mini 2 Retro feels bang up to date in lots of ways. It uses the superior dye-sub process rather than ZINK, and you refill by loading Kodak's bespoke 4PASS cartridges that roll both paper and ink into one. Working out at about 30¢ / 30p per print, it's good ongoing value, and allows you to play fast and loose with your printing without worrying about wasting money. The print quality itself isn't bad – you can use Kodak's companion app to tweak images and add filters. It isn't the fastest, but quality is solid for the price; in our review, Matthew said, "Outright print quality is very convincing with plenty of depth, good sharpness and nice color rendition."

Read our full Kodak Mini 2 Retro review for more

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Best Zink printer

Known as the Ivy 2 in North America and as the Zoemini 2 in Europe, this Canon printer uses the Zink system (where the paper is impregnated with ink), which is used by a number of other portable printer manufacturers, including Polaroid, Kodak, and HP. It is relatively cheap, compared to run, particularly compared to Canon's dye-sub portable printer. However, the image quality is not up to the same standard.

The Canon printer has a rechargeable battery. However, it’s worth noting that the battery runs down quickly – only lasting for 20 prints, so when going out with it, you need to remember to take the cable in case it needs a top-up.

The 2x3-inch prints are smaller than a credit card and a quarter of the size of a standard 4x6-inch photo print. Packs of 1.3-inch circular stickers are also available. Both options come with a peelable back, making them great for scrapbooking. 20-print packs of paper cost around $12 and stickers about $9 – that's around 60¢ or 45¢ each. However, you can substantially reduce this by buying the paper in packs of 100.

See our full Canon Ivy 2 / Zoemini 2 review

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Best hybrid

The Instax Mini Evo is not marketed specifically as a portable printer, so this one may be easy to miss. Instead, it's one of a new breed of hybrid digital instant cameras that offer the functionality of an instant camera, a digital camera, and a portable printer in the same device.

Unlike standard instant cameras, you therefore have the choice of which pictures you actually print out – as you can look at them on the screen first. But just as useful, this can be used to print pictures from your smartphone (just like other pocket printers).

The camera has a modest 4.9-megapixel sensor, but it comes with tons of special effects, including light leaks and double exposures. The retro design is fantastic, and it doesn't cost much more than one of Instax's printers that doesn't double as a camera.

If the Evo is out of your budget, there's the Instax Mini LiPlay+ (which lacks the retro look and special effects). Or, if you want to shoot video, there's the new Instax Mini Evo Cinema.

Read our full Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo review for more details

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Best portable A4 printer

Most of the printers on this list are designed to put out tiny prints – as you'd expect from a printer that's built around the idea of portability. However, if you're willing to spend a bit more and carry a bit more, it is possible to get a reasonably portable printer that can handle full-sized A4, and the best on the market right now is the Canon Pixma TR160 (or MAXIFY BX110 in certain territories).

Weighing 2.1kg, this printer is simultaneously much heavier than anything else on this list and much lighter than your average A4 printer. Measuring 322 x 185 x 66mm, it can fit inside a day bag, though if you're going to take advantage of its portability it makes sense to get the version with the rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack. Sacrifices have been made to get this kind of portability – for instance, there's no internal paper cassette, meaning you'll have to carry your paper separately.

You can use the Pixma TR160 for simple document printing, or for more demanding color prints on photo paper. Matthew put it through both tests in his review, and found himself impressed by both the speed and quality – "I was pleasantly surprised by the richness and detail in dark shadowy areas of glossy photo prints, and by the lifelike color rendition," he said.

Read our full Canon Pixma TR160 / MAXIFY BX110 review

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How we test the best portable printers

How we test the best portable printers is a little different to the way we test regular printers. Print quality remains of key importance but, given their nature, these devices are as much about their size, handling, portability (and even pocketability), print / paper format, battery life, and connectivity.

As such, the bulk of our testing is based on real-world use. What kind of batteries are used? Are they easily rechargeable or replaceable once depleted? Does it use instant film or printer paper, and what are the cost-quality implications? How good is the connection to your phone or other smart device? Is the printer simply portable, or is it actually practical to use while on the go?

How to choose the best portable printers

Think about why you want to print pictures on the move. Do you want the absolute best image quality? Choose a dye-sublimation printer. Do you want the cheapest prints, regardless of quality? Go for a Zink printer. Do you want the coolest prints? You'll probably want an Instax-based printer.

The three different-sized Instax Link printers have become hugely popular at events like weddings and graduations, as you can snap a picture on your phone (or a "proper" camera) and beam it to the printer, and produce an authentic instant print – just like you can take on an Instax camera. Except instead of it being a one-off, you can print as many as you like, so you can share magic moments with guests. These retro-style instant prints also look great in scrapbooks, wallets, or stuck to the refrigerator.

For youngsters who aren't as invested in quality, but who need something a bit more hardwearing, Zink printers are a great option. Not only is Zink paper waterproof, tear-resistant and smudge-resistant, it also comes with an adhesive back – so your prints can double as kid-friendly stickers, too.

And for ultimate quality, dye-sub printers offer premium print performance on paper that's water-resistant and in some cases said to last for 100 years – perfect for preserving your memories for generations to come.

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FAQs

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Fujifilm’s latest Instax Square Link smartphone printer has just been unveiled, which will please instant photography fans. This is the missing link in Fujifilm's lineup, and as the name suggests, the Square Link creates square format instant prints, 1.5 times the size of its Instax Mini siblings. 

The Square Link should be perfect for photographers and creators who like the 1:1 crop, or who have gotten used to the square format of Instagram. It goes beyond just being a click-and-print device, though, and introduces a whole host of exciting creative and collaborative features.

We'd already reported on Instax Square Link rumors recently, but only had a few leaked images to share with you. Now, after the official announcement, we can see what the Instax Square Link – which will sit alongside the Instax Link Wide and the Instax Mini Link 2 in its range of portable printers – has to offer over the best portable printers. Let's look at the headline features...

Instax Square Link features

AR (Augmented Reality) printing

Augmented Reality features have been added to the Instax Link Square. This means that you can add special effects, images, animations, and even doodles to your image. When the photo is then printed, it comes with a QR code that can be scanned to unlock the chosen augmented reality content and see the effects in action. 

The AR print modes include 'Special FX' (to add birthday cakes, rainbows, or even bubbles to shots), 'Add Text' to add a secret message, 'Add Photo', and 'Add Background,' among others. Instax link printers are famous for their novelty features, so I can see AR being a popular and welcome feature.

Instax connect

Instax Link printers are also popular because of their sharing abilities. The Square Link gets its own Square Link App (like the Link Wide and Link Mini), and from there, the Connect feature makes it pretty easy to share images digitally. You can select a smartphone image, add whatever jazzed-up effects you want to, and then send the image straight to another connected device (such as a smartphone or tablet).

Simple printing options

Despite being packed with fun extras, the Instax Square Link also looks simple to use, which is key if it's to appeal to a wide range of users. To keep things quick, you can make basic image corrections like cropping and contrast, then connect wirelessly via Bluetooth to the Square Link and swipe up to print. Sounds pretty simple to me. There are plenty more printing options:

Video print: Using the free Square Link app, you can select a video frame and print a still from it.

Frame Print: You can print images with a choice of decorative borders.

Collage Print: It's possible to pull all of your favorite prints into one for a collage.

It's even possible to choose from two different looks when you make prints; Instax-Rich mode is said to produce brighter and more colorful results, while Instax-Natural will give a desaturated vibe.

Instax Square Link Color & design

Design-wise, the Square Link is similar to the Mini Link 2 and Link Wide. It comes in Ash White and Midnight Green colors. Both models have an LED strip to highlight the app's status, plus a new function button.

Instax Square Link Price and availability

The estimated arrival date for the instax Square Link Printer is mid-November.

In terms of pricing, the RRP is £129.99 in the UK and AU$219 in Australia  (US pricing to be confirmed).

The Fujifilm instax Square Link is available to pre-order now:
Pre-order at Jessops (UK)
(Pre-orders in Australia are yet to begin)

To my mind, the popularity of Instax printers means that more photos from our mobile devices are getting saved and shared. It's easy to snap a smartphone shot and never look at it again, but thanks to Instax, they open up a whole new way to decorate your house with memories.

The new Instax Square Link clearly combines everything that smartphone printing fans love about the existing Link formats, in a square format. But what I find exiting is the with the Augmented Reality Printing and Instax Connect capabilities, which should create literally thousands of ways to customize and share images in a fun way.

You might also be interested in the best instant cameras and the best instant film. Here are 10 tips for shooting better Instax photos.