Pandemic causes home printing BOOM – 27% now use their printer every day!

 Pandemic causes home printing BOOM – over 25% use their printer every day!
(Image credit: Canon)

We've all had to adapt over the past 12 months, as we've strived to work or study in our homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and on-and-off lockdowns. One area that has seen a huge shift, due to more people being at home, is home printing – which has seen a very big increase.  

More than 20% of people have said that they're printing more now than they were before the pandemic, with a recent survey revealing exactly how people's home printing habits have changed over the last 12 turbulent months.

• Read more: Best printer for home working

Conducted by British retailer Cartridge People, some of the findings of the survey are quite eye-opening. Some of the highlights include: 

  • More than one in five people are printing more now than they were prior to the pandemic
  • Over a quarter of people are using their printer daily, and half are now printing on a weekly basis
  • 28% of people are now using their printer for working from home, 14% now need to print either for their child's or their own education
  • 12% of people are using their printer to print their photography
  • HP is currently the most popular printer manufacturer in the UK (with 47% of respondents)
  • More than three quarters of UK printer owners are using an inkjet printer
  • Shockingly, more than one in ten printer owners don't know whether their printer accepts ink or toner cartridges

Whether you're printing photos or documents, or printing school work for your children or university studies, we're all certainly relying more on decent home printers to make our lives easier.

Printer brands have been releasing more home-friendly printer solutions. Epson launched two new multi-function printers designed for small and home office environments, the WorkForce Pro WF-4745 and the EcoTank ET-5880, while Canon recently launched a new range of budget Canon printers for home offices.

Helpful buying guides to the best printers: 

The best photo printers
Best photo paper for inkjet printers
Best all-in-one printer for home working in 2021
Best wireless printers
The best portable printers
Best 3D printers

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Peter Travers

The editor of PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine, Peter 14 years of experience as both a journalist and professional photographer. He is a hands-on photographer with a passion and expertise for sharing his practical shooting skills. Equally adept at turning his hand to portraits, landscape, sports and wildlife, he has a fantastic knowledge of camera technique and principles. As you'd expect of the editor of a Canon publication, Peter is a devout Canon user and can often be found reeling off shots with his EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR.