The best compact printer in 2023: laptop friendly printers you can take anywhere

Man at shared desk using his laptop next to the best compact printer
(Image credit: Canon)

The best compact printer enables you to print photos, documents, and more, in high quality, without taking up a lot of space. That's great when you're working out of a small home office, and also helpful if you're taking your printer out on the road. To help you find the right one for your needs, we've gathered together the best compact printers available today below.

Note that we're not talking about the best portable printers here. The way they differ is that compact printers print on ordinary-sized paper, whereas portable printers use smaller, specialized paper. In other words, a compact printer will do pretty much everything a larger printer can, just in a more space-efficient way. 

That said, many compact printers are designed with travel in mind. Some can connect wirelessly to your laptop or tablet, and they may even come with rechargeable batteries, so you can use them away from a wall socket.

Best compact printers: Our top picks

Best compact printers in 2023

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Editor's Choice

(Image credit: Epson)
The best compact printer overall

Specifications

Paper type: Plain paper / photo paper
Print size: A4
Connectivity: Micro USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct
Footprint: 12.2 x 2.4 x 6.1im / 31 x 6.1 x 15.5cm
Printer weight: 1,600g
Battery: 1 x Li-ion
Compatibility: iOS/Android/Windows/Mac
Available colors: Black

Reasons to buy

+
Top-notch print quality
+
Wi-Fi direct connectivity
+
Comes with battery

Reasons to avoid

-
Expensive inkjet cartridges
-
A little slow

Able to handle glossy photo paper as easily as it does plain A4, the Epson WorkForce WF-110W is a hugely useful compact printer, with a rechargeable Li-ion battery built in. You can connect it to your laptop via Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, it's an easy printer to set up and get started with, and it produces prints that are highly detailed and look fantastic. 

On the downside, it's a little slower than other printers, and its inkjet cartridges are on the pricey side, so it's probably not the best option if you're going to be printing a ton of photos or documents.

See also Best all-in-one printers

Recommended

(Image credit: Canon)

2. Canon Pixma TR150

The best compact printer for portability

Specifications

Paper type: Plain paper / photo paper
Print size: A4
Connectivity: USB, Wi-Fi
Footprint: 2.6x 7.3 x 12.7in / 322 x 185 x 66mm
Printer weight: 2,100g
Battery: Optional
Compatibility: iOS/Android/Windows/Mac
Available colors: Black

Reasons to buy

+
Optional battery power
+
High quality prints
+
Fits into a bag

Reasons to avoid

-
Battery is optional extra
-
No NFC

Producing five-ink prints of outstanding quality on ordinary or photo paper, the Canon Pixma TR150 compact printer packs in a lot of technology for a device that can fit inside a standard backpack. 

Connecting easily to your laptop or other device via USB or Wi-Fi, this inkjet printer can manage up to nine pages per minute in black and white, which is not too shabby at all for a portable device, and color pages are delivered at 5.5 pages a minute. It's also great for taking on trips, as it can be battery powered. 

However, note that this doesn't come with the rechargeable power pack as standard. In some territories you can buy the TR150 with battery as a kit, and others the Canon LK-72 battery is sold separately.

(Image credit: Matthew Richards/Digital Camera World)
The best compact printer for photos

Specifications

Paper type: Glossy paper, Plain paper
Print size: Up to A4/US Letter
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, USB
Dimensions: 39.4 x 34 x 14.2cm
Printer weight: 6.8kg
Battery: No
Compatibility: Windows/Mac

Reasons to buy

+
Quality photo output
+
Fast worker
+
Six individual inks

Reasons to avoid

-
‘Photo paper’ tray has limited size

If your main priority is printing photos rather than documents, here's a great option at a compact size. The XP-8600 is a six-ink printer, and those inks are carefully formulated to enable realistic photo output. What's more, Epson promises they'll last 300 years if you put your prints in an album. 

Despite being so photo friendly, it's not bad at printing out documents too. You can print wirelessly and from mobile. There are dual paper trays (one for A4, another for photo paper), along with a nice touchscreen, and it all comes in at an affordable price. For more, read our Epson Expression Photo XP-8600 review.

(Image credit: HP)

4. HP OfficeJet 250

The best compact printer that's also a scanner and copier

Specifications

Paper type: Plain paper / photo paper
Print size: Up to A4/8.5x11-inch
Connectivity: USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Footprint: 14.97 x 15.8 x 10.6in / 38 x 40 x 27cm
Printer weight: 2,0960g
Battery: 1 x Li-ion
Compatibility: Windows/Mac
Available colors: Black

Reasons to buy

+
Includes a built-in scanner
+
Built-in color screen
+
Rechargeable battery

Reasons to avoid

-
Bigger than most compact printers
-
Photo print quality is mediocre

As a scaled-down version of a desktop printer, the OfficeJet 250 enables full-sized printing on letter sized plain paper, as well as on glossy photo paper. And it comes complete with a built-in color scanner and color screen, enabling easy photocopying on the fly. 

Usefully for portable printing, it also includes its own rechargeable battery pack, so you can print anywhere. The printer uses a pigment-based black ink cartridge and a tri-color dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow cartridge. Quality is good for color documents, although not the best for photo output on glossy paper.

(Image credit: Canon)

5. Canon Pixma TS6320/6350

The best value compact printer

Specifications

Paper type: Plain or photo paper
Print size: Up to A4/US Letter
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Dimensions: 35.9 x 37.6 x 14.1cm
Printer weight: 8.12kg
Battery: No
Compatibility: Windows/Mac

Reasons to buy

+
Lightweight 
+
Inkjet quality
+
Good cloud printing options

Reasons to avoid

-
Not particularly portable
-
Cartridges can be pricey

Looking for a compact printer that's lighter on the wallet that the other models on this list? Then we recommend the Canon Pixma TS6350. This is a serious inkjet printer that uses Canon's Chromalife100 inks, making for durable, high quality results whether you're printing documents or photos. (Note that these aren't the cheapest, though). 

This 3-in-1 device offers printing, scanning and copying, has a nice 1.44-inch touchscreen and prints at 15 pages per minute for docs, and a 10x15cm borderless photo in 21 seconds. For Cloud printing you can choose between the Canon PRINT app, AirPrint on iOS and Mopria on Android, and there's also auto 2-sided printing and paper width detection.

Product shot of the HP 6020e, one of the best compact printers

(Image credit: HP)

6. HP Envy 6020e

The best budget compact printer

Specifications

Paper type: Plain or photo paper
Print size: Up to A4/US Letter
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, USB
Dimensions: 43.2 x 51.1 x 13.2 cm
Printer weight: 5.22kg
Battery: No
Compatibility: Windows/Mac

Reasons to buy

+
Scan, print & copy
+
Great value
+
Easy to set up

Reasons to avoid

-
Not as small and light as some compact printers 
-
Not the fastest

If you're looking for a budget friendly, compact home printer that all the family can use, we recommend the HP Envy 6020e. It allows you to print, copy and scan in colour, as well as featuring automatic two-sided printing and mobile and wireless printing.

The price includes six months of Instant Ink, which allows you to print up to 700 pages a month free when you enrol. So for a family that's likely to use it a lot, this is an absolute bargain. On the downside, the printing speed of seven to 10 pages per minute is pretty slow. 

Product shot of the Kyocera ECOSYS P3155dn, one of the best compact printers

(Image credit: Kyocera)

7. Kyocera Ecosys P3155dn

The best compact laser printer

Specifications

Paper type: Plain paper
Print size: Up to A4/US Letter
Connectivity: Ethernet, USB
Dimensions: 41.6 x 39 x 34.3cm
Printer weight: 16.6kg
Battery: No
Compatibility: Windows/Mac

Reasons to buy

+
Prints quickly
+
Large sheet capacity
+
Economic per sheet

Reasons to avoid

-
Definitely not portable
-
Premium price

Business printers don't have to be enormous. There are some very professional laser printers out there that won't take up much space, and here's our best buy if you run a busy office. 

The Kyocera Ecosys P3155dn will print clear, crisp and precise pages in black-and-white, very quickly; 55 per minute to be exact. With a maximum capacity of 2,600 sheets, it's a great choice when you need to print large documents. And although this is a big investment overall, the cost per page does turn out to be very economical. 

(Image credit: Epson)

8. Epson WorkForce WF110

The best compact printer for MacBook users

Specifications

Paper type: Glossy paper, Plain paper
Print size: Up to A4/US Letter
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, micro-USB
Dimensions: 31 x 6.1 x 15.5cm
Printer weight: 1.6kg
Battery: Yes
Compatibility: Windows/Mac

Reasons to buy

+
Quality prints
+
Good connectivity options
+
Rechargeable battery

Reasons to avoid

-
Not the fastest
-
Not the cheapest to run

If you're on the go a lot, and want to print from a MacBook, the WorkForce WF-110W is a good choice. Small, light and perfectly formed, this versatile colour printer is nice and portable while still producing high-quality prints. 

You can connect your MacBook via Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, and AirPrint is supported too. There's a built-in battery, and Epson claims this will let you print 50 color or 100 monochrome pages on a single charge. You can power the WF-110W from a wall socket or via USB, and it's all quite easy to set up. On the downside, it's not the fastest (7ppm in mono or 4ppm in colour), and its inkjet cartridges aren't particularly cheap.

Read more:

Best portable printers
Best photo printer
Best label printer
Best Mac printer
Best large format printer
Best photo paper for inkjet printers
Best online photo printing services
Best wireless printer
Best 3D printers
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Tom May

Tom May is a freelance writer and editor specializing in art, photography, design and travel. He has been editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. He has also worked for a wide range of mainstream titles including The Sun, Radio Times, NME, T3, Heat, Company and Bella.