The best printers for photos in 2023

Best printers for photos
(Image credit: JGI on Getty Images)

Selecting the best printers for photos is well worth the effort if you want to do your shots justice – you can end up with a good-looking permanent record of your best work. These days, most people look at their photos on their smartphones or monitors, but sometimes you take a picture that looks good enough to frame and hang on your wall. This is where the best printers for photos below come in. 

While most of the best printers for photos will do a credible job with photography, if you want your snaps to really shine then you need a printer that goes the extra mile. In general, the more you spend on a photo printer, the more (and better quality) inks you'll have to properly reproduce colours. You'll also be able to print larger and on more specialised media.

Whether you're after a portable printer for capturing snaps from your phone, a large-scale monster that'll deliver work suitable for exhibiting, or simply a printer that'll do a better job with photos than your standard office printer, you should find your perfect printer for photos here.

Want more printer options for other uses? See our guides to the best home printers and the best laser printers. Also, if you've already got printed photos that you're looking to digitize, check out our guide to the best photo scanners

The best printers for photos in 2021

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Best printers for photos: Canon Pixma PRO-200

(Image credit: Canon)

01. Canon Pixma PRO-200

All round, the best printer for photo quality

Specifications

Max print size: : A3+
Print resolution: : 4800 x 2400 dpi
Connectivity: : USB, Ethernet, wireless
Weight: : 14.4kg

Reasons to buy

+
Incredible photographic quality
+
Prints up to A3+
+
Panoramic prints up to 990cm

Reasons to avoid

-
Relatively small ink cartridges

This one hits the top of our best printers for photos list for good reason. Want great photo quality without having to pay an absolute fortune (see number 07 for context)? We think Canon's Pixma PRO-200 strikes the perfect balance. It's a dye-based printer packing 8 Chroma Life 100+ inks for incredibly faithful colour reproduction and clarity, it'll print on any paper size up to A3+ and it can even do panoramic prints up to 990cm in length. 

There are faster printers – a 6x4 will take around 33 seconds at standard quality – but if you can live with that you'll be rewarded with stunning photo prints on glossy, matte or even fine art paper.

Best printers for photos: Epson Expression Photo XP-970

(Image credit: Canon)

02. Epson Expression Photo XP-970

The best Epson printer for photos

Specifications

Max print size: : A3
Print resolution: : 5760 x 1440 dpi
Connectivity: : USB, wireless
Weight: : 8.7kg

Reasons to buy

+
Built-in scanner
+
Impressive A3 prints
+
Touchscreen interface

Reasons to avoid

-
Not the best colour range

For a good all-round Epson photo printer, the Expression Photo XP-970's a tough one to beat, and earns its high spot in this best printers for photos rundown. It's reasonably compact but packs plenty of features, including an A4 scanner and the ability to print at A3 size, and while it's not especially quick at printing, the image quality makes it worth the wait. 

This printer uses six cartridges of Claria Photo HD inks that'll give you rich colours and crisp contrast, and Epson promises that your prints can last up to 300 years in a photo album, although you might find the colour range a little lacking compared with some of the Canons here. It'll accept photos via USB, Wi-Fi or through a memory card slot, and there's a built-in touchscreen as well as a mobile app to help you get results.

Best printers for photos: Canon SELPHY CP1300 Compact Photo Printer

(Image credit: Canon)

03. Canon SELPHY CP1300 Compact Photo Printer

The best printer for photos to print from your iPhone

Specifications

Max print size: : 6x4 inch
Print resolution: : 300 x 300 dpi
Connectivity: : Wireless
Weight: : 860g

Reasons to buy

+
Ink/paper cartridge system
+
Beautiful postcard-sized prints

Reasons to avoid

-
Not massively portable
-
Battery not included

When you're printing photos from your iPhone you don't really want to go large. What looks good on your phone's screen may not come across quite so well at A4 size. So if you want to print out some of your favourites from your photo stream, try Canon's SELPHY CP1300; it's a compact dye-sublimation printer that delivers excellent, well defined prints at postcard size. 

It uses Canon's ink/paper cartridge system so it's easy to load, and you can connect to it via USB or Wi-Fi. While it's small it's not hugely portable; however if you want to take it out and about with you there's a battery pack available so you don't have to wait until you get home for your prints.

Best printers for photos: Epson EcoTank ET-7750 photo printer

(Image credit: Canon)

04. Epson EcoTank ET-7750 photo printer

The best photo printer for large print runs

Specifications

Max print size: : A3
Print resolution: : 4800 x 1200 dpi
Connectivity: : USB, Ethernet, wireless
Weight: : 10.5kg

Reasons to buy

+
Huge ink capacity
+
Top quality prints
+
Great for bulk printing

Reasons to avoid

-
Expensive to buy

For pro photographers doing a lot of larger-scale print work, Epson's EcoTank ET-7750 is a quality option that comes at a high price but should save you money in the long run. 

It uses high-capacity ink tanks rather than cartridges and comes loaded with enough ink to print up to 3,400 photos, and when you finally need a refill you simply buy bottles of ink instead of paying a premium for cartridges. The Epson EcoTank ET-7750 uses CMYK dyes plus a pigment black to really deliver image depth, and it prints at up to A3 size.

Best printers for photos: Polaroid Mint Pocket Printer

(Image credit: Canon)

05. Polaroid Mint Pocket Printer

The best cheap portable printer for photos

Specifications

Max print size: : 2x3 inch
Print resolution: : Not stated
Connectivity: : Bluetooth
Weight: : 204g

Reasons to buy

+
Low price and running costs
+
Five colour choices
+
Pre-print options

Reasons to avoid

-
Needs regular recharging

If you want a fully up-to-date take on the classic Polaroid ethos, the Polaroid Mint Pocket Printer may be the best printer for photos for . It's a dinky little model that uses Zink paper – already impregnated with colour ink – so you don't need to worry about ink cartridges. 

Ideal for printing smartphone shots or Instagram snaps, the Mint Pocket Printer delivers adorable little 2x3" prints complete with a protective polymer overcoat that's water-resistant and won't fade. It'll connect to your phone via Bluetooth, and if you're especially image-conscious you'll be delighted to know that it comes in five colour options.

Best printers for photos: Canon PIXMA TS6350/TS6320

(Image credit: Canon)

06. Canon PIXMA TS6350/TS6320

The best printer for photo scanning

Specifications

Max print size: : A4
Print resolution: : 4800 x 1200 dpi
Connectivity: : USB, wireless, Bluetooth
Weight: : 6.3kg

Reasons to buy

+
Built-in scanner
+
Prints quickly
+
Good all-rounder

Reasons to avoid

-
Limited inks for photos

There's more to having a photo printer than simply printing out images from your phone or DSLR. If you have a collection of old-school printed photographs that you want to store in digital form then a scanner is a must, and while there are a few options here with built-in scanners, this Canon is our favourite in terms of price and versatility. 

The Canon PIXMA TS6350 (confusingly known as the TS6320 in the USA) is a five-ink all-in-one printer that produces great-quality photos at a decent speed, and with a scanner on top it's also ideal for storing the contents of your old photo albums.

Best printers for photos: Epson SureColor SC-P5000

(Image credit: Canon)

07. Epson SureColor SC-P5000

The best printer for photographers

Specifications

Max print size: : A2
Print resolution: : 2880 x 1440 dpi
Connectivity: : USB
Weight: : 52kg

Reasons to buy

+
10 inks
+
Prints up to A2

Reasons to avoid

-
Very expensive
-
Big and extremely heavy

Built both for professional photographers and fine art reproduction, the Epson SureColor SC-P5000 is a heavyweight monster of a printer that can cope with just about any print job that you can imagine. It'll print at up to A2 size on anything from standard paper to poster board, and with 10 inks and an internal colour calibration sensor it'll give you stunning print quality – it's capable of reproducing 99% of Pantone solid coated colours. 

One look at the price will tell you that this isn't a machine for printing out your favourite snaps, but if you regularly need large-scale images in top quality then it should pay for itself pretty quickly.

Best printers for photos: Fujifilm instax Mini LiPlay

(Image credit: Canon)

09. Fujifilm instax Mini LiPlay

The best printer for instant photos

Specifications

Max print size: : 2.1 × 3.4 inch
Print resolution: : 318 dpi
Connectivity: : Bluetooth
Weight: : 255g

Reasons to buy

+
Built-in camera
+
Storage for 45 photos
+
Uses Instax Mini film

Reasons to avoid

-
Not the best camera

Not so much a printer as a hybrid instant camera , the FujiFilm instax Mini iPlay is a combined digital camera and portable printer that can also print photos from your smartphone. 

Like a Polaroid camera it prints on its own film; unlike a Polaroid you can pick and choose which shots you actually want to print by going through them on the LCD screen. The camera's pretty lightweight with a 4.9 megapixel sensor and 28mm f/2 lens, but this isn't a device for pro photographers, more of a fun instant camera for taking out and about with you, and in that respect it's hard to fault.

Best printers for photos: Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000

(Image credit: Canon)

10. Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000

The best printer for large photos

Specifications

Max print size: : A2
Print resolution: : 2400 x 1200dpi
Connectivity: : USB, Ethernet, wireless
Weight: : 32.3kg

Reasons to buy

+
12 individually replaceable inks
+
Stunning print quality
+
Prints A2 and 1.2m panoramas

Reasons to avoid

-
Big and heavy

Need to go really big? Like the Epson SureColor SC-P5000 above, the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 goes up to A2 size and can also be pressed into service for panoramic prints up to 1.2 metres long. 

It uses 12 pigment-based Lucia Pro ink cartridges that can be replaced individually rather than as a complete set, and its print quality is nothing short of stunning, especially when printing on matte or fine art paper. Colour reproduction is incredibly faithful, and when you're printing on glossy paper it'll apply a chroma optimiser to give your prints a smooth top coating that minimises bronzing and gloss differential.

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Jim McCauley

Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.