Best Inkjet Photo Printers

Photo-centric inkjet printers: Canon balances performance and price

If you're mainly interested in printing photos, inkjet printers designed specifically for this include extras like more inks and ink types and additional software. What you won't find as much anymore are features like an LCD preview screen or memory card slots; these have been relegated to mini snapshot printers. The best home photo printers cost $500 or more, and they produce photos as good as a professional printing service. They can print text documents, but usually as an afterthought -- they're not speedy, can't automatically print on both sides of the paper, etc. You can save money by choosing a budget photo printer or general-purpose inkjet printer, discussed in separate sections of this report.

The Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II (*Est. $445) is one of the least expensive printers in this class -- and the most recommended. The professional photographers at Imaging-Resource.com call it "our favorite printer": Its prints (up to 13 by 19 inches), "simply astonished us," with true, subtle colors and no graininess. It's also a pick as a best photo printer in exhaustive tests at PrinterInfo.com, of experts at ComputerActive.com and PC Pro and of real-life users -- including some pro photographers -- at Amazon.com and Newegg.com.

"With our prints completely grain-free, the Pro9000's fantastic output was indistinguishable from that of a professional print service," says Dave Stevenson at PC Pro. He notes that the Pro9000 is cheaper per print, too, if you take Canon's word for the number of prints you'll get from each ink cartridge. The Pixma Pro9000 Mark II photo printer uses eight separate tanks -- one for each color -- so you can replace only the ones you need (it costs about $125 to replace them all). We found few complaints of ink guzzling from users at Amazon.com; in fact, several users say the Pixma Pro9000 Mark II sips ink, printing dozens and dozens of photos without draining the tanks.

The inks themselves are dye-based, which reviews say don't usually last as long as pigment-based inks -- but Canon says they'll last for up to 100 years if you store your photos in an archival-quality album. The step-up Canon Pixma Pro9500 Mark II (*Est. $765) does use pigment-based inks, with extra colors -- photo black, matte black and gray -- for better contrast in black-and-white images. Canon says the pigment-based inks will last up to 100 years in an album, as well, and they cost about the same as the Pro9000 Mark II's dye-based inks.

The Pro9500 Mark II photo printer prints much more slowly than the Pro9000 Mark II: 4 minutes versus 47 seconds for an 8-by-10-inch color photo, according to Canon. Snapshots (4 inch by 6 inch, highest color quality) take nearly 2 minutes versus 43 seconds, respectively, in tests at PrinterInfo.com. Although the Pro9500 Mark II "is a serious printer, in every sense of the word," PrinterInfo.com's Richard Baguley points out that it's also a "seriously expensive printer" and "slooow." He says most photographers will be happy with the faster, cheaper Pro9000 Mark II. Both top-rated photo printers are extremely slow at printing documents -- less than a page per minute at high quality in Baguley's test, although the Pro9000 Mark II manages a more respectable seven and a half pages per minute on its lowest-quality setting.

Pricier Epson photo printers have their pros and cons

The Epson Stylus Photo R2880 (*Est. $550) has a lot in common with the Canon Pixma Pro9500 Mark II -- including pigment-based inks for impeccable color prints, and four types of black for black-and-white prints that experts say are simply stunning. "We printed a wide array of test images and were astounded by the results -- it's hard to recall anything we've seen that can match it," says David Bayon at PC Pro. The Stylus Photo R2880 is a top pick at Shutterbug and TrustedReviews.com, too, and PCMag.com awarded the R2880 its Best of the Year prize as the top photo printer for 2010.

One big drawback: Every time you switch between glossy and matte paper, you have to switch the black ink tank. The R2880 comes with a "photo black" ink tank and a "matte black," but you can't keep them in the printer together. Several experts dismiss this as a slight inconvenience -- and no problem at all if you usually stick with one kind of paper -- but quite a few users at Amazon.com find it a royal pain. Plus, it wastes ink: "Every time you switch them out, all the black ink (of either type) must be flushed and completely purged from the ink plumbing system," one user says. "It's like pouring it on the ground."

Epson solves part of the problem with the Epson Stylus Photo R3000 (*Est. $835). It's a lot like the R2880, only you don't have to switch the black ink cartridges (the R3000 can do it automatically). Still, every time you switch, the R3000 purges the other type of ink out of its system, wasting a few milliliters of ink each time. Aside from this one flaw -- and the R3000's rather high price -- photography experts love this printer: It wins the award for best expert photo printer of the year from the Technical Image Press Association, an organization made up of editors from 29 photo publications worldwide.

Thanks to the R3000's tinier ink dots, photos look a bit better than even the R2880's in tests. The R3000 also adds bigger, more economical ink tanks and Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity so several computers can share the printer over a wired or wireless network. "Although it would be easy to justify the extra cost for the R3000 with any one of these extras, adding them all makes the printer that much more of a value" compared with the R2880, says M. David Stone at PCMag.com.

If you need to print really big photos -- 17 inches by 22 inches max -- experts and users say they adore the pricey Epson Stylus Pro 3880 (*Est. $1,300). You can spend several thousand dollars for a wide-format printer, but reviews say the desktop-sized Epson produces nearly flawless prints. "Exquisite, gallery-worthy prints," PCMag.com says. "Faultless," says Photo-i's Vincent Oliver. "I would be more than happy to exhibit or sell any print produced by this printer." The Epson 3880 uses 10 colors of pigment-based ink -- including four blacks -- to produce black-and-white prints that are impeccably neutral, with no color tinge at all. Color prints boast "some of the best skin tones I've seen in an inkjet printer," says Shutterbug's Jon Canfield, with finer detail and truer colors than the Canon Pixma Pro9500 Mark II in Canfield's test.

The drawbacks? Besides its hefty price tag, reviews say the Epson Stylus Pro 3880 photo printer suffers from a finicky paper feed and a wasteful ink-purge process every time you switch from matte to glossy black (although you don't have to physically switch the tanks like the Epson Stylus Photo R2880). Top experts say the Stylus Pro 3880 is still a great choice for serious amateurs or pro shooters, but most photographers will be more than happy with the much cheaper Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II.