Compare the Best Photo PrintersSeptember 2018

Photo printers are a subsection of standard printers, specifically designed for printing photos taken from digital cameras. While most devices can still be used to print standard black & white documents, their real strength lies in their ability to print high-quality photos, posters and prints, with a colour depth and resolution far higher than most inkjet or laser printer. In this guide we will outline the main considerations when choosing a photo printer, allowing you to decide on the best model for your needs.

Cost

First up, cost. Photo printers are specialist peripherals, and the inks and components used are far higher quality than most other printers. Because of this, photo printers are generally far more expensive than a comparable inkjet or laser printer.

Therefore in order to get the best value for money from a photo printer, you should be using it frequently specifically to print photos. Otherwise, you may gain more value from buying a high-quality inkjet or colour laser jet printer (which can still print photos, just not at such a high resolution), and using the services of a copy shop or print kiosk if you want to print especially high-quality photos.

Resolution & Colour Depth

Photo printers are largely defined by the resolution and colour depth they are able to print at. Resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi) and governs how detailed the resulting print is, especially when photos are blown up to larger sizes than they were originally taken at. If the printer has a low supported resolution, then the prints may look blurry or out of focus, whereas extremely high resolution photos (for instance, those with a DPI of 3,000 and above) will continue to look sharp and full of detail even when blown up to poster-sized prints.

Colour depth is a measure of the colours the printer can produce - a higher colour depth means a greater visual fidelity between the print and the original photo.

With both of these attributes, higher values lead to a better overall print output. However they also usually come with increased price, so you should balance the quality you design from your prints against your budget. Most of our photo printers have a detailed breakdown of these attributes, allowing you to choose more intelligently.

Paper Sizes

The other defining factor of a photo printer is the supported print size. Some photo printers are the size of standard inkjet or laser printers, and can print up to A4 size. Others are much smaller, and can only print dedicated photo sizes (e.g - 4 x 6, 5 x 7 or 10 x 4 inches). These ‘small format’ photo printers are generally cheaper and more portable, but are incapable of printing large photos.

On the other end of the scale, some photo printers are much larger, and come with the ability to print at A3 scale or even larger. These printers usually come equipped with a very high resolution & graphical fidelity… and a price tag to match. These models will most likely only be of interest to professional photographers or serious hobbyists.

Connectivity

While most photo printers work via a USB connection with your computer, several more advanced models have increased connectivity options. These can include:

Photo Printer Prices

The price range of photo printers is from £29 to £900 and in total we found prices for 39 photo printers. On average, a new photo printer costs £212 and 80% of photo printers are priced between £65 and £490. The Canon iP2850 is the cheapest photo printer at only £30, and Canon Pro-100 is the most expensive at £900.

Photo Printer Brands - Price Range

The average price of OKI photo printers is £499 which is the highest average price of all photo printer brands. OKI photo printers range in price from £499 to £499.

Epson photo printers range in price from £38 to £525, and the second highest average photo printer price out of all brands is Epson photo printers with an average price of £279.

The average price of Canon photo printers is £218 which is the third highest average price of all photo printer brands. Canon photo printers start at £30 and their most expensive photo printer costs £900.

Photo Printer Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 473 expert reviews and 8,202 user reviews for photo printers and used these reviews to evaluate the average rating for each brand of photo printer.

Biggest Photo Printer Retailers

The biggest photo printer retailer by number of products currently for sale is Amazon UK. We found 37 current photo printer offers from Amazon UK. The second biggest retailer is eBay with 33 offers. That means Amazon UK is slightly bigger than eBay when it comes to photo printers. Ebuyer is the third biggest retailer with 14 current offers.

When Are Most New Photo Printers Released?

Over the last 3 years we couldn't see any prominent pattern in the release month for new photo printers. Two new photo printers were released in February 2017 making it the biggest month that year for new photo printer releases. In 2016 most new photo printers were released in September, with nine new photo printers released that month. In May 2015 four new photo printers were released making it the biggest month that year for new photo printer releases.

How Fast Do Photo Printer Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, photo printers drop in price by 3%. That means that on a typical photo printer costing £212 you could save on average £6 by waiting 6 months before buying.

Maximum Resolutions

'Maximum Resolution' indicates the largest image resolution (detail level) that the photo printer is capable of printing at.

We found 10 photo printers that are 300 x 300 DPI photo printers, which makes this the most frequently found maximum resolution amongst new photo printers. 4800 x 1200 DPI is the second most popular maximum resolution amongst new photo printers. We found 9 photo printers that are 4800 x 1200 DPI photo printers.

Maximum Print Sizes

'Maximum Print Size' is the largest possible size paper that the printer is capable of printing onto. Larger sizes mean that the photo printer is more versatile, and can handle different print jobs.

A4 / Letter is the most common maximum print size amongst new photo printers. We found 9 photo printers that are photo printers that have an A4 / Letter max print size. The second most popular maximum print size amongst new photo printers is A6. We found 8 photo printers that are photo printers that have an A6 max print size.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for Photo Printers?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying photo printers. For each retailer it shows the total number of photo printers where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying photo printers. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was eBay. 19 of their photo printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of Photo Printers for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for photo printers by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of photo printer prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's photo printer prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was eBay. 57.6% of their photo printer prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.