when you look at the image quality, it's like, are you going to be that person with a magnifying glass looking through an art print and saying, Oh, I can see that these blacks are not as black as this Canon over here, you know, or this episode over there. I'm not that type of person. I don't care that much, but you might. This is Nam from Easy Sunday Club. In our YouTube channel, we do product reviews, art business strategy videos, and occasional watercolor tutorials to help turn your creative daydream into reality. Today, we're reviewing the best printers for artists in 2023. This is my third time doing this video, and by no coincidence, it's been the best three years of my life. For those who are just starting the video and just want to cut out the best art printer that you should get for your business, it is either the Epson P700 or the Epson P900, depending on what you need. Thank you for those who want to stick around. I'm going to break up this video into a couple of different

parts first. I'm going to go through the criteria of what makes a good art printer, and then after that, I'm going to review a bunch of printers. So, let's talk about what's the criteria for a good art printer. The first thing is what type of media can it handle. Are you trying to just print on regular printer paper, or are you trying to do archival prints that are going to end up in art galleries, or are you going to try to print on thicker cardstock that is going to be for greeting cards? Depending on what type of material or medium that you want to print on, then your printer is going to have to handle that thickness. The thickest thing that I've seen these printers can handle are poster board. In that case, foam poster boards that we used to use for our science projects. Those are the things that would be the thickest that I've seen these printers handle. The next thing you should think about is whether or not you need a scanner. If you already have a scanner, then just find a printer that

focuses on printing. I'm not a huge fan of these all-in-one things because if one of those things breaks, then the whole thing can break. So, I try to focus on what one thing can do really well. But if you are starting off and you do need a scanner too, then you're going to want to get one of these four-in-one printers that can scan, photocopy, fax, and print. The next thing I want to make sure the printer has is auto feeding. Because if I'm going to make a bunch of greeting cards or art prints for an art fair, I want to make sure that I can match the printing. So, I can press a button and it'll print out 20 prints at a time or something. The next thing that's really important is the size of the printer. So, you have to look at the max width of the printer to see if it's 11 inches, which is the size of a US paper and a half by 11, or you want to pick a printer that's 13 inches wide so that can print out a standard A

print that's Max 13 inches, and then the length you can usually make it as long as you want. And then, um, the bigger home printers are the 17-inch Max printer, so that'll allow you to make a print that's Max size around like 17 by 22 inches. So, that's like a standard paper size. But then, you also have these printers that have these roller adapters that can make these longer panoramic prints. So, the height doesn't matter as much, but it's the width that you really want to look at. So, with the 17-inch printer, you can print a long panoramic print of like 30 by 17 inches. So, you want to look at the width. If you want to go bigger than that, then you'll have to look at these bigger printers that are like four feet long or something like that. The next thing you want to look at is do you want an inkjet printer or do you want a laser printer. For fine art prints, you're usually going to want an inkjet printer just because

it's going to be able to blend the colors in a little bit better. A laser printer is better for office environments if you want to make graphs or charts or things like that when you don't need that level of blending and quality. The next thing that you want to look at is the image quality, and one of the indicators of image quality is the number of cartridges that the printer has. So for a cheaper printer that doesn't have a lot of image quality and can make a lot of gradients between the colors, it'll usually have three ink cartridges. So like a cheaper printer, they'll have two ink cartridges, right? For a color printer, they'll have one that black and the other one is like a tri-color, uh, you read yellow, green, and they'll be able to make all the colors from that. For some of these more advanced printers that we're going to get to, they're going to have 10 or 11 ink cartridges, and they'll be able to print on photo paper to matte paper, and they'll have all the magenta, cyan, blue.

yellow, green, a light gray, dark gray, black, and you'll be able to get this huge crazy color spectrum. So, the next thing I want to think about is ink quality. So, is it archival-level ink? So, archival-level ink means that if that's like Gallery grade, and it means the colors won't fade for over 100 years or something like that. The next thing I want to think about is, is the printer future-proof? So, if I'm going to spend over $500, $1,000 on a printer, I just want to buy it, and I don't want to replace it every couple of years. If I buy one of the cheaper ones, those are very, you know, you've seen office space, you've seen how they destroy printers and how printers drive people crazy. Those are like almost disposable because they break down really quickly. But if I'm going to spend $500 or $1,000 on a printer, I want to make sure it lasts 10 years, 15 years. I just want to buy it and not have to think about it.

because I want to focus on making art. The things that will make it future-proof are not only the features but also when it was released. So, if the printer was released this year, it's like a new model of a car. Like, I know that it's gonna probably not be replaced for about four years or so, and even beyond that four years, I'll have a lifetime of consistency and running well as long as I'm taking care of it. Well, the next thing I want to think about is whether or not the printer head is replaceable. So, for Canons, for example, if the printer head zaps out or if you happen to destroy it like I've done before, then you are able to just replace that part of the printer head, and you can still save the rest of the printer. If you are an idiot like me and mess up the printer head for an Epson, then that's pretty much irreplaceable, and you have to get a new printer, which we had to do once upon a time. That's like one of the things if

you're into self-repair or something like that. The next thing I want to think about is the price of the ink. So, as you know, printers are usually not that expensive, and the printer companies love to make money off of the ink cartridges. So, not only do you have to think about the price of ink and the long-term price from that, but also there's these different options now called Eco tanks, where there are no ink cartridges. Instead, there's these tanks, and you fill it up with these bottles. It doesn't have the waste of the ink cartridges, and it's a little bit cheaper to replace in the long term. But with the Eco tanks, there's different drawbacks about speed, convenience, and quality that you have to look into as well. The last thing I want to think about is borderless printing. So, borderless printing means that if you have a piece of paper, it'll print all the way up to the edges of it. So, if you have a fine art printer, then you want a borderless printer to print up to the very edges of the paper. That's about it.

those are the important criteria that I look at when I look at a printer. For each one of these printers I'm going to introduce, I'm not going to go through all 10 or 12 criteria. I'm just going to go at a high level of what I think about the printer, but these are things that you should be thinking about of whether or not it's important for you or if it's a showstopper, as they say, of like a big issue for you. So that as you're researching the printers, you can look at the specs and the details of it to see if this is a must-have that you have, and you're looking at the specs to see if you have it. Also, sometimes it's not enough for me to just look at the spec. I have to search for some of these things in the comments and the reviews of the printer as well. So, for example, when I go and research all these printers and put together this list every year, then sure, I look at the

ratings on Amazon, but I also double-click into the comments and say, Okay, how are people in the Green Card Community using these for green cards, and do they have positive reviews? Are they okay with the software? Okay, how hard is it to set up? How easy is it to use? How often does it break down? Does it make consistent prints and images? Are they able to use it to make greeting cards? Are they just amateurs who are making green cards? Are they professionals who are making green cards, or are they professional photographers? So, those are things that I kind of look out to make sure that, Okay, cool, this is worth recommending, and this is worth my hard-earned money to buy this printer. I always categorize the printers in this list into three different categories. So, first is budget, so that's under 250 dollars. Next is mid-tier, so that's usually under 500. And then I have upper-tier or fine art printers, and that's everything else. And it can go into like the thousands of dollars if you really want to get into it. So, let's jump into

the list. So, the first thing that I have is the Canon Pixma ix6820 Wireless inkjet printer, and I've seen it run online from anywhere from 199.99 to 229.99. Some of these printer sites that I've been researching, it's the number one bestseller on our printer websites. So, just to run down some of the stats, the print resolution is 9,600 by 2,400 DPI. That's good. It has a five-color inkjet system. I like that. That's five cartridges. That's good. It can print up to 13 by 19-inch print sizes. For starting out for fine art prints, usually a 13 by 19-inch is a good size. If you want to, of course, go the next size up, then you would try to look for something that was like 17-inch by 22 size. The standard print size for 17 by 22, you can cut it so it's like 16 by 20. Prints borderless 4x6 photos in 36 seconds.

Wi-Fi connectivity automatic feeder next to the stats on the speed of the printer. What I hear from users is that they love its versatility on different medias. That includes canvas, resin-coated matte, super gloss stickers, and iron-ons. So, if a bunch of people like it, it should be fine for you. Look into it. It's really highly rated, and it's a good price point. The next printer I wanted to review was the Canon Pixma TS9521C Wireless All-in-One Craft Printer. That's $199.99 to $300. Like the name says, this is a versatile printer capable of handling a variety of needs, including scanning, photocopying, and printing on cardstock and other craft materials. The max resolution for the scanner is 4,800 by 1,200 DPI. Should be fine for most of your scanning needs, especially using it to make green cards. The max resolution for printing is 4,800 by 1,200 DPI. This is not as good resolution for printing as the last Canon IX6820 that I recommended.

scanner is 1200 by 2400 DPI. That should be okay for most of your scanning needs. It has three paper feeds that support 12x12 and 11x17 inch size prints. It borderless prints up to 12 by 12 inches, compatible with craft papers. Print speeds 4x6 photos are in 21 seconds. It has five ink cartridges, kind of like the last Canon, and what I've seen from the reviews, it says that it's a versatile printer, but a lot of users have experienced technical and software issues. So, make sure you do your research before you purchase this printer. Between this printer and the last Canon ix6820, I do like the IX 6a20 a little bit more because of the 13 by 19 inch print size. But with the ts9521c, it has the scanner. So, if you're just starting off, I think this one's maybe a little bit better. But it can't scale up and be as future-proof as the last Canon. The last printer I have in the budget

category is the Epson Expression Premium XP 7100 small all-in-one inkjet printer, and that's $239.99. So, like the name says, all-in-one, it can print, scan, and copy. It has a max print resolution of 5760 by 1440 DPI, which is better than the all-in-one Canon craft printer that I just mentioned. It has five ink cartridges, a max print size of 8.5 by 14, which is not very versatile because that means that it can only handle U.S. size piece of paper or less. That it can like print out print speed is 15 pages per minute black, 11 pages per minute in color. For the scanner resolution, it's 2400 DPI, which is good for art printer flatbed scan area is 8.5 by 11.7 inches. It has over a thousand views for this printer. It's a workhorse, dependable, and easy to use. So, those are kind of your three different categories for budget printers. Next up are the mid-tier.

printers, so these are about over 300 to about 700. So, let's get into our mid-tier printer. The first one for our mid-tier printer is the Epson Expression Photo XP 8700 Wireless All-in-One Color Printer, and that's about $299.99. So, this prints flawless photos up to 8.5 by 11 inches. It has a copier and a scanner, as well as a printer. It has 5760 by 1440 DPI print resolution, which is good. It scans up to 1200 by 4800 DPI, which is really good. It has six ink cartridges, so one of the differences between this and the last printer category is that it has one more ink cartridge. It has a rear feed for specialty paper. It has a 4.3-inch color touch screen, iOS and Android app for wireless printing. And what the user reviews say is that it's a great value and it's a great printer. So, this is something that you can check out. The next one is a carryover for several

years at this point on my printer list, and it's the Epson Expression Photo HD XP 15000 inkjet printer. You can usually find this for about 300 to 400. The reason why this has been a mainstay on my printer list is that this is a great budget option for a large format 13-inch wide printer, and also because it's consistent and reliable. So, what that means is like usually standard print size is 13 inches by 19 inches, and this can handle that. So, if you're not making the 17 by 22 or 16 by 22 large format prints, but you're more into this mid-tier printing, then this one is good for you. Max resolution print size is 5760 by 1440 DPI, has a max printable area of 13 inches by 44 inches. So, that's if you want to make 44-inch long panoramic poster size print with a max 13-inch width. It has borderless prints up to 13 inches by 19. It has mobile printing.

has a six-color Claria photo HD ink set. It has a 50-sheet rear tray paper, a 2.4-inch color LCD, and Ethernet Wi-Fi connectivity. Users say it's consistent and reliable, but it uses a lot of ink. As you're getting into this large format world and this high-end art print world, all of these printers are going to use a lot of ink, so you can't be too afraid of the ink price. I assume that some of you are going to be amateurs and just want to print for fun, so cool, I get it. You'll want to optimize for ink price, but for those who are selling their art prints, just know that you'll recoup the price when you sell the art print. Next up is the Canon Pixma G620 all-in-one printer. This ranges from $299 to $330. So, this can print, copy, and scan. It's a compact design with a small footprint. It has easy-to-fill ink tanks. So, this is the first Canon on my review that has refillable ink cartridges or tanks.

has six color dye-based inks. You can print high-resolution photos with vivid colors as borderless printing up to eight and a half by 11 inches. It also comes with a scanner that's eight and a half by 11.7 flatbed scanner. What the user says is that it's a low-cost quality printer. However, there are some difficulties setting up the Wi-Fi functionality, and this is a common theme that I've seen in some of the Canon printers, is that some of the software is a little glitchy, and I've definitely seen more consistent software from Epson. For my research, there are refillable inks, so this is cost-optimized, and it can print a high volume of prints, so that's what's good about that. I also wanted to highlight the next printer, which is a refillable ink EcoTank type of printer from Epson. So the Epson EcoTank Photo ET 8500 Wireless Color All-in-One Super Tank Printer. This usually runs for about 700. This is all-in-one. It can print, scan, and copy.

automatic two-sided printing. Max print resolution at 5760 by 1440 DPI, which is good. Has six color inks. Four by six inch borderless photos in 15 seconds. Can do borderless photos up to eight and a half by 11 inches. Has an eight and a half by 11.7 flatbed scanner. Scan resolution is 1200 by 4800 DPI, which is really good. 4.3 inch color touchscreen. SD and USB memory card slots and Wi-Fi connectivity. Now, the reviews of this say that prints high-quality prints on thick 300 GSM paper, so that should handle cardstock. It's cost-effective. People said it's worth the money, and it's easy enough to use. I would definitely be tempted to use this if I only had to do fine art prints up into like eight and a half by 11 or 8x10 prints, and I wanted to print just a bunch of those or a bunch of greeting cards and take advantage of that ecotank. Now, we're going to jump into the world

that I usually play in, which is the Fine Art printers. So, this is going to be 700 and up. These printers each have their own personality. They're like pets, you know? I mean, they're temperamental, and you just have to learn how to deal with them and massage them and figure out how to best make it work with your computer and workflow. Because depending on what type of Mac you have, or what type of PC you have, and what type of addition, like, you have to make sure that both of them communicate with each other well. It's a journey in itself. But once you're into this fine art printing world, then it's something you just gotta figure out, and you'll have to eventually get comfortable figuring out self-help through printer forums where the hardcore printer nerds live, or YouTube videos where some of these printer nerds make great content that deal with the issues that you happen to have. You're not the only one going crazy with these printers. Continuing on to talk about the Fine Art printers, Canon and absent are

the two biggest head-to-head competitors in this category. So I'm going to jump into the 13-inch wide printer, and Epson's going to have their best in class, and Canon is going to have their best in class. And then I'm going to jump to the 17-inch Fine Art printer, and then again, Epson's gonna have their best in class, and Canon is going to have their Best in Class big picture. Both of them are going to have their own quirks, features, pros, and cons, and it really depends on preference. And you're just gonna have to do some research and look at the comment reviews to see which one speaks to you more. Also, you have to look at your past history. If you've always been an Epson person, just like my family is a Toyota family, then just keep on going with Epson. If you happen to be a Canon family or a Canon person, then go with Canon. I'm gonna be biased towards Epson. That's what we've been using since 2016. I'm familiar with the interface.

company the products how to fix them, whereas Canon would be a new world for me. But in general, they're neck and neck, close and close. The big picture is I've seen that Epsons are a little bit better in image quality, and the Canon is going to be a little bit cheaper in cartridge costs, you know. So, like, that's what it kind of comes down to when you look at the image quality. It's like, are you going to be that person with the magnifying glass looking through an art print and saying, Oh, I can see that these blacks are not as black as this Canon over here, you know, or This Epson over there. I'm not that type of person. I don't care that much, but you might be, so I gotta respect that, right? So, it just depends on you, you know what I mean? So, you can go and look at all these graphs and color metric graphs that people have out there. I wouldn't be able to tell a difference, to tell you the truth. Again, it goes down to preference and

everything's priced competitively because they have all these MBAs working on how to make these the most competitive against each other. With that being said, I'll jump into the 13-inch wide category first, followed by the 17-inch wide category. Then the first one that's going to come up is the Epson SureColor P700 13-inch photo printer that runs from $800 to $900 right now. There's a $200 rebate, so I always look for rebates. There's a max print resolution at 5760 by 1440 DPI. Max Borealis print size is 13 inches by 19 inches. It has a 10-channel print head with dedicated channels for matte black and photo black ink. So, that means that there's no ink color switching. So, back in the previous generation, if you wanted to switch from matte to photo, then it would have to dump out the matte black ink and then switch over to the photo black. So, now you don't have to waste that ink, and it has archival-level print.

quality, which means that it's like Gallery level quality. 4.3-inch color touchscreen comes with a roll media feed, so that's a roller where you can be able to put roller paper on and print out a large panoramic poster if you want to do that. And between the Canon Image prograph versus the Epson, a comparison video I watched preferred the Epson because of the carbon black feature, so darker blacks, and the software seems to be more consistent with Epson quality level software, which means not a lot of glitches, easy to set up. And what users say is that image quality is good, it's easy to use, but the ink is expensive, so you're going to get a lot of these types of complaints when you're working with Fine Art printers. Next up is the competitors to that over on the Canon side, so the Canon Image program Pro 300, 13-inch professional photographic inkjet printer, and this runs about nine hundred dollars. Another thing about Canon is I usually don't see the rebates, but

Again, the Epson ink is going to be a little bit more expensive, right? So, they want to get you into the platform, and then they got you, and then they'll make their money back on the ink. The max resolution printing for the Canon is 4800 by 2400 DPI. Max print size is 13 by 39 inches or less, printing up to 13 inches wide, and it has a fine print head. So, it means the cartridges are on top of the printhead, so the ink comes out of the printhead, as opposed to having these long tubes to put into the printhead. And the matte black and photo black inks have their own designated nozzle, so no color switching, kind of like the Epson as well. And there's nine cartridges, Lucia Pro pigment-based ink. And the main differences between this and the Epson is that this Canon has a replaceable ink head. However, it does not have roller feed, so it can print long prints up to 13 inches by 39 inches, but it just can't

be on a roller because the roller doesn't exist for this printer. Some of the comments that people said about that is that the printing is slow. People don't like that there's no touch screen. However, compared to the Epson, the inks are a little cheaper. So for Canon, it's 0.92 cents per milliliter versus the Epson. It's about 1.50 per milliliter. And if you're looking at printer cartridge price per milliliter. Next up, I'm going to jump over to the Epson Sure Color P900 17-inch photo printer. And this goes for about $1,249. There is a $200 rebate, and Epson has these rebates go on all the time. This is very similar to the Epson Sure Color P700 13-inch printer, so it's just a couple inches wider. Max print resolution is the same 5760 by 1440 DPI. Max borderless print size is 17 inches by 22 inches, so that's what usually the print size that we print at.

10 Channel color print head, 4.3-inch color touchscreen, and Wi-Fi connectivity. It does have a roll media adapter, but it doesn't come with it. Yeah, have to buy it separately. The kind of pros and cons that come with the P700 is the same for the P900, so great quality, easy to use, but again, the ink is expensive, and we'll get that when I go through the Canon. The last printer on the list is a Canon Image Pro Graph Pro 1000, and that's the 17-inch professional photographic inkjet printer, and this goes about twelve hundred dollars and no rebate. A Max print resolution is 2400 by 1200 DPI. Max print size is 17 inches by 23.4 inches. Borderless printing up to 17 inches wide. There are 12 Pro pigment-based ink, so actually has more ink cartridges than the Epson. There's a three-inch color LCD. There's Wi-Fi connectivity, and general reviews in the research I've done is that it's slow printing. It's released in

2015, which means that it's a little old, it's eight years later. However, that does mean that it's proven and consistent, and it's great for photographers. However, since the technology is kind of old, it's heavy, be so it's 70 pounds versus 35 pounds for the equivalent Epson. The ink is cheaper, but not as big of a difference between the Epson p700 13-inch printer and the equivalent Pro 300 13-inch from Canon. So, comparison of the ink price from the image program Pro 1000 and the Epson p900, the Canon is 70 cents a milliliter, while the Epson p900 is about 83 cents a milliliter. Again, there's a replaceable printhead on the Canon, not on the Epson p900, and with the Canon, there's no roll media adapter available. Comparing these high-end printers, if you're a photographer and care about ink price, maybe you should go with the Canons. If you want slightly better tech and a newer printer and a smaller printer.

footprint, then I would go with the Epson. But at this price point, you can't go wrong with either one. And I know that you're going to do your research anyway. I'm probably part of that research, right? So, that's it for this year's printer videos. I left a bunch of links in the about section with links to each one of these printers, so you can just click, dive into the comments section, and start doing your research. For the most part, you don't have to just buy them new either. You should check OfferUp, you should check Craigslist, you should check printer forums to see if people are selling a used, because usually most artists are just making art prints and not moving their art prints around, and people are always getting in and out of the art print business. You should take advantage of that and not have to buy a new. I'm pretty sure you have your money to invest in other areas. If you can't afford to wait or you can't afford to deal with these issues, then go ahead and

buy new, and it'll get delivered to your door in no time. I really appreciate your time that you've taken to watch this video. If you have any questions, just put them in the link below about time. I'll answer them, but you don't have to have everything figured out. You just have to take the next step, and maybe your next step is buying a printer. Thank you.

Best Printers for Artists Making or Selling Art from Home in 2024

Best Printers for Artists Making or Selling Art from Home in 2024

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