They all offer two-sided printing, an ADF that copies one side only, and the ability to copy single-sided originals to two-sided copies. The one print-only model is the WF-110 Wireless Mobile Printer, which is appropriate for anyone who needs a printer on the go. Epson’s SureColor P900 produces exquisite photos and artwork on cut sheets and paper rolls up to 17 inches wide, making it an excellent choice for professional photographers and graphic artists. The Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 AIO prints well and inexpensively, and it offers generous input capacity, lofty volume ratings, and two years of unlimited free ink. The ET-8550 prints excellent photos and other high-definition images, from snapshot-size to supertabloid, with running costs of less than 1 cent per page.
You can even keep a check on printing while it’s in process, thanks to an integral lamp. The HP Smart Tank Plus 651 is HP’s answer to the Epson EcoTank and other printers that reduce ink costs by using refillable ink tanks instead of expensive cartridges. With thousands of pages worth of ink included with the printer, the Smart Tank Pro 651 delivers high-quality epson laser printer prints for only a fraction of a cent per page. Aside from the inexpensive ink, The HP also delivers high quality across the board, with sharp looking prints that have sharp letterforms and well-saturated colors, and natural-looking color when printing glossy photos. Inkjet printers from Epson feature PrecisionCore® printheads that improve device performance.
If you plan to print PDF documents, know that text as well as graphics quality varies. Although the HP models were consistently good, the Canon TS6020 printed the sleekest, sharpest letter forms. The Epson WF-2760 also printed very attractive text in our PDF, though our Epson Expression XP-640 epson photo printer review noted that text printed with much fuzzier edges, even on presentation matte paper. Whether it’s a home printer or a business printer for your office, the best printers on this page can help you quickly and easily print off documents perfectly, all while keeping running costs low.
While Epson still offers a wide variety of cartridge-based printers to suit pretty much every need and budget, it’s recently ramped up its range of ‘EcoTank’ printers. These replace traditional cartridges, which often need replacing on a frequent basis at considerable cost, with much higher-capacity, permanently fixed tanks that are easily refillable from relatively cheap ink bottles. The initial purchase prices of EcoTank printers tends to be rather higher, but they’re much more convenient and cost-effective for fairly high-volume printing in the long term. Its killer features though, are those refillable ink tanks that can cut your ink cost by 90 percent. One set of bottled ink, which you’ll find in the box, should yield the equivalent of 72 cartridges.
Epson’s P-Series features the P5000, P7000, P9000, P7570 and P9570 printing from 17″ up to 44 inches wide. Sticking with all-important ink theme, the Epson’s current range of inkjet printers fall into three main categories. For the most part, document printers have a conventional four-ink line-up of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, which delivers a sufficiently wide gamut (or color space) for text and graphics. The company has historically favored a six-ink system for photo printing, adding light cyan and light magenta to the mix to extend the gamut for more photo-realistic output.
Expression Premium models are aimed at essentially the same sort of user, and are also three-function AIOs, but they offer a boost in photo quality by adding photo black ink to the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) inks. Some offer flatbed scanning only, as with the Expression Premium XP-6100 Small-in-One; others add an auto-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) for two-sided copying and scanning. What the three Expression sub-brands have in common is that they use ink cartridges, offer a low initial price, and are aimed at home users with moderate print needs. For those who don’t print a lot, the total cost of ownership can be lower than for higher-priced tank printers with lower running costs. Epson even offers point of sale (POS) printers and some (necessarily noisy) 9- and 24-pin dot matrix models.
As well as two front-loading trays for different paper sizes, there’s a rear feeder for thicker, specialist media. CD/DVD printing is also featured, while the 4800dpi scanner and SD memory card slot add standalone epson inkjet printers versatility, enhanced by a 4.3-inch color touchscreen. The XL cartridge option roughly doubles the standard capacity but a full set costs about the same as the purchase price of the printer itself.