The Top 3 Best Home Printers for 2024 | Buyers Guide
22nd Mar 2024
Simon Cross
The question I get asked the most: What would you recommend as the best home printer?
Some may never ask the question "Which is the best home printer?" Others will research day and night and try and navigate the many sources to try and find a best answer to fit their questions, which home printer should I buy and which printer is best for home use.
I hope you find this blog helpful in finding what really is the best printer for home use.
It's not my style to shove copious amounts of printers for sale here, just some honest guidance built around our own customers most frequently asked questions when looking for the best home printer.
What is a home printer?
The best home printer doesn't need to be an all-in-one, all singing all dancing machine that makes your morning coffee and prints in A1 so let's be honest with ourselves here, the best home printer is the one that meets our needs and doesn't cost the earth to run.
Sounds like a silly question for me to even bring up doesn't it but the truth is, it is worth asking yourself over and over to ensure you are making the right choice.
What would be the best home printer for me?
When I ask myself what would be the best home printer for me personally, an interesting and possibly slightly inappropriate yet honest answer springs to mind.
This is a bit of a confession, perhaps not best placed for the public domain but I tend to do most of my home printing at work, and lets face is, most of us do. We all know, or have at least worked previously with that colleague that brings in their latest holiday snaps and prints them all out....no that isn't me on this occasion!
So, what is the best home printer for me? A photo printer so I don't get judged by my colleagues for overstepping the mark. The mundane copying or printing out of various documents happens at work as well as printing personal photos and the link. Yep that happens at home.
Should I consider an inkjet or laser printer for home use?
Let's keep this answer brief. 99% of the time the answer laser printers just aren't suitable for home use. They have a very important place within the world but that's typically in a business or education/school setting.
If you print in excess of 200 pages per month regularly then yes definitely consider a laser printer as a more suitable home printing solution.
Reasons most people don't want a laser printer at home
- Poor image quality: Those photos will come out far worse from a laser printer due to the vastly lower print resolution capability vs an inkjet printer.
- High upfront consumable costs: Ultimately it will cost you less per print buying laser toner cartridges but you will have to dig a lot deeper in to your pockets to buy a complete set of toners when compared to a set of inkjet cartridges.
- More expensive initial purchase price: Yep, those laser printers usually cost a lot more than an inkjet printer. For sure you'll get a more robust printer that can handle itself in when fronted with very demanding users but do you need something that can print 10,000 copies a week? Probably not!
For the 99% of you - back to the best inkjet printer for home use then!
After spending considerable time looking through our 25 most frequently sold printers I have narrowed the list down to 3 models. the Canon Pixma TS6350, Canon Pixma TS3350 and the Canon Pixma IX6580. Before getting in to the nitty gritty, lets have a look at some key bits of information.
Key Factors to consider for the best home printer
- Connectivity: What device will you use with the printer? i.e. PC, laptop, tablet or mobile phone
- Functionality: Do you need a scanner, automatic document feeder (ADF), wireless or even if it needs to have a fax function?
- Print quality: That's right, certain machines outperforms others. If your home printer is specifically geared towards photo printing then a high resolution or DPI (dots per inch) is something to consider with high importance.
- Media Handling: To mention a few, think about the type of media you will be printing on. Will you be printing on heavyweight photo paper, envelopes or larger size paper such as A3?
- Dimensions: Often overlooked but lets face it, you wouldn't want something that size of a skip in your living room would you?! Seriously though, desk space, under a shelf or on a sideboard, it's worth getting the required dimensions prior to making your purchase.
Finally, not forgetting how the paper is fed. Some printers are top fed, some will have a bottom feed paper tray so it is another important consideration if space is at a premium.
What is the best printer brand for home use?
There is no one brand that you should consider, there are plenty of different types of printer from Brother, Canon, Epson and HP that could make your best home printer. My advice would be to consider them all!
What should you avoid when looking for a home printer?
Spending more thank you need to is something we are all trying to avoid, especially in todays economic climate, so why pay for extra functions that you probably won't ever use? If the answer is no, go for a lower spec model to fit your home printer needs.
The common advice from our experts in response to our customers asking - "Which home printer would you recommend" - After spending time looking through our 25 most frequently sold printers I've narrowed the list down to three models.
Best home printer to use with a desktop PC
We recommended the Canon Pixma TS6350 as the best home printer for those with a dedicated desk for it to sit next to your PC.
Connectivity
Our top printer for those with a desktop PC sat on a desk is without doubt the Canon TS6350. In truth, this one particular printer fits the needs for 95% of users. Having multiple connectivity options isn't the most important requirement for desktop PC users because the printer will most likely be sat on a desk right next to the PC, but it is still worth mentioning that this model still has Wi-Fi, Apple AirPrint and other mobile printer apps as well as a USB printer port for wired printing.
Media Handling
A 100 sheet paper tray at the front and 20 sheet tray at the rear are very helpful additions. Importantly if this printer is going to be placed under a shelf you can be almost 100% certain that the space needed for the Canon TS6350 is no greater than than the dimensions required for printing plain paper from the front tray.
A4 photo paper when used through the rear tray can be as heavy as 300 GSM, which really does give a huge varity of different paper types that could be used.
Functionality
The best home printer is one that allows you to do everything from the comfort of your home, right?
- Print: This model will print text documents, exquisite photos and even envelopes. With a maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, it actually lands itself in the camp of a photo printer contender when printing on the highest setting. I would recommend selecting the lowest quality settings for day to day printing and text documents to save you time and ink.
- Scan: A resolution up to 1200 x 2400 dpi using the flatbed scanner it will handle most tasks with ease.
- Copy: Easy to use, after roughly 20 seconds your first scan is complete and ready for you to receive multiple copies. A handy feature is the reduce / enlarge function. You can reduce a scanned image to 25% of its original size or increase it up to 400%. Handy for the smaller photos.
Print quality
The printers maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi is probably a lot more than will every actually be used.
Often overlooked is the paper you use. On standard office paper, pretty much all inkjet printers will perform to the same standard, the limitation being the paper quality. The nature of paper being very porous means you'll naturally experience 'bleeding' of the ink, which limits the resolution you will see. Make sure you've stocked some of the higher quality photo paper and the Canon TS6350 performs exceptionally well and delivers incredible colour reproduction.
Darks to lights it does much better than most in its category.
Dimensions
376mm x 359mm x 141mm (W x D x H).
A sensible size that won’t look out of place on a desk, yes you can get smaller machines but for those using a desktop PC set-up, they aren’t often needed.
The best home printer to use with mobile devices?
We recommend the Canon Pixma MG3350 as the best home printer for those that predominately print lightly and by using a mobile device.
If you are one of these households that rely heavily on a tablet or mobile device to browse the internet then be sure that you get a printer that is Wi-Fi enabled. It will save you a lot of frustration turning on the PC that has a wired connection to your printer just to print from a different device.
Also, depending on the brand of printer you can browse any number of apps they support and see if their use makes your life easier.
Canon MG3350 printer really does tick the box in low initial outlay, reasonable consumable costs and space saving dimensions.
Connectivity
My top pick for mobile printing, with all the options you will need in terms of connectivity.
Wi-Fi, Apple AirPrint and mobile printer apps available as well as a USB port to enable a wired connection to a PC or laptop if required on occasions.
Mobile Apps available at the time of writing include: Mobile Apps Canon PRINT Inkjet/SELPHY app, Easy-PhotoPrint Editor, Message In Print app, PIXMA Cloud Link, Canon Print Service Plugin (Android), Apple AirPrint, Access Point Mode, WLAN PictBridge, Mopria (Android)
Media Handling
A 60 sheet rear paper tray. Importantly if this printer is going to be placed under a shelf please do take in to consideration that the rear tray does extend and increase the room needed to print.
You can always pull the printer from out of its cubby hole to use it of course. Not as heavy weight as some but still very capable at printing on photo paper with a weight of 275 g/m² as a maximum.
Functionality
- Print: This model will print text documents, lovely photos and make it easy. With a maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi it is very capable of knocking out some amazing photographs – that is pretty high resolution. As always we do recommend selecting the lowest quality print setting if it’s not your favourite photo – it will print quicker and use less ink.
- Scan: The maximum resolution from the optical scanner is 600 x 1200 dpi for media 216mm x 297mm and smaller. Ticks the box for the majority of home printer needs.
- Copy: Simple no frills spec in this area. Plain text documents or borderless copying will be managed easily. It won’t be the fastest at doing so and there are highly resolution scanners out there but really, do you need the higher spec to photo copy a hotel reservation of utility bill?
Print quality
The printer's maximum resolution is 4800 x 1200 dpi puts it top tier for the budget.
On standard office paper pretty much all inkjet printers will perform to the same level, the limitation being the paper quality. On standard paper the resolution of this printer won’t be appreciated. Get some high quality glossy photo paper in the Canon MG3350 and it performs incredibly well. In fact, I'd go as far as saying it performs at a level most people didn’t expect.
Dimensions
435mm x 316mm x 145mm (W x D x H).
A sensible size that won’t look out of place on a side board or small desk, yes you can get smaller machines but for those wanting the best all round home printer that copy’s and scan on a budget you do have to appreciate they are slightly larger.
The best home printer for photographers?
Do you want to print larger than A4? If so, there is an array of excellent printers for home use that won’t break the bank and print in A3+ (a little larger than A3 - 32 mm larger in width and 63 mm larger in height).
Something else to consider is the number of ink cartridges for any specific model you are looking at; the greater the number of cartridges the wider the colour breadth that will be available to reproduce the colours, highlights and depth you see on screen.
Resolution or ‘DPI’, which stands for dots per inch, is the maximum resolution a printer is capable of. The greater the numbers the better so try and go for one with a DPI of at least 4800 x 1200 dpi for some nice sharp detailed images.
I recommend the Canon PIXMA IX6850 A3+ printer as the best home printer for photographers.
Connectivity
The Canon IX6850 has plenty of options when connectivity is concerned. Wi-Fi, Apple AirPrint and mobile printer Apps available as well as a USB port to enable a wired connection to a PC or laptop when/if required on occasions.
Media Handling
Another one with just a rear tray here, unsurprisingly given it is lending itself to those typically using this to print their photography or architectural drawings. Once again importantly if this printer is going to be placed under a shelf please do take in to consideration that the rear tray does extend and increase the room needed to print – On an A3+ model it’s more than an A4 printer by a reasonable amount.
You have loads of options when printing on photo paper with a weight of 300 g/m² as a maximum which will keep you busy.
A3+, A3, A4 and below – it’s very versatile with media options and easy to adjust between them with the paper grappling sliders on the rear tray that easily move in and out.
Functionality
The best home printer is the one that allows you to do everything from the comfort of your home, right? Well with this one it’s all about the quality of the photographs. There is no scan or copy function.
Print quality
This is where this model comes in to its own, very high quality images with a top class colour reproduction.
The deep blacks and very subtle highlights will all be present. A maximum resolution of Up to 9600 x 2400 you will be hard pushed to be anything short of amazed . When printing at the highest quality setting it will take a minute or more for the printer to deliver a finished A3+ print but believe us, it will be worth the wait.
Dimensions
584mm x 310mm x 159mm (W x D x H)
My closing thoughts to help you as best as possible get the best home printer
The biggest factor to consider in our opinion - Consumable costs!
Don't buy a printer that costs very little yet sets you back £000’s every time you need to buy ink cartridges.
Equally, do not sign up to an ink subscription that you pay for every month yet months will pass when you don’t even need to print! Having considered the above – What is your choice for best home printer?
Blog Author: Simon Cross is the engaging and knowledgeable voice behind the insightful articles on printers and printer consumables at IJT Direct, an ecommerce store renowned for its comprehensive selection of printers, printer consumables, and hardware. To find out more about Simon Click Here