As we move closer and closer to a paperless society, printers are still quite essential for many reasons. Perhaps you like to print family photos, or you need to print forms and other paperwork for business. As more and more people are working remotely, the need for printers has boomed.
But with so many choices, where do you start? I’m focusing on inkjets in this article because laser printers are a totally different subject, but if your printing requirements include high volume printing such as in medical, veterinary, or law offices, you definitely need a laser printer to keep costs down. For everyone else, an inkjet is the perfect solution.
There are 4 brands I suggest for different needs. For photography, Epson and Canon have the market cornered. You will not find better photo quality than from these printers. From personal experience, Epson does a bit better than Canon.
For general purpose printing, you can’t beat a Brother. Brother printers are tough, long lasting, and there is a large variety of aftermarket inks you can buy to keep costs down. Unlike competing brands, Brother printers do not generally clog up from aftermarket ink. Epson almost always clogs, and Canon does too. But a Brother will keep ticking! I had a Brother MFC-290c for over 10 years before it died. Never did I have a problem with clogs, and I used aftermarket ink for all but the first 6 months of its life. Eventually the paper feeding mechanism failed, but for as long and cheaply as it lasted, that was $79 well spent. For a workhorse, get a Brother.
I’ll get some hate for this, but there are some scenarios where HP might make a good choice. If you need scanning, stay away from HP, but not because the scanners are bad. I’ll get onto more of that here in a moment.
There are a few problems with HP printers themselves, namely in their ink prices. Can you get aftermarket ink? Absolutely, but don’t expect it to last long as these are prone to clogs and artificial limitations programmed into the firmware; they will literally stop working if you use aftermarket ink too long. How long? That depends on your luck.
Having said that, there is one way you can get ahead with an HP printer. First part is, don’t use the software for the printer, as it calls home to HP frequently and it’s hard telling what it is or isn’t sending. But you CAN use the same HP Universal Print driver designed for laserjets, as all of their printers seem to speak PCL6. Now that you’ve eliminated the spyware element, you need to sign up for HP Instant Ink. Instant Ink is a subscription program where you pay a very small monthly fee for a set amount of pages, which unused pages roll over. So if you have 300 available pages, and only use 200, then next month you’ll be able to print 400 pages without additional fees.
If you have basic needs and don’t want to worry about problems, just get a Brother. If you’re a photographer, I strongly recommend an Epson. And even though you CAN make it work safely with an HP, I’d only consider that if the primary factor is keeping cost as low as possible.
Here are some of my picks of printers, based on value, reviews, and features.
Epson
Brother
Canon
HP
