Best photo printers for 2024

You don’t want to be left waiting for 15 minutes while a print creeps out, only to see a blurry mess appear in the tray and to then run out of ink.

The best photo printers speedily turn out crisp, vibrant and realistic-looking photos, and won't drain your printer ink in the process. 

You can see a selection of some fantastic photo printers in the table below, based on our tough lab tests, and two to avoid further down.

Don't miss our pick of the best home printers.

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Best photo printers

Some of the models we've selected aren't recent launches, but they're still some of the best printers out there. You can check our printer reviews for our latest new reviews.

Photo printers to avoid

If you're going to go to the trouble of printing your photos at home, you want to ensure that the results are excellent. The printers below all fail on print quality in our tough lab tests. 

Our expert testing unearths the low-scoring printers that will leave you out of pocket and frustrated, including some Don't Buys. Don't get stuck with one of these poor-quality machines.  

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Pricing and recommendations correct as of April 2024.

How to choose a photo printer

Before buying a photo printer, there are key features you should consider.

• Good photo print quality is obviously a must for a photo printer, but it's worth getting a printer with wi-fi, too. That means you can print wirelessly and potentially use features such as Apple AirPrint if you have an iPhone or iPad.
• Most photo printers also have free apps for printing from your smartphone or tablet, while some have built-in memory card slots to print photos stored on an SD card. They may have a USB connection for hooking up a PictBridge-compatible camera.
• A colour preview screen is a useful feature as it makes it possible to make minor adjustments to your photos before you print. If you go for an all-in-one printer, you can also scan or make copies of existing photos.

Photo printer brands

Photo printers have pros and cons, and the brand you decide to buy from will depend largely on your home printing needs and budget.

Below is some information on popular printer brands to help you choose. For more in-depth insight into the different brands, go to which printer brand to buy. 

• Canon photo printers start from roughly £50, although cheaper models do have the capability to print photos (but this may not be their specialty). The most expensive photo-orientated Canons we tested were around £250. A couple scored well in our tough tests and were cheaper than average, making them Great Value printers.
• Epson proto printers are at the higher end of the price range, with more expensive photo printers from this brand costing more than £350, while the cheapest option we tested costs around £120. While the upfront price tends to be higher, we found some Epson models made up for this with considerably lower running costs, with one model running cheaply enough to be an Eco Buy printer.
• HP photo printers have some models with decent-quality photo printing. Of those we tested, the cheapest was just below £200, while pricier options cost up to £400.
• Brother photo printers we've tested cost £150-500, but the brand sells more than 90 different models for home and office use. We've only tested a few photo-orientated Brother printers and they scored reasonably highly, with one getting our Eco Buy label.

You can use the handy filters in our printer reviews to compare printers aimed at photo printing.

Is home photo printing worth it?

Many modern printers can print photos in various sizes, particularly inkjet-type models. 

Printing an individual photo at home is much cheaper than using an online printing service. Print a 10x8-inch image, for example, and it could cost around 35p from a Best Buy printer. You could pay more than triple that from an online photo printing service, with delivery costs on top. 

However, online photo printing services can be much more cost effective if you want to print a lot of photos in one go, as they often offer a discount. 

So for printing the odd photo here and there, use a Best Buy home photo printer. For larger photo printing jobs, such as your holiday album, go to our guide on the Best online photo printing services.

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