Digital Trends

Your office printer is great at churning out documents, and your home printer is a jack of all trades, master of none—it prints fine, but your photos don’t have that luster that screams “frame me and put me on the wall.” Thankfully for aspiring paparazzi or those simply hoping to fill family picture albums with timeless portraits, here are 10 of our favorite printers that excel at creating spectacular prints. We’re not talking super-expensive, professional photo printers either: Just great models that produce photos as good as, or in some cases better than, your local Eckerd or Walgreens…


Epson Artisan 700, $200

With its sexy piano black finish, this printer’s looks are a sign of great things to come when it actually starts churning out your memories. It’s a step down from its more-expensive brother, the Artisan 800, which simply has more features. For your everyday photo needs, however, the 700 creates vivid prints that won’t smudge, get scratched, and are water- and fade-resistant. This means, according to Epson, they will last four times longer than lab prints. The Artisan 700 excels at printing photos fast as well: 4x6 or 5x7 prints take as little as one minute, while 8x10s take around three minutes when printed on premium paper at best quality. There are two paper trays, meaning you can hold regular paper and photo paper in the printer at the same time so you don’t have to constantly switch out your paper stock too. (There is also a tray hidden inside the printer for printing directly onto CDs or DVDs.) And, like many good photo printers these days, you don’t need a computer—you can pop your memory card directly into the printer and preview and edit your photos right on the device’s LCD display. PictBridge support lets you connect your camera and print from it, as well. Plus, with its Wi-FI and Ethernet networking capabilities, all computers can print to just one printer. What really matters, however, is image quality, and photos from the 700 are ultimately bright, clear and detailed.