Best Epson Printer For Photos – Buying Guide

Generally, Epson has been making high-quality office and home printers for a long time. However, if you are a professional photographer or casual photographer, you need the best Epson printer for photos to make your beautiful prints.

As you weigh between various options available, make sure you put in mind the size of the photos you’ll be printing and the type of ink you will use to print. With this, you will be somewhere close to getting your best match. For more information on what to consider, scroll to the bottom of this article for more tips.

However, Epson Expression Home XP is our best pick among these amazing printers. We love its multi-tasking capabilities, so you don’t have to buy multiple machines to copy and scan documents. Also, the printer works with individual cartridges making it cheaper to replenish once it’s finished.

Editor’s Pick: Epson Printer For Photos

Best Epson Printer For Photos Basic Features Comparison Table

ProductSpecifications
Epson PictureMate PM-400Print Speed: 36 sec (default)
Technology: Inkjet
Output: Color
Sheet Size: 4 x 6” and 5” x 7”
Compatible Devices: Tablets and smartphones
Epson Expression Home XPSpeed: Black 10ppm & 5 ppm color
Technology: Inkjet
Output: Color
Compatible Devices: Smartphones and PC’s
Connectivity: Wi-Fi
Print Media: Plain paper
Epson Expression Premium XPSpeed: 5ipm
Technology: Inkjet
Output: Color
Compatibility: Smartphones & PC’s
Connectivity: USB
Epson Expression Home XP-5100Speed: 14ppm(black) & 7.5 ppm(color)
Technology: Inkjet
Output: Color
Compactible Devices: Smartphones, PC’s
Connectivity: Wi-Fi
Print Media: Glossy photo paper
Epson SureColor P400Speed: 9ppm ( black) & 5ppm(color)
Technology: Inkjet
Output: Color
Compatible Devices: PC, Mac
Connectivity: USB, Ethernet Wireless
Print Media: Plain paper
Epson Expression Photo XP-8600Speed: 9.5ppm for black and 9ppm for color
Technology: Inkjet
Print Output: Color
Compatible Devices: Smartphones and PC’s
Connectivity: Wi-Fi
Print Media: Plain paper
Epson Stylus Photo 2200 Speed: 32ppm
Technology: Inkjet
Output: Color
Connectivity: USB/ Wireless
Print Media: Plain paper

Top 7 Best Epson Printer for Photos- Buying Guide

1. Epson PictureMate PM-400

Epson Picturemate PM 400 is our top best printer for photographers. It is compact and portable, so you can carry it to family gatherings, parties, and more to capture and share great moments. With Wi-Fi Direct and wireless printing, you can seamlessly print from your smartphone, tablet, or iPad.

Features

Photo Quality

Epson Picturemate prints beautiful borderless 4” x 6” and 5” x 7” photos. The photos are long-lasting, smudge, scratch, water, and fade resistant. You can store these photos in your album for more than 200 years.

Printing Speed

This printer can print 4” x 6” photos within 36 seconds. However, this applies to only the default mode set to print a color photo on premium photo glossy paper. Your actual printing time depends on the system configuration, software, and photo page complexity.

Connectivity

Enjoy wireless printing plus Wi-Fi direct to print straight from your tablet, iPhone, smartphone, and iPad. You don’t need to carry cables around for printing.

Cartridges

This printer accepts Epson cartridges only for printing. Any third-party ink or cartridges will not work

Specifications

  • Print speed: 36 sec (default)
  • Technology: inkjet
  • Output: color
  • Sheet size: 4 x 6” and 5” x 7”
  • Compatible devices: tablets and smartphones

pros

  • Automatic photo correction
  • High quality borderless photos
  • Long lasting, smudge and water resistant prints
  • Wireless connectivity
  • Compact and portable design

Cons

  • Only limited to Epson cartridges

2. Epson Expression Home XP

Epson Expression is the second in our top choice and the best Epson printer for home use. The printer is a wireless all-in-one printer with automatic double-sided printing and has other high-performance features. The printer is equal to the best Epson workforce printer.

Features

Function

With this printer, it is easy to print, scan and copy your documents and photos wirelessly from your android tablet, iPad, iPhone, or smartphone via Wi-Fi direct.

Cartridges

Although this printer is designed to work with only Epson cartridges, they are much more affordable; since you will be replacing each individually. 

Printing

With this printer, you don’t necessarily need to be onsite to print; you can print using your voice since it is Alexa enabled. Again, immediately after printing, you can hold your photos and documents since the printer works with Clarian instant-dry ink.

Easy To Use

You will agree that this printer is easy to use for a beginner and has much to offer if you are professional. The printer features a 2.4” color LCD to navigate the scan, copy and print functions.

Specifications

  • Speed: black 10ppm & 5 ppm color
  • Technology: inkjet
  • Output: color
  • Compatible devices: smartphones and PC’s
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi
  • Print media: plain paper

Pros

  • Energy star qualified
  • Automatic duplex printing
  • Single ink cartridges 
  • Voice printing
  • Instant drying ink

cons

  • Compatible with original Epson cartridges
  • Epson ink cartridges are a bit expensive

3. Epson Expression Premium XP

Epson Expression Premium XP is the third on our list and the best Epson all-in-one printer for your creative family. Although the printer is versatile, you can be sure of superb photo quality. The printer also has a 30-page automatic document feeder and automatic duplex printing, copying, and scanning. This saves your time and money.

Features

Easy To Use

Enjoy hassle-free Epson expression premium XP features. You are using a large 4.3” touch screen to view, edit and print your photos directly from your SD or USB slot before printing.

Connectivity

To print documents and photos from your smartphone or tablet, you don’t need to connect to any network, but rather connect directly via Wi-Fi direct.

Quality Prints

This Epson printer works with 5 individual Claria inks to give you high-quality fade, smudge, and water-resistant prints. 

Creative Print App

You will love this Epson creative print app. The app makes it easy to print photos directly from your social media. You can also use this app to custom make cards, collages, and more.

Specifications

  • Speed: 5ipm
  • Technology: inkjet
  • Output: color
  • Compatibility: smartphones & PC’s
  • Connectivity: USB
  • Print media: plain paper

Pros

  • High quality prints
  • Individual cartridges
  • Creative print app
  • Wireless and Ethernet connectivity
  • Fast printing speed

Cons

  • Only compatible with Epson cartridges
  • The package does not include a USB cable

4. Epson Expression Home XP-5100

This is the best Epson printer for home use, as the name suggests. The printer will work perfectly for your occasional small projects like printing party invitations and school work. At first sight, you will love this printer’s simple and modern design with rounded corners.

Features

Design

This Epson printer is designed to be compact, so it will perfectly fit your desk or other small spaces. The printer features a 150 sheets capacity tray so you can print large volumes without reloading papers frequently.

Efficient

Once you choose to use this Epson Expression XP 5100, you automatically choose efficiency in your work. You will save valuable time and money with the printer automatic duplex printing.

Function

How about a printer that can multitask? You don’t have to have several machines flooding your room or office. Instead, get this amazing printer with scan and copy functions.

Amazon Dash Replacement

This printer qualifies for amazon dash replacement. So, your printer will notify amazon when you need more ink through your account to get ink before you completely run out.

Specifications

  • Speed: 14ppm(black) & 7.5 ppm(color)
  • Technology: inkjet
  • Output: color
  • Compactible devices: smartphones, PC’s
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi
  • Print media: glossy photo paper

Pros

  • Amazon dash replacement
  • Automatic printing
  • Intuitive mobile printing
  • High capacity 150 sheet tray
  • Built in card slot and templates

Cons

  • Only compatible with original Epson cartridges
  • Not suitable for large projects

5. Epson SureColor P400

Get this Epson Surecolor P400 and create professional-quality photos prints if you are a photo enthusiast. However, if you are looking for the best Epson ecotank printer, you also need to consider this one. 

Features

High-Quality Prints

Enjoy superb accuracy and great photo quality with this printer. It has seven colors of ultra-chrome High Gloss two ink set with a gloss optimizer.  The printer can create the smallest ink droplet size for any A3+ photo printer in the market.

Connectivity

Enjoy maximum connectivity with built-in USB and Ethernet connectivity. Also, the printer has Wi-Fi capabilities so that you can print from your tablet, smartphone, and PC.

Design

Add this compact and stylish printer to your office, home, or studio to compliment the environment. The printer will perfectly fit your desk or countertop without taking much space.

Print Quality

This printer gives you a quality and longevity combo. The printouts are smudge-free, water, and scratch-resistant, so you can keep your photos for generations to come.

Specifications

  • Speed: 9ppm (black) & 5ppm(color)
  • Technology: inkjet
  • Output: color
  • Compatible devices: PC, Mac
  • Connectivity: USB, Ethernet Wireless
  • Print media: plain paper

Pros

  • Up to 13” x 129” print media capabilities
  • Energy-star certified 
  • Advanced connectivity
  • High capacity individual ink cartridges
  • Variety of connectivity options

Cons

  • You have to get the Ethernet and USB cable separately
  • Only compatible with Epson cartridges

6. Epson Expression Photo XP-8600

We gladly recommend this Epson Expression photo XP-8600 photo printer for anyone working on a budget. This is a good kill for the price to add to your home office. The printer 8 x 11” prints and 4 x 6” are above average for an all-one printer. We are qualifying it as one of the best all-in-one photo printers

Features

Print Quality

This printer has 6 photo inks producing decent color depth in your prints. Also, your prints will have unmatched longevity with up to 300 years.

Easy Setup And Use

Nothing is irritating like having to struggle with your printer setup. Fortunately, you are assured of an easy office setup with this Epson printer.

Everything You Need In One Package

Once your printer package arrives, it has everything you need to keep going. You will get the printer, CD-ROM, power cord, and 6 Claria photo HD ink cartridges.

Connectivity

The printer has several connectivity modes that you can use to print your images. You can choose to connect via a USB, SD card, Memory stick, micro SD, Wi-Fi, or wireless connectivity.

Specifications

  • Speed: 9.5ppm for black and 9ppm for color
  • Technology: inkjet
  • Print output: color
  • Compatible devices: smartphones and PC’s
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi
  • Print media: plain paper

Pros

  • Professional quality printouts
  • Convenient and easy to use
  • Easy mobile printing
  • Double sided printing
  • Two paper trays

Cons

  • Only compatible with Epson cartridges
  • Not possible to print directly from your camera

7. Epson Stylus Photo 2200

Epson Stylus photo 2200 inkjet printer replaces stylus photo 2000P in Epson product line. This printer will serve your professional and creative needs with increased screen resolution and a wider color gamut. However, this printer has a severe limit to OS X printer drivers.

Features

Ink Pigment

Epson 2200 works with UltraChrome ink set, including light cyan, cyan, magenta, light magenta, yellow, light black (responsible for grayscale printing), and two interchangeable black inks (matte black and photo black). The inks are in separate cartridges, so you will only replace the ink that runs out.

Print Papers

It would be best to consider printing on glossy or semi-glossy papers for good results, though the photo black ink works well for all paper types. On the other hand, matte black ink yields perform well on matte papers like radiant white watercolor, Epson’s enhanced matte, and velvet fine art paper.

Speed

This printer will print one borderless 4 by 6” print within one minute, which is an impressive speed for this standard equipment.

Resolution

Epson 2200 double its resolution compared to 2000P, working at a maximum of 2880 by 1440 dpi. This ensures you get sharper documents and photos compared to its predecessor.

Specifications

  • Speed: 32ppm
  • Technology: inkjet
  • Output: color
  • Connectivity: USB/ wireless
  • Print media: plain paper

Pros

  • Improved speed
  • High resolution
  • Enhanced paper handling
  • Pigmented ink with stable appearance 
  • Borderless printing

Cons

  • Limit in OS X printer driver
  • Works well with specific Epson paper

Best Looking Epson Photo Printer

Epson Expression Home XP-5100

This printer is both functional and aesthetic. As such, it has a modern design that will compliment your other office equipment. And at the same time, high-quality print photos. The printer also qualifies for Amazon Dash Replenishment, so you will never run out of ink. Your printer will automatically notify amazon and order more ink through your account.

Budget Epson Photo Printer

Epson Expression Photo XP-8600

If you are working on a budget, you don’t have to compromise quality or important features to get a reliable Epson photo printer. However, it would help if you considered this all-in-one printer with automatic duplex printing. This will save you paper money and time for manual duplex printing. Again, the printer is very easy to use, so quickly get started. 

Best Epson Printer For Photos- Buying Guide

Best Epson Printer For Photos

To get the best Epson printer for photos, you need to evaluate several factors. However, budget comes first, then the type of printer you want for your needs. You also need to consider;

Printer Type

There are two types of Epson printers; inkjet and laser. Laser printers are versatile and can be used for medium-intensity applications to print text, images, and photos. Inkjets also are the best in terms of accuracy and color fidelity. However, cartridges can be expensive, making them costly.

On the other hand, laser printers are good, especially if you frequently print in large quantities. They are available in monochrome, and the color is inferior to inkjet printers in the same price range through their graphic color representation.

Multifunction And Portable Printers

A printer is multi-functional when it includes multiple functions like printing, copying, and scanning. You can print your photos and still perform other functions. On the other hand, portable printers mostly are a single function with rechargeable batteries so you can print while on the go. Portable printers will work best if you need to capture and share moments anywhere you go.

Dimensions

This is a technical factor to consider. You don’t want a printer that will be difficult to fit into your workspace. However, inkjets are mostly fairly light and compact, while laser printers can be bulky and heavy. So if you are purchasing online, make sure to confirm the dimensions to avoid inconveniences.

Performance

In this, you need to consider the printer’s resolution and speed. For images, speed is expressed in images per minute and pages per minute for documents. Besides, printer resolution is measured in dpi. For high-quality prints, it’s recommended to get a printer with a high resolution.

Supported Paper Size

Before buying a printer, make sure to confirm the type of paper sheets the printer supports. Ensure the printer supports the size of papers you will be using for your project.

Maintenance And Consumption

Although this comes as the last point to consider, it is equally important. It would help if you considered the replacement price for cartridges and toners. Some printers may be cheap to purchase but have high cartridge costs.

In addition, if you will be using your printer all day, ensure you need to consider the stated manufacturer’s energy consumption to avoid huge electricity bills and avoid surprises.

How To Refill Ink In Epson Printer?

Once you get the best ecotank printer for photos, the next thing is to know how to fill the tanks correctly. This article section will explain how you can easily refill your Epson ecotank printer. However, be ready with your gloves and wet wipes in case of any spillage.

  • Check which eco tank is running low. You can do a visual inspection to determine which tank you need to refill. If there is any ink below the lowest level, the tank needs an ink refill.
  • Open the ink tank cover and the cap for the color you need to refill. To do this, hold both sides of the tank cover and slowly pull it backward. Then hold the cap for the color tank you need to refill and pull it upwards.
  • Prepare your ink bottle; unbox it and remove the plastic packaging. Then hold the bottle in an upright position and remove the cap, turning it in a counterclockwise direction to remove it. Meanwhile, hold the bottle gently and don’t squeeze the bottle or shake to avoid spillage.
  • Hold the ink bottle upside down and insert it into the filling port slot. The opening of the ink bottle is made only to fit the slot of the ink color right for it. What this means is you cannot fit the opening of cyan ink bottle to the slot of black ink and vice versa.
  • Proceed to refill the ink of your eco tank, as soon as you insert the ink bottle into the filling slot, the refilling process begins. Again, immediately the tank is full the refilling process stops automatically. However, as you refill, check the ink levels to ensure the ink is flowing. If it is not, you need to slightly lift the bottle and re-insert it.
  • After you are done with the process, close the ink tank cap and cover it.

FAQ

What Epson Printer Is Good For Photos?

Epson sure color P400 is a good choice if you look forward to printing professional photos. The printer has a range of connectivity options like USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi. You can choose your most convenient. In addition, the printer has 14ml cartridges to hold enough ink for your printing needs without frequently refilling them.

Which Printer Is Best For Photo Printing?

If you are looking for the best printer to print your photos, you need to look into the Epson Stylus photo 2200 inkjet printer. The printer is suitable for professionals and creative photo makers. Again, the printer will print high-quality photos with high resolution. It also supports borderless printing making your photos more attractive.

Is Epson Good For Photos?

Yes. Epson printers are compact and deliver good quality photos with a remarkable speed. Again these printers are available for casual use and your advanced technology needs. So, go forward and find your best Epson printer.

Are Epson EcoTank Printers Good For Photos?

Yes. Eco tank printers use 6 color Claria with photographic ink dye to produce an exceptional color and black and white photographic quality prints. Also, the printers are powered by Epson Micro Piezo seize droplet technology. In addition, EcoTank photo printers can print fully borderless photos on a wide range of papers.

Which Is Better For Photos, Inkjet or Laser?

Inkjet printers are great at producing good quality photo prints and image-heavy documents with a better job of blending the colors to get vibrant colors than laser printers. Also, inkjet printer price is lesser than most laser printers. In addition, inkjet printers don’t need to warm up before printing, whereas laser printers need to warm up before printing.

How Long Do Epson Printers Last?

Generally, the average lifespan of a printer is 3 to 5 years. However, with proper care and maintenance, your Epson printer can last longer, though, with time, you will eventually your machine will need an upgrade.

Conclusion

To get the best Epson printer for photos, you need to go through this article carefully with our top picks for the best Epson printers. These printers are carefully chosen so that you will end up with something great on whatever you choose.

It doesn’t matter you need something for your casual photo printing, professional photo printing, or anything in between; you will have something to fit your needs on this list. In addition, if you are a beginner and don’t have any idea of what you need, we have a section of what you need to consider before buying a printer to know what to look for when getting one.

Again, most Epson printers use refillable cartridges, so we have prepared a step-by-step guide explaining how to refill your printer correctly. Hopefully, this article has given you insight into your Epson photo printer choice.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top