The best printers for working from home — whatever your job
It might seem like the humble printer is obsolete in this paperless age. But the printer remains an office essential. There are times when only a physical document will do. For example, it's bad form to turn up to an interview and show your prospective employer a copy of your CV on your phone. Contracts and other important official documents should need to be printed. That's just a fact of the professional world.
And let’s be honest: Copies of your favourite photos and posters are far superior to digital versions. That slideshow on your laptop or desktop might have hundreds of your best snaps on a never-ending loop, but it can't possibly compare to flicking through actual photos. There are times when you simply must have a printout.
Fortunately, there's still lots of choice out there from top manufacturers such as Canon, Epson, and HP. You really are spoilt for choice if you know what you're looking for. But before you purchase a printer and start sending those all important documents, here's some useful information to get you started.
What are the different types of home printer?It generally comes down to inkjet, ink tank, and laser printers. Inkjet printers, as the name suggests, use ink cartridges to print documents. Ink tank printers, which are probably more cost effective, have a ink reservoir that you top up, rather than using cartridges. And laser printers use laser beams to flash the image or text to be printed on the page, which is then coated by toner. (Always be mindful of the incurring costs of ink cartridges or toner.) Laser printers produce sharper edges and crisper images. If you’re going to print lots of text documents with few colours, a two-cartridge printer is fine. Consider a laser printer though for professional-grade printouts.
How big are home printers?Also consider the dimensions and weight of a printer. You need to select a device with your home in mind. Even though that powerful printer with a lengthy list of features is attractive, the fact that it wouldn't fit through your front door cannot be ignored. Make sure you measure up before adding a printer to your home office. Luckily, printers come in all shapes and sizes — there are even printers that fit in your hand.
How do printers connect?You can do it the old-fashioned way and simply connect your computer and printer via a cable. Some printers use a network, which means lots of computers are connected at once — either wired or wirelessly. That’s obviously common in offices. But in this increasingly wireless world, you’ll find many printers use WiFi or Bluetooth. Printing from a computer or device couldn’t be easier.
What is the best printer brand?Most of the names that you'll come across when searching for a printer are pretty established. The likes of Canon, Epson, and Hewlett Packard will be well-known to basically everyone, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't look elsewhere.
Smaller brands like Kyocera are also really popular with consumers, and even though you might not be that familiar with the name, the fact that these guys specialise in printers is a bonus. The good thing is that you've got options. There is nothing worse that one brand having a monopoly on a certain type of product.
What is the best home printer?We've lined up some of the very best examples of compact, portable, and desktop printers, and while we can't tell you which model will work best for your office and printing needs, we do recommend all the names on this list.
These are the best home printers in 2025.
- Compact design
- Editing software
- Connects with lots of apps
- Prints great photos
- App control
- On the heavier side
- Slower performance
Canon has a great reputation for manufacturing top quality cameras, but its printers are worth a mention for quality, too. The Canon PIXMA TS5350 offers high-quality colour printing, with scan and copy functions, WiFi connectivity, cloud connectivity, and an LCD display. All of that is housed in a compact design (albeit heavyish) that won't take up too much valuable space.
The PIXMA Cloud Link can be accessed through the Canon Print app on your smartphone or tablet, meaning you can even print from social network and cloud services including Facebook, Instagram, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and many more. You can also upload scanned documents and photos to Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox.
But best of all? It has to be the price-performance ratio. You get all that fantastic quality for much less than competing printers.
- Printer Type: Inkjet
- Dimensions: 12 x 16 x 6 cm, 7.85 kg
- Speed: 13 ppm (pages per min)
- Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth
- Resolution: 600 x 1200 dpi
- Capacity: 60 sheets
- Automatic two-sided printing
- Compact build
- Integrated guillotine
- Prints onto photo paper
- Toner included for up to 1,000 pages
- Touchscreen & app control
- Style is a bit office standard
- Bigger paper capacity available
- Expensive cartridges
The Brother DCP-J1800W is an office-style home printer than comes in a reasonably compact bundle, making it good for smaller home offices. But it’s more than just a basic model.
This does pretty much everything that you expect from an up-to-date printer. It scans, copies, and prints double-sided, and it can enlarge images in copy mode.
Undoubtedly, though, the most intriguing feature is its integrated guillotine, which can chop down A4 prints to A5 size. That will prove invaluable for anyone who legitimately needs those A5 prints, though it may prove to be surplus gimmickry for anyone else. It also handles a variety of paper types and envelopes, and its printed photos look sharp.
Overall, it’s efficient, giving you relatively speedy printing. It’s also been praised for avoiding paper jams, though you’ll find printers with a much larger paper capacity elsewhere. And be warned that it’s not compatible with Brother’s most cost effictive cartridges, so ongoing costs might be higher.
- Printer Type: Inkjet
- Dimensions: 40 x 34 x 17 cm, 9 kg
- Speed: 17 ipm (images per minute)
- Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth, USB
- Resolution: 1,200 x 6,000 dpi
- Capacity: 150 sheets
- Nice LCD screen
- Double-sided printing
- Speedy performance
- Large cartridges cut costs
- Better print quality available
- No advanced features
This printer proves that you don’t need to spend hundreds of pounds to get a quality device. Even from a top brand like Epson. Indeed, the Epson Expression XP-4200 is a relatively cheap model but really popular with customers, and that's not just down to the price.
Overall, it’s stylish, compact, and can print, scan, and copy. Prints are clear, vibrant, and cost effective thanks to individual inks and double-sided printing. It’s also flexible with WiFi and WiFi Direct for printing without a network.
Printing away from a desktop is not a problem thanks to a range of compatible mobile printing apps and the easy-to-use LCD screen. The Epson Creative Print app can even print photos directly from Facebook.
If money-saving is a priority, Epson offer a range of XL ink cartridges that ultimately keep ink replacement costs down. The actual printer is probably cheaper than it seems too — it’s often marked down.
- Printer Type: Inkjet
- Dimensions: 46 x 40 x 25 cm, 4.3 kg
- Connectivity: WiFi
- Speed: 15 ppm
- Resolution: 5,760 x 1,440 dpi
- Capacity: 100 sheets
- Smartphone sized
- App can customise photos
- Seamless Bluetooth
- Prints photos from social media
- Print quality matches the price
- Just one sheet at a time
The second HP printer on this list is nothing like the first, and that’s because this one is about the size of a smartphone. It’s small on size but big on fun.
The HP Sprocket is a super portable printer that can quickly print your smartphone and social media photos through the free HP Sprocket app and Bluetooth. Everyone can connect to print photos, so it’s actually great for events like parties, weddings, and get-togethers.
The HP Sprocket app can be used to customise your photos with frames, filters, and stickers before you print them. You can also use the Sprocket app to unlock augmented reality, videos, and other content.
The print quality isn’t the best, but you’re probably not expecting anything more at this level. It's all about price, portability, and party vibes.
- Printer Technology: Inkjet
- Dimensions: 12 x 8 x 2.5 cm, 0.80 kg
- Speed: 1 ppm
- Connectivity: Bluetooth
- Resolution: 600 x 300 dpi
- Capacity: 10 sheets
- Excellent for photos
- Cost effective bottled ink
- Nice touchscreen controls
- Double-sided printing
- Prints A3+ paper
- Compact for an A3 printer
- Prints slowly in colour
- Can only scan up to A4
- Trays have limited capacity
The Epson EcoTank ET-8550 has the holy trinity of paper needs covered — it prints, scans, and copies — with the added bonus that it prints on paper up to A3+. It’s also excellent on glossy photo paper so it's ideal for anyone who regularly prints photos, even if you don’t necessarily need A3 printing.
It has six ink reservoirs instead of the usual four. The added colour range will really make your photos pop. The other benefit is that you can top up these reservoirs with bottled ink, rather than cartridges, so despite the upfront cost (let's be honest, this printer is pricey) you’ll save money in the long run. It also comes equipped with six bottles, which will be good for 2,000-plus pages.
There is one size drawback: The scanner is only big enough to accommodate A4, though it can enlarge A4 to A3. And while the price is steep compared to other printers, it usually has a generous discount on Amazon.
- Printer Type: Ink Tank
- Dimensions: 52 x 38 x 17 cm, 11.1kg
- Speed: 32 ppm
- Connectivity: WiFi, Apple AirPrint, ethernet
- Resolution: 5,760 x 1,400 dpi
- Capacity: 50 sheets
- Two-sided colour printing
- Holds 250 sheets
- Prints from a smart device
- Good security measures
- Compact for a laser jet
- Toner can be pricey
- Doesn't scan or copy
We’ve only listed one laser jet printer because most of the best models are big machines – better suited to an actual office space. The great thing about the HP LaserJet Pro 3202dw is that it’s one of our favourite laser jet printers as well as being small enough to fit in a modestly sized home office.
This one’s for printing only. There’s no scan or copier mode, but it does double-sided printing at decent speeds. It also has a respectable capacity, so it’s ready to churn out more printing than most of the other models listed here.
Otherwise, it’s fairly low-tech — there’s no touchscreen — but that doesn’t need to be a deal breaker if you just want a high-performance, no-fuss printer. And you can print from your smartphone or tablet.
The cost of toner cartridges can rack up, though if you’re in the market for a laser jet printer that’s going to be the case whatever model you buy. And the cartridges do have a fair bit of life in them, so that’s a bonus.
- Printer Type: Laser jet
- Dimensions: 39 x 42 x 25.5 cm, 13.8 kg
- Speed : 25 ppm
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Apple AirPrint, Ethernet, USB
- Resolution: 600 x 600 dpi
- Capacity: 250 sheets
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