Hi! I’m trying to figure out what printer I should get for personal use. Getting married soon and our registry is on Amazon, so I need to find one on there (we’ll get a discount post-wedding if nobody gets it for us.)
I need help choosing/finding one pretty please!! I don’t need any crazy features since it won’t be used a ton. Just a wireless printer that can print in color, scan & copy. We both have iPhones & Macs so something compatible with apple products if that makes a difference at all?
What are y’all’s recommendations? Thanks in advance!
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What Type of Printer Is Best for Home Use?
What kind of printer you get for your home depends on what you plan on printing. As a general rule, if you print text only, or text and graphics that don't need color, a mono laser printer will do the trick. If photos are on your agenda, you need an inkjet or dedicated small format photo printer. If the only color output you print is graphics, you probably want an inkjet as well, but if you print infrequently, an inexpensive color laser may be the better choice. Laser printers have the advantage of being able to sit for months without being used, and then simply turn on and work, without the clogged nozzles or wasted ink for cleaning them that inkjets sometimes need. If you plan on doing any scanning or copying, but not so much that you need a standalone scanner, you should look to an all-in-one or multifunction printer. Decent AIOs aren’t that much more expensive than their printer-only counterparts.
What's the Best Printer for Occasional Use?
As always, it mostly depends on what you need to print; if photos, probably a low-cost inkjet, but if only text documents, possibly a one-cartridge mono laser. But sometimes, you can tell by the printer's duty cycle.
If you print only a few pages a day, you don't have to worry about how much a printer is designed to print, as defined by its recommended (not maximum) monthly duty-cycle-rating. To define those terms? Maximum duty cycle is the absolute most a printer should be allowed to print per month without affecting the maximum number of pages it can print in its lifetime. The recommended duty cycle is usually how much it can handle on a regular basis and still last as many years as it was designed for. It may also be based on the paper capacity and how frequently you can conveniently refill the trays.
If you print enough for the duty cycle to matter, don't buy a printer that doesn't include that information in its specifications. (Many cheap printers meant for occasional use don't provide duty-cycle ratings at all.) Figure out how much you print by how often you buy paper and in what amounts. If you usually print on both sides of the paper, count each sheet as two pages in your calculations. Then pick a printer designed to print at least that much.
Should You Buy Cheap Printer Paper?
For everyday printing, store-brand 20-pound weight paper will usually serve nicely. However, you'll often get better looking output if you step up to a higher-quality paper. For lasers, as well as for inkjet text and graphic printing, that means a heavier weight, and possibly a brighter white level. For photos on inkjets, it means getting matte presentation paper or photo paper. Getting photo or matte paper that's the same brand as your printer will usually be the best choice; printer manufacturers design ink and paper to work together and often offer a variety of presentation and photo papers.
Recycled paper also offers acceptable quality, and you can find 100% post-consumer-content recycled paper for many uses, including cover stock and bright white paper suitable for business use. There are other kinds of eco-friendly paper as well, such as all-purpose paper made from sugar cane and photo paper made from cotton. Do your small part to save a tree and research eco-friendly media options. Any modern printer will handle them well.
I have seen a lot of mixed reviews online, so I figured I’d ask here. If you run a home office and need to print occasionally (invoices, forms, maybe a few reports), what is worked for you?
Would love to know your experience, especially if you’ve found a model that has lasted more than a couple of years without turning into e-waste.
I am finally tired of fighting with my old printer that jams every second page and drinks ink like crazy. I mostly print regular stuff at home like school or work documents, shipping labels and the occasional form I need to sign. Color is nice to have, but I do not print photos very often.
Ideally I want something that
is not a total ink scam
connects easily over WiFi
does not jam every other print
and has reasonably priced ink or toner
Do people still prefer laser for home if it is mostly black and white, or are there any inkjet models that do not cost a fortune to run? If you have a home setup that has been reliably printing for a year or more, what are you using and would you buy it again?
Edit: After reading all the comments and doing a bit more digging, I ended up checking out this detailed home printer guide here: a really useful breakdown for home printing. It helped me compare the options people recommended and understand which models are actually worth getting in 2025.
Here's my conundrum: I have a printer in my office already. In my daily life, I rarely need to print something. It's usually about a month or two where I have absolutely zero reason to print something, but then something happens or there's a form I need to fill out, and I have to print, sign and scan a few pages.
Right now, that process is invariably:
try to print
Ink in printer is completely solid and blank pages come out
I have to run to the store and buy $40 worth of ink
I can then handle everything I need to do
Obviously this sucks, so I want to buy a printer I can setup once, and hopefully never have to worry about again. I'm guessing a laser printer will fix this.
I also need to be able to scan documents to my computer. I want to connect my printer to my wifi so I can access it without a cable. I don't care if it has copy or email functions, I'll never use them.
EDIT TO POST: I purchased a Brother DCP-L2640DW. It has been 10 months of essentially the exact use case I described above. Every two months I have a sudden need to print and scan some assorted documents. It has solved this case for me. It just works.
To anyone finding this thread with a similar question: buy a laser printer.
The printer needs to fit comfortably in roughly a 16"x16" space so I don't have to rearrange my office space.
Price point should be reasonable, but I don't mind paying more for a printer if I can be confident in always printing when I need it to.