Best Printers For Graphic Designers (2022 Update)

No doubt, graphic designers are some of the most diversely talented professionals. From pen and pencil one day to building three-dimensional cartoon characters via animation software the next, it stands to reason that every designer should own one of the best printers for graphics design to elevate performance.

Most likely, as a graphic designer, your desk, will already be filled with copious amounts of loose sketches and creative technologies. Amongst those devices named above, you may also be likely to find a printer or two, and it’s usually not just any old home or office printer!

Discover what creative artists such as yourself would classify as the best printers for graphic designers in our quick roundup of some incredible machines. As always, the printers we will be outlining today are all poised to deliver picture-perfect print jobs across a range of different media types; making each and everyone a superb investment for both up-and-coming graphic designers as well as established creative professionals.

1. Canon Pixma Endurance G7065 Ink Tank Printer

Price: $646.80 (+ Free Shipping)

With the sheer amount of creative technologies that graphic designers utilise on a daily basis, it only makes sense for professionals to invest in a printer that’s more than up to the task of presenting their work at the highest quality. That said, you don’t want your quality printouts to come at the highest price point though! Enter the Canon Pixma Endurance G7065 Ink Tank. This monolithic multifunction printer has garnered itself quite a reputation for being Canon’s most popular Megatank for a few select reasons.

First of all, it can be purchased at a far more competitive price point than many of Canon’s other pro-grade printers, many of which tend not to come with RRPs under $1000. Secondly, its comparatively minimal price tag doesn’t come at the sacrifice of print quality. The G7065 has a printing resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, and also supports borderless photo printing with a variety of paper sizes.

On top of all of this, the G7065 is also compatible with Pixma Cloud Link printing for easy social media sharing as well as Canon’s Print Inkjet/SELPHY companion app, making this Megatank one of Canon’s most universally connected all-in-one printers. Being a Megatank, the G7065 also has an incredibly high printing capacity, being able to produce 6000 pages in monoprints with Black Canon GI60 Ink Bottles and a whopping 7700 pages in colour printing.

Depending on your printing practices, you likely won’t have to purchase replacement ink cartridges for months if not years after unboxing your G7065. Which really sucks for us, but is great for you!

2. Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8500 Printer.

Price: $959.00 (+ Free Shipping)

Whether you’re a student of graphic design or a professional who’s looking to boost your own production capabilities, having a printer that’s equipped to handle a variety of media types can be quite a game-changer. As a high yield photo printer that’s also capable of sublimation printing, the Epson EcoTank ET-8500 may just be the ultimate printer for those looking to experiment in an expansive array of different design disciplines.

With a printing resolution of 5760 x 1440 dpi for standard mono and colour A4 document printing, the ET-8500 is fantastic for printing highly detailed documents, like presentation printouts, glossy pamphlets, and drafts or templates to use for reference when undertaking larger scale design work. The ET-8500 is also capable of copying and scanning, being equipped with an A4 flatbed CIS scanner for scanning up to A4-sized documents. As the ET-8500’s scanner can produce scans at a resolution of 1200 x 4800 dpi, this EcoTank is perfect for making high-quality digital copies of photographs and other images.

Unfortunately, the ET-8500 isn’t capable of A3 printing or scanning itself, but what it lacks in production size, it more than makes up for in both printing capacity (with a whopping 6700 pages in mono and 6200 pages in colour printing, thanks to Epson T552 Black cartridges) as well as in print speeds. The Epson ET-8500 is capable of printing at speeds of up to 16ppm for mono prints and 12 ppm for colour, which is honestly just unprecedented for an all-in-one printer of this size. If you’re interested in churning out some high-quality photos, documents, and sublimation print jobs, then this is absolutely the printer for you.

3. Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-1000 Inkjet Printer

Price: $1757.25 (+ Free Shipping)

If you’ve been waiting patiently for us to finally shine the spotlight on a professional printer for graphic designers that comes primed for producing A3 print jobs, then you’ll be happy to hear that you won’t have to be patient for much longer. Actually, this may be a bit of an overcorrection on our part. Yes, this next printer model can handle A3 print jobs like a breeze, particularly because its maximum paper size is actually A2!

The Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-1000 Inkjet Printer is hands down one of the best printers for graphic designers who also dabble in photography or are regularly tasked with providing their clients with high-quality photo prints of their work. The Pro-1000 is actually one of the smallest printer models of Canon’s incredibly impressive imagePRO series, which spans from printers that offer 15” printing jobs to a whopping 36” prints with the imagePROGRAF 36” Large Format Printer, specifically designed for engineers and architects.

The majority of graphic designers won’t have to work with blueprint-sized designs, however, so the 17” or A3 and A2 print capabilities of the imagePROGRAF Pro-1000 may be more than suitable for your professional printing needs. With great printing capabilities comes great responsibility, however, as the Pro-1000 actually comes fitted with twelve different ink cartridge slots for twelve different cartridge colours, using Canon’s PFI1000 ink cartridges, which includes a Chroma optimizer cartridge for ultimate colour correction.

So the Chroma optimizer cartridge makes plenty of sense, but why have so many other different pigment inks? Well, because the Pro-1000 has been designed to deliver an exponentially wide gamut of colour and tone, ensuring the highest colour accuracy possible. Having a larger selection of pigment inks allows Canon to make the absolute most of the imagePROGRAF’s patented FINE printing technology as well as their signature L-COA PRO printing engines, designed by Canon printer engineers over the last two decades.

In all honesty, the imagePROGRAF Pro-1000 may very well be the most impressive printer on this list, but the fact of the matter is that its printing capabilities may not be entirely necessary for all graphic designers, as not all graphic designers will be working with large-scale photo prints. If you are, however, this could very well be the best printer to fit your graphic design needs.

4. HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile All In One Inkjet Printer

Price: $441.49 (+ Free Shipping)

Moving from the Pro-1000 to a far more modest and compact printer model, the HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile All-In-One Inkjet Printer is on this list of ideal printers for graphic design professionals specifically because of its position as one of the most high-quality mobile all-in-one printers in stock here at CartridgesDirect.

Again, very unlike the Pro-1000, the 250 Mobile Printer only comes with two ink cartridge slots, for a range of HP’s high yield and ultra high yield black and tricolour ink cartridges. As the 250 Mobile printer is compatible with a wide assortment of HP black and tricolour ink cartridges, it is so satisfyingly easy to source replacement ink for this little printer model.

And this modest mobile printer does not compromise on print quality either, being able to produce colour prints at an optimised resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, for both documents as well as photo prints. Printing speeds aren’t super fast at 5ppm for mono and 3.5ppm for colour prints, but the quality of prints and the general versatility of the OfficeJet 250 more than makes up for these slower than average production speeds.

The main selling point of the HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile Printer has to be the fact that it very much is a portable printer, weighing up at just 3kg, and despite this, it’s still a fully functioning all-in-one that’s capable of printing, copying, and scanning on the go with its handy built-in battery life and intuitive wireless connectivity. If you’re a freelance designer or work across a number of different sites and in a variety of environments, then the OfficeJet 250 Mobile printer may be the perfect printing solution for you.

5. Epson SureColour SC-P405 Inkjet Printer

Price: $725.63 (+ Free Shipping)

Moving from the Pro-1000 to a far more modest and compact printer model, the HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile All-In-One Inkjet Printer is on this list of ideal printers for graphic design professionals specifically because of its position as one of the most high-quality photo all-in-one printers in stock here at CartridgesDirect.

Again, very unlike the Pro-1000, the 250 Mobile Printer only comes with two ink cartridge slots, for a range of HP’s high yield and ultra high yield black and tricolour ink cartridges. As the 250 Mobile printer is compatible with a wide assortment of HP black and tricolour ink cartridges, it is so satisfyingly easy to source replacement ink for this little printer model.

And this modest mobile printer does not compromise on print quality either, being able to produce colour prints at an optimised resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, for both documents as well as photo prints. Printing speeds aren’t super fast at 5ppm for mono and 3.5ppm for colour prints, but the quality of prints and the general versatility of the OfficeJet 250 more than makes up for these slower than average production speeds.

The main selling point of the HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile Printer has to be the fact that it very much is a portable printer, weighing up at just 3kg, and despite this, it’s still a fully functioning all-in-one that’s capable of printing, copying, and scanning on the go with its handy built-in battery life and intuitive wireless connectivity. If you’re a freelance designer or work across a number of different sizes and in a variety of environments, then the OfficeJet 250 Mobile printer may be the perfect printing solution for you.

Rundown of the best printers for graphic designers

Although all five of the printer models we’ve explored above would feel at home in any graphic designer’ office or studio space, it’s well worth weighing up all the capabilities that each of these printer models offers to ensure that you select the ideal printer for your particular professional needs. For the casual graphic designer, a much cheaper printer would be ideal. However, for the really serious professional, stretching your budget up to the A2 and A3 printers will be of serious value to your production efforts.

What you get from a dedicated photo printer is far superior to your standard inkjet printing units. That said, not everybody will be framing their work and therefore a cheaper model might just be more than suitable for your needs. If you have any questions about which graphic design printer is right for the majority of your projects, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Content Disclaimer: At CartridgesDirect, we are committed to providing up to date and independent reviews on the best graphic design printers in Australia. All  printer reviews  are not commissioned by manufacturers and have been independently tested by our printing experts. If you have any questions about photo printers, please contact us via live chat or feel free to leave a comment below. We look forward to hearing from you.