My Current Printers 2019
One of the questions I get most often is about what printers I use here at home to print my photos and digital products and journaling.
The number one reason I print at home is convenience. I often work last minute with unique sizes and want/need to be able to put projects together at random times without having to think/plan ahead and order prints. I've been printing at home since I started memory keeping back in 2002 and have had a number of printers over the years. The vast majority of my photos are still looking great in my albums. I know some people worry about longevity and I honestly haven't run into that issue.
If you decide that printing at home isn't for you I recommend Persnickety Prints because they "get" memory keeping and scrapbookers. I'm also a big fan of Artifact Uprising for high-quality photobooks.
I've recently made a couple changes to my printer collection and wanted to give you guys an update on what I'm currently using to print my photos.
In my office right now I have five printers. It is highly unlikely that you need anywhere close to five printers but as this is my business a couple of the printers are laser printers - one small one for black + white for general printing and larger color laser that we use for printing in-person full color workshop handouts. I don't use either of those for memory keeping projects.
In addition to those laser printers I have three ink jet printers that I use for memory keeping.
The new printer I decided to order and test out is an Epson Expression Photo XP15000 (in the image above). This one is replacing my previous oversize printer from Epson (purchased in 2016) that was starting to really struggle (issues related to print quality and the fact that it was HUGE and lived under my desk because it was so big).
Knowing that I wanted/needed a printer that could print up to 13x19 (most often I'm printing 12x12 on that size paper) I went looking online to see what was currently available. I was interested in finding one that was less expensive (my previous one was around $600) and potentially had a smaller overall footprint so I could have it live on my shelves vs. under my desk (which was fine but annoying).
I came across the Epson XP1500 (ink jet) and purchased it from Amazon in July. It's small enough to fit on top of my shelves while still printing up to 13x19 and it is also significantly less expensive ($277). I've been using it for the last few months for printing 8.5x11 (I print images cropped to 6x8 on 8.5x11) and larger and it's been working great. I use Epson 13x19 Glossy Photo Paper for printing the 12x12's and Epson 8.5x11 Glossy Photo Paper for other sizes. This printed has one tray so you can also print 4x6 from it but I use another one when printing that size. If you are looking for a printer to enable you to print larger format I would definitely recommend this one.
I print from my computer wirelessly to this printer and it works great here in my office. I don't print directly from my phone but I assume it would work that way as well.
The second printer I still have here in my office is a Canon Pixma MG7720 (ink jet). It's an older model now with a much higher price point vs. when I originally purchased it a few years ago (now over $500 and originally purchased for less than $200). It's been a good printer that I used regularly for my 8.5x11 printing needs. It does have two trays which is nice if you want to hold multiple paper sizes inside the printer. I believe they have a newer version of this printer available but I'm not sure of the exact model number. I've been super happy with the quality of prints from this printer - the only downside is that it doesn't print larger.
The printer I use for printing all my photos that are 4x6 and smaller is an Epson PictureMate PM400. I've been using this one for a number of years (including the previous model). It is my go-to when printing photos for Project Life. This printer is connected to my computer via a wire but I believe it works wirelessly as well. As mentioned above, I don't print directly from my phone but rather print directly from my computer.
I'm pretty comfortable saying that I would be completely happy with only having the combo of the Epson PictureMate PM400 and the Espon XP-15000. If you only want to have one printer I'd take a close look at the sizes you want to be able to print. If you only print 4x6 and smaller for Project Life then the Epson PictureMate PM400 is an awesome choice. If you want to print a wider variety of sizes I'd go with the Epson XP-15000.
If you want to learn more about working with digital products in paper projects you should check out my online workshop Hybrid.
Read my past "Current Printers" post from 2017 here.
