The Best Epson Printers for 2023

When it comes to inkjet printers, Epson is one of the first names that naturally comes to mind. And with good reason: The company offers every type of inkjet you're likely interested in, from a dedicated photo printer for snapshot prints on up to much bigger output. Some models focus on photo quality, while some don't (although most offer at least drugstore-quality prints); some offer low initial prices, while others offer low-cost ink instead. And although most are color printers, a few are strictly monochrome.

Whatever you need in an inkjet printer, in short, Epson probably has it in one of its lines. The challenge is to find the right one. In this overview, we'll highlight both what application and what sort of user each of Epson's family sub-brands is meant for, and discuss the key characteristics that define each.

Note that some categories are barely mentioned here. They range from floor-standing, enterprise-level inkjets that compete with lasers to commercial and production printers for graphics, signage (what you and I call "signs"), and high-volume label printing, and some of which cost more than your average car. Epson even offers point of sale (POS) printers and some (necessarily noisy) 9- and 24-pin dot matrix models. We'll ignore those categories here, except to mention the family names where appropriate. Immediately below are our top tested Epson printers for a variety of applications, followed by our guide to the Epson family.

The Epson Expression Premium XP-7100 is a small but capable photo-centric all-in-one inkjet for homes and small offices.

The ET-8550 prints excellent photos and other high-definition images, from snapshot-size to supertabloid, with running costs of less than 1 cent per page.

The Epson EcoTank Pro ET-5850 AIO prints well and inexpensively, and it offers generous input capacity, lofty volume ratings, and two years of unlimited free ink. It's an incomparable value for small businesses and workgroups.

The Epson EcoTank Pro ET-16650 wide-format AIO prints well and inexpensively, and it comes with two years of unlimited free ink, making it an exceptional value for small businesses and workgroups.

The WorkForce Pro WF-7840 wide-format multifunction printer produces beautiful prints up to 13 by 19 inches. Productivity features and three capacious paper input sources make it a great small-business choice, even with high ink costs.

The Epson WorkForce ST-M3000 is an inkjet alternative to monochrome laser AIOs that prints well with ultra-low running costs, not to mention it comes with a ton of ink in the box, increasing its overall value.

The Epson WorkForce Pro WF-C8690 is a high-volume wide-format inkjet all-in-one that prints quickly and accurately for medium- to large-size offices and workgroups.

Epson's SureColor P900 produces exquisite photos and artwork on cut sheets and paper rolls up to 17 inches wide, making it an excellent choice for professional photographers and graphic artists.

The Epson LabelWorks LW-PX300 Full Printer Kit delivers industrial-style labeling at low cost, making it attractive to small businesses and even hobbyists who want professional-looking labels.

Working as a handheld printer or connected to a Windows PC, Epson's rugged, able LabelWorks LW-PX900 creates plastic, vinyl, fluorescent, reflective, and cable labels up to 36mm (1.42 inches) wide to meet most industrial labeling needs.

When we combed though Epson's website, we found as many as 25 distinct printer category names, depending on how you parse them. But if you group related families together and leave out the ones were not covering here, there are just six that matter for most folks: Expression, EcoTank, WorkForce, PictureMate, SureColor, and LabelWorks.

What the three Expression sub-brands have in common is that they use ink cartridges, offer a low initial price, and are aimed at home users with moderate print needs. For those who don't print a lot, the total cost of ownership can be lower than for higher-priced tank printers with lower running costs.

Expression Home printers all print, scan, and copy; offer flatbed scanning only; and are meant primarily for everyday home printing needs. Expression Premium models are aimed at essentially the same sort of user, and are also three-function AIOs, but they offer a boost in photo quality by adding photo black ink to the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) inks. Some offer flatbed scanning only, as with the Expression Premium XP-6100 Small-in-One; others add an auto-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) for two-sided copying and scanning.

Expression Photo printers like the XP-8700 Wireless All-in-One are aimed at crafters and photo enthusiasts as well as home users in general, and they use six-color ink systems for even better photo quality. This sub-family includes both letter-size and tabloid-size (11-by-17-inch) three-function AIOs plus one single-function printer, the XP-15000, which prints at up to supertabloid size (13 by 19 inches).

EcoTank printers are designed to give home, home-office, and small-office users a low running cost, with inexpensive ink that comes by the bottle. For those who print enough pages over the printer's lifetime, the lower running cost can give them a lower total cost of ownership than less-expensive printers with more-expensive ink. The possible sub-brand choices for EcoTank printers are EcoTank, EcoTank Photo, EcoTank Pro, and EcoTank Mono.

The first category, straight-up EcoTank, offers three-function AIOs at the low end, with flatbed scanning only, but adds faxing and an ADF as you move up the price scale. EcoTank Photo printers are aimed at scrapbookers, crafters, and creative professionals, and can handle printable optical discs. They offer six-color printing for better-quality photos and graphics, and can print at either up to letter-size, for the ET-8500, or up to supertabloid-size, for the ET-8550.

EcoTank Pro models are designed for the range from home office to small businesses or workgroup. They all offer Ethernet as well as Wi-Fi for network connection; most can fax as well as print, copy, and scan; and the top models, including the ET-16650, can print at up to 13 by 19 inches, as well as scan at up to 11 by 17 inches.

The EcoTank Mono sub-brand, finally, is Epson's answer to mono lasers. It's designed for small and home offices that print lots of documents and don't need color. The models in this category range from a single-function printer (the ET-M1170), to a four-function AIO with an auto-duplexing ADF (the ET-M3170). All come with two years of unlimited ink, with no subscription needed, and no fee.

The PictureMate and SureColor sub-brands are at the two extremes of the Epson printing spectrum. PictureMate offers what Epson calls a "personal photo lab" and is limited at this writing to a single model, the PictureMate PM-400, which has been on the market for a long time now. It's meant primarily to print small-format photos, up to 5 by 7 inches, and can print from a variety of sources, including memory cards.

In contrast, the SureColor moniker goes with several categories: The SureColor P-, F-, T-, S-, R-, and V-Series. These are mostly floor-standing, large-format printers, and each series is designed for a different application, from gallery-level photos, to architectural and engineering drawings, to commercial printing like outdoor signage.

The only SureColor models that matter for this overview are the least-expensive SureColor P-Series models, which are designed for printing professional-quality photos, fine art, and graphic design output, but are inexpensive enough that serious photo enthusiasts may want to consider them. The two of interest are the SureColor P700, which prints on paper up to 13 inches wide, and the SureColor P900, which prints at up to 17 inches wide. Both use a 10-color ink system with archival pigment ink.

The WorkForce umbrella covers a lot of territory. In addition to the WorkForce and WorkForce Pro categories, which are sold through consumer channels and aimed at small and home offices, there are also WorkForce Supertank, WorkForce Enterprise, WorkForce Pro HC categories, and even some models in the WorkForce category, all of which are sold primarily though business channels, putting them outside the scope of this overview. Note that the Supertank category is the only one where the category name comes after the model number rather than before it.

Printers in the WorkForce category are identified as WorkForce WF, followed by a model number, as with the WorkForce WF-2930. (There are also some WorkForce CF printers, but the CF is reserved for models sold through business channels.) Both WorkForce and WorkForce Pro printers are aimed at small and home offices that are looking for a low initial price. As already mentioned, this can make good sense if you print little enough that the low printer price combined with relatively high cost ink in cartridges will give you a lower total cost of ownership than a higher-cost tank printer with lower-cost ink.

Most WorkForce WF models are four-function AIOs (meaning they print, copy, scan, and fax). They all offer two-sided printing, an ADF that copies one side only, and the ability to copy single-sided originals to two-sided copies. The one print-only model is the WF-110 Wireless Mobile Printer, which is appropriate for anyone who needs a printer on the go.

WorkForce Pro printers, identified as WorkForce Pro WF plus a model number, are aimed at small offices that need somewhat heavier-duty printing or features like being able to print or scan a larger page size than the WorkForce models can handle. Most are four-function AIOs, but there's also a print-only model in the mix, the WF-7310, which can handle paper up to 13 by 19 inches and offers two 250-sheet paper trays. Some of the AIO models offer similarly high paper capacities and maximum paper sizes, along with being able to scan at up to 11 by 17 inches. Others are limited to at most legal-size paper.

You'll find the current set of Epson LabelWorks printers on their own site(Opens in a new window). All of the LabelWorks printers use industrial-style labels, meaning that most of the available tapes are plastic (polyester), though there are some other kinds as well, including vinyl and magnetic (similar to flexible refrigerator magnets), as well as some specifically for labeling cables.

The printers include models for both home use and work. They run all the way from the strictly standalone LW-PX300 (which requires typing label text on its own keyboard, and is limited to a maximum 0.71-inch-wide label tape) to the LW-Z5010PX, which can handle 2-inch-wide tapes and can create and print labels as a standalone printer or from a PC or mobile device. A nice touch for all of them is that Epson offers a lifetime warranty. Most offer a large choice of label types, which you'll want to check before buying to make sure the printer can print the kinds of labels you need.

Epson also offers two label-printer sub-brands that are outside the scope of this overview. ColorWorks printers deliver full-color labels on demand, for businesses that print enough to justify the printers' prices, while the SurePress sub-brand covers the sort of digital label press that needs more floor space than a small family room.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by all the Epson printers available, but you can cut the list down to a manageable size by finding the sub-brands most appropriate for your needs, before looking at details like paper handling or the copy and scan capabilities. We've picked the best Epson printers in multiple use cases, based on our tests and overall evaluations. For more options—from Epson and other manufacturers—check out our favorite inkjet printers and favorite printers overall, as well as our picks for the best photo printers, the best business printers, and the best wide-format printers.