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What's behind our printer Ratings?

Experts at our National Testing and Research Center tested 117 models in printers to see which ones perform best.
We look for:
  • Overall score
    Overall score is based on speed and quality of print, scan, and copy functions, plus ease of use. The displayed score is out of a total of 100 points.
  • Photo quality
    This is our assessment of the appearance of each photo. Models with higher scores produce more natural looking photos, with smoother changes in shading and fewer problems with banding.
  • Text quality
    This indicates how crisply and clearly a printer produced black text in a variety of faces, sizes, and styles. Models with higher scores produce more uniform type, with sharper edges and smoother curves.
  • Text speed
    This score reflects how quickly the model can print text on five pages of plain, letter-sized pages. 30 seconds or less is excellent; 31 to 60 seconds is very good; 61 to 90 seconds is good; 91 to 120 seconds is fair; and longer than 120 seconds is poor.
  • Graphics quality
    Our assessment of the appearance of color graphics produced by the printer. Black and white lasers were judged on black and white graphics.
  • Maintenance ink use
    Reflects the amount of extra ink used by an inkjet printer to maintain its print heads in our test printing a total of 30 pages of text and color graphics intermittently over a 4-week period, turning the printer OFF between print jobs.
  • Convenience
    Measures the ease of carrying out a series of common activities with the printer.
  • Scan quality
    Scan quality is for color photos, graphics, and text scanned at each model's default settings.
  • Copy quality
    Copy quality is for graphics and text.
  • Power saving
    This indicates how well the printer conserves power between uses.
  • Versatility
    Versatility indicates features that increase a printer's utility or capabilities.
  • Cost of ownership
    A total consisting of the purchase price of the printer plus an estimate of the ink or toner supplies needed for 2 years of regular use.

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Recommended printers

Recommended printers are standout choices with high scores. They include CR Best Buys, which offer exceptional value. When narrowing your choices, weigh features, price, and attributes that matter to you.
arrows Recommended printers
  • Recommended
  • Buying Guide
  • Price & Shop
Inkjet and laser printers have become more affordable and increasingly full featured. Inkjet printers have become the standard for home-computer use. If you're looking for information about printers, Consumer Reports is your best resource. Consumer Reports’ printer reviews will give you honest buying advice that you can trust. Use our printer buying guide to discover which features are most important to consider. We also provide unbiased Ratings and printer reviews to help you choose the best printer for your needs.

Ratings & recommended printers

All in one printers

All in one printers (81)

If all you do is print, you can save money and space by purchasing a dedicated printer. But if there's any chance you might want to copy or scan, it's worth investigating an all-in-one. While most models are bigger than the typical new stand-alone printer, they take up less space and cost less than a separate printer, scanner, and copier. Having to hook up only one device to your computer simplifies setup as well. An all-in-one's scanning function should be fine for print originals. Some can also handle basic film and slide scanning, though for top quality we recommend a separate scanner. The copying function is fine for casual use. Some all-in-ones add fax, phone, and answering functions.

As the Ratings show, paying more for a printer doesn't necessarily mean you'll get better photos. And don't consider only the purchase price of the printer itself. Ink and maintenance costs can make a cheaper model more expensive in the long run than a higher-priced printer with lower ink costs. The two-year Cost of Ownership estimate is shown in the Ratings.

The Ratings rank models by performance.
Recommended all in one printers
All in one printer Ratings
Regular printers

Regular printers (36)

Printer manufacturers are concentrating most of their efforts on all-in-ones, so many of the regular inkjets available are bare-bones, low-cost models. Still, for the money, standard inkjets are solid all-purpose printers for most consumers who want to print both text and color photos. Most can print almost anything, including photos up to 8.5 x11 inches or larger, text, and graphics such as greeting cards. You can use various types and sizes of paper, from business cards to banners.

Quality is another plus. The photos from the best inkjets are as good as those you get from a photofinisher. Larger prints also typically cost less than you'd pay a photofinisher--about $1 to $1.50 for an 8x10-inch photo, compared with $2 to $4 for professional processing. But inkjets aren't renowned for speed, so it could take awhile to print a number of 8x10s.

Don't print photos or color graphics? Traditional black-and-white laser printers can't be beat for fast text printing at a good cost, especially if you print reams of black-and-white text documents.

As the Ratings show, paying more for a printer doesn't necessarily mean you'll get better photos. And don't consider only the purchase price of the printer itself. Ink and maintenance costs can make a lower-priced model more expensive in the long run than a higher-priced printer with lower ink costs. Look at the two-year Cost of Ownership estimate shown in the Ratings.

The Ratings rank models by performance.
Recommended regular printers
Regular printer Ratings

Recently reviewed printers

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HL-L2340DW

Brother HL-L2340DW

(Tested)
A mono laser printer from Brother. It has WiFi networking. Works with Windows, Mac OS, Linux.

Printer buying guide

Inkjet printers have become the standard for home-computer use. They can turn out color photos nearly indistinguishable from lab-processed photos, along with stickers, transparencies, T-shirt transfers, and greeting cards. Many produce excellent black-and-white text. With some very good models selling for less than $200, it's no surprise that inkjets account for the vast majority of printers sold for home use.

Laser printers still have their place in home offices. If you print reams of black-and-white text documents, you probably need the quality, speed, and low per-copy cost of a laser printer. Printers use a computer's microprocessor and memory to process data. The latest inkjets and lasers are so fast partly because computers have become more powerful and contain much more memory than before.

Before you start shopping, decide whether to get an inkjet or a laser model, and a plain printer or an all-in-one. You can base your decision on what you'll be printing. This printer guide will help.

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