Epson - SureColor P700 13-Inch Photo Printer

If you're wanting to do high quality "archival" prints and selling them for hundreds of dollars then pigment ink printers are the way to go. For less than $1k your options are Canon Pro 310 or Epson P700. I prefer Canon. If you are making prints to sell for $20-$50 then dye ink printers like Epson Eco-Tank are great.

Commercial labs use Epson printers. Avoid HP because of the instant ink scam. My friend has a P700 from Epson and it's awesome but it's about $800.00, ink fades.

Do you know what printer your service uses? Chances are its got more inks (better gamut). If you want quality I wouldn't go less than a SC-P700 or P900

The Epson P700 is one of the best options, print quality wise. The two main downsides are small lightweight flimsy construction of the printer, and unexpectedly high cost for ink. The latter is easily fixed by going for the bigger brother P900. It's 17" and accepts larger cartridges, bringing the price per mL of ink back into normal regions. Fixing the flimsy construction problem isn't possible within your budget, at least not if you want to keep the "the best photo printer" quality requirement. You can get more robust printers, but not nearly as good ones unless you pay much more. The real fix is the P5300, which contains the same print technology, but in a sturdy metal chassis. It's built like a tank and requires two friends to help you move it around.

Try the epson consumer line of pigment printers. E.g. P700 or P900 (or older P800, 3800). These are much more robust against clogs (maybe because they are consumer oriented) than other epson models. I won't say they never clog, but it's rare for me. Usually I print in bursts, doing a lot and then nothing for a month or two. AFAIK there is no way to avoid the canon cleaning cycles short of printing something every few days (there is a lot of info online on the timing). Epson also has a different set of annoyances. Pick your poison.

Id say the [Epson SureColor P700](https://productbible.com/blog/best-home-printers#epson-surecolor-p700) is the way to go. The print quality is crazy good and it can handle everything from big panoramas to specialty papers.

Canon Pixma Pro 200 and Epson SureColor P700 are the go to options in that range. Both handle 13x19 prints and different paper types really well. Pick Canon if you want ease of use and Epson if you care more about archival quality.

Epson is historically the best there is at photo printers, although Canon often gives them a run for their money. Between these, the numbers get complicated. Classically 6-color printers relied on CcMmYK, with the lowercase being light variants. This gave them way more subtlety than just sticking with the primaries. The EcoTank printer you linked to is skipping the light variants, and instead subbing in a pigmented black, which is purely a convenience play so you can also get better-quality B&W text documents that are color-fast (dye-based inks suck at sharp text, but are the best there is for photo printing), and a gray cartridge which will go a long way to getting you better grayscale (black and white photos) prints. But that means color range will not be as good as some of their Claria HD printers that due the true 6-color printing. The SureColor is definitely going to be at their high end, using their UltraChrome inks. This has always been the best of the best for them, and what pros are often using. Intense color-fastness, wide gamut. This one's also not truly 10 colors though, because it also has the pigmented black as above, as well as light gray and light light gray (they really call it that), for the ultimate in B&W photography printing. They also add violet to the color mix. So for ultimate color, you'll want the UltraChrome, no question. The EcoTank will be more economical, but definitely won't touch it, or their Claria HD-packing Expression models, for color accuracy. As for Canon, they usually came pretty close at the higher end. They typically had interesting differences, such as green ink, and one key advantage was replaceable print heads. Can't say if that's still the case. Epson's were usually capable of finer detail, but if you didn't print on them regularly, they'd clog easily, although not as badly on the dye-based photo printers. Canon, though, had the worst software. Hopefully that's improved over the years, but the last times I dealt with them it wasn't better. Epson was far, far friendlier. Disclaimer: I sold Epson printers for a living on the weekends for 7 years, but I left that job 15 years ago. Fascinating to glance back in and see what has and hasn't changed. I'd still pick Epson in a heartbeat for photos, but nothing else. My print volume guarantees an Epson printer will always be clogged for me.

If it’s living on your desk then a standard photo printer would give you the best results. The Epson ET-8500/8550 is very popular for the low ink costs. Pigment printers like the Epson P700/900 and Canon imageprograph series are considered a step up in quality but the running costs will also be higher, If you’re only ever going to be printing 4x6 then the Epson 8500 Wild be my recommendation.

Roller marks problem how to fix: Get better quality paper (also some printers if you select thick paper on configurations, also make it leave less roller marks, don't know if this is the case). Or Get a printer that is more focused for photos. (right now the cheapest are the canon G5/6XX series). If you don't find them, then the Epson ET8500/8550 (they do still leave some roller marks but with better quality paper they are fine). Or the epson ET 8100/18100 (it's ink does not have lightfastness). I only recommend ink tank printers for most uses cases. If you are going for pro level printing and going to sell them for high price then there are the Canon Pixma Pro Line, and Epson Surecolor p700/900. About your brother, well i don't recommend because it's a cartridge printer(seriously this black that you used could easily be like 3-5% of all of it's black ink). I would return if still possible. And purchase any ink tank.(If you won't print like 40+ documents pages or 5+ photos a month then it's a fine printer, more than this only if you convert it for ciss or use somekind of compatible cartridge). Edit: Ohh and about consumer level printer that you want mostly for documents, and then some photos. Canon Megatank GXXXX series. And Epson ET 2/4XXX series, then you will compare price and what they offer, like duplex, in case of epson a4 borderless as well. IF you want fewer features but better photos, some epson have 4 dye ink that are better for printing on cheaper glossy ink (you can check if their black tank is the same size as the colored tanks, if it is the same size then it's ink is dye).