Epson - SureColor P700 13-Inch Photo Printer

Canon and Epson are probably going to be your best to brands to pick from if you want true professional print quality at home. Canon makes their Pro line of printers (pro 200/300/1000) and Epson has the P700 and P900. Each will have their pros and cons, but overall you'd be happy with any of them most likely. These are not your regular inkjet printers you'd buy at an electronics/office store. They are proper professional photo printers. Canon Pro 200 will print up to 13" wide, so it would work for you very well. I think it's about $600 USD. The real question is, is buying a pro printer worth it for you? It's a combination of cost/savings vs a print shop and then the control you'll have over your prints. If this is for just printing your photos for personal use, then it's probably not going to be worth the cost. Printing A4 prints at print shops isn't THAT expensive. But buying a $600 printer and then spending a bunch of money on ink refills and potential wasted paper/ink, probably won't be a cost effective option for you if that's the goal. You'd either need to print a lot to hit a break even point for personal use, or just be that demanding in regards to your prints to want more direct control over how they come out, to make buying a pro printer worth it.

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.

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.

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).

It really depends on what you are printing. Fine Art? Then probably the Epson P700 or the Canon Pro line. Middle ground: Canon G500/G600 series or the Epson ET-8500/ET-8550. General/Budget: If you just want photos to sell cheaply that won't be exposed to direct sunlight and don't need to last 20+ years, almost any standard Ink Tank printer can give great resolution. You just need to test them to see if the quality is acceptable to you. (You can as well print using pigmented ink, it will have great resolution, last for an eternity, just won't print on glossy finish(pigmented ink that works on glossy paper and the paper itself are only for fine art printers/papers)). Note: Some of these general use printers use pigment black. If you plan to print on glossy paper, you might need to swap it for dye ink(unofficially) and set the printer driver to Matte Paper, when printing glossy paper, because otherwise it will mix CYM to make black.

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.

I've used the Epson p700 for a number of years and it just a brilliant job of printing my photographs and cards. Keith Cooper does a great job of reviewing photo printers: [https://www.northlight-images.co.uk](https://www.northlight-images.co.uk)

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.