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.
I have four printers in my home printing lab.
Epson Sure Color P900 - this is my workhorse printer for black-and-white and some color, depending on the tonal range and the paper.
Canon Pixma Pro 100 - much cheaper ink, but I am less happy with the black-and-white results, though I think it does extremely well with images that are predominantly, red or green.
Epson XP7100 - my day to day home office printer that does extremely high-quality 4 x 6 glossy prints with minimal fuss.
Epson Stylus Pro 3880 - much more expensive to run on Epson inks than the P900, but much more flexible in terms of utilizing third-party in including a wide gamut set of dedicated gray scale ink.
I do my own exhibition printing and have access to a 48 inch wide format Eason roll printer.
I share all of us because this is doable, if you are serious about high-quality printing and want the precise control over what paper and output you achieve, but be prepared for a significant financial investment in ink and paper.
I also have the benefit of being taught digital printing by a highly accomplished photographer who, like me, was a skilled dark printer before moving to digital. He also just happens to have work in multiple famous museums and collections, so his printing skills are indisputable.
But even with that knowledge, sometimes it takes me two or three prints to completely dial in an image.
I’ve got the P900 and I am really enjoying it so far. I’ve made maybe two dozen prints but the quality is incredible. It was fairly easy to set up.
My two points of guidance are:
1) Don’t buy it used or refurbished. I bought a refurb from B and H and it was a nightmare.
2) Paper is also not cheap. The epson brand photo paper is ok, the nice Hahnemuhle stuff is pricey.
I used a Spyder to calibrate my monitors prior to printing and I find that from monitor to print the match is phenomenal. I have had a couple of prints seem a bit bluer initially but once the pigment fully dried I felt better about them.
I’ve also been satisfied by the contrast. However, I’ve been using the Epson Premium Photo Matte papers and some Hahnemuhle mattes from a sample pack. So I can’t speak to full black and super dynamic contrast. Glossy prints are just not my aesthetic.
Either the Canon 310 or the Epson P900 or similar models will meet your requirements really well. I don't think small exhibition quality printers are around anymore.
You should research the wider margin issues that can happen with some Canon fine printers when you have certain "fine art" settings. Both of these printers have the required multiple grey tone carts for fine B&W output. I've owned printers from both brands happily, though I may like Epson a tiny bit more.
I'm a professional artist who exhibits photographic prints at fine galleries across the US. I've been printing for 55 years in various contexts. The output from these printers is superb provided you develop the images with skill.
Paper should compliment the image. Baryta paper is wonderful for B&W. Cold press cotton rag paper is excellent for images with texture. A glossy paper is great for high frequency images with lots of detail, illumination, reflective surfaces and so on. I stock 3-4 papers and make test prints to see what works. It's a money pit, but it's art.
I'm sure you will get lots of enjoyment with any of these printers.
Aberration1111
