Best Canon printer 2024: our top printers for the home
Canon is a popular brand in the printing industry, and they’ve been producing reliable printers of various types to accommodate different people’s budgets for years but what is the best Canon printer?
Canon offers so many product lines, each with nearly countless models. Also, you can find printers as cheap as $100 or as expensive as several hundred.
Even if you know the exact features and price point you want, it can be extremely daunting trying to pick the best printer out of all the available options. But we’re here to showcase the top five picks that cover every ground, so stay tuned!
Products at a Glance
How we choose the best Canon printer
For this list, we looked at numerous Canon printers to fit five different target profiles, shortlisted them based on our selection criteria, and then picked the best one out of the bunch.
For example, if you’re a student who needs a budget printer for college work, then you’ll find the right match for you here, as we’ve tested their various affordable models. And the same applies to the other criteria.
We’ve also picked the best overall Canon printer that balances all the main features while remaining fairly affordable. And in the end, here’s the list we came up with.
Product Reviews
- All-in-one printer with numerous office and paper handling features
- Excellent printing quality
- Strong physical frame with plenty of capacity for papers and ink
- Easy duplex printing and ADF system
- Very efficient with ink, which noticeably reduces its running costs
- Outdated control panel and screen interface
- Relatively slow printing speeds for certain color settings
- Limited color and print size options when printing photos
We’re starting with the Canon PIXMA G7020—a well-rounded and versatile printer that you can use at home, in an office building, as a student, or else.
The G7020 uses inkjet technology to print, relying on the four traditional CMYK colors to produce sharp results with excellent image quality or vivid color profiles, depending on your needs.
One of the G7020’s main strengths is in its physical build and storage capacities, which is why you’ll often see it labeled as a MegaTank printer.
Plus, the printer can carry and handle up to 350 sheets at once, split into 250 sheets in the input tray on the front and an additional 100 from the back, and you have a superb machine that can print for ages. However, the device can be noticeably slow when in action. So although it offers incredible capacity, the output speed isn’t the best.
Another crucial selling point is how cost-effective the G7020 is. It’s incredibly efficient at utilizing ink from its reservoir, which results in an incredibly low per-paper print cost of less than a cent for colored pages, and a third of that for gray papers.
The G7020 is an all-in-one printer, meaning that it comes with various additional features that are helpful in any office. Namely, it includes a scanner (but no duplex scanning), a photocopier, and a fax machine.
So if you don’t mind the slower printing speeds and the outdated control panel and UI, then the PIXMA G7020 is one of the most balanced Canon printers you’ll find today.
- Relatively lightweight and compact for a beefy printer
- Has duplex printing, a flatbed scanner, and an ADF system
- Can work at very high volumes with a great cost per paper
- Modern and highly intuitive control panel and display
- Slow printing speed for the price
- No Bluetooth connectivity
If you like the previous model we reviewed but feel like you need something more premium and robust, whether it’s for your office building or in a busy household with high printing demands, then you should check out the MAXIFY GX6020.
Initially, we noted down the GX6020 as a more premium printer for those who fancy it and have some money to spare. Still, we see it as the perfect office printer to withstand the wear and tear of busy workdays.
For starters, the GX6020 can save a lot of replacement hassle because it boasts four spacious CMYK ink tanks that will last for longer than you expect. And even when they run out, you can refill them easily with ink bottles.
Speaking of ink bottles, if you get this model, then we recommend you buy them in bulk to satisfy your printing needs as necessary, as this is the best way to keep the cost per paper down to the minimum, which is typically under two cents.
Despite being able to hold 350 papers (250 in the input tray and 100 in the rear tray), its output speed of 24 papers per minute (for gray prints) or 15.5 papers per minute can cause lines to build up at peak traffic times.
Apart from that, it’s hard to throw shade at this printer except if your office still needs a fax machine, as Canon removed this capability from the MAXIFY GX6020.
- Produces laser-sharp quality, which works best for text documents
- Sturdy and is designed for a high workload
- Various connectivity options, but connects especially well with Wi-Fi to other devices
- Has a 5” control panel with an intuitive user interface
- Includes a scanner (with duplex scanning), copier, and fax machine
- High-cost upkeep due to relatively expensive color cartridges and a cost per paper
- Quite heavy at nearly 50 lbs
Our favorite laser printer from Canon is the Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw. It’s a massive printing machine with an impressive output rate. But first, we hope you’re warmed up for the size of the imageCLASS MF753Cdw, because it’s a large printer that comes in an even larger box and a weight of almost 50 pounds. But are all the features worth it?
So far, the imageCLASS MF753Cdw boasts the fastest printing speeds out of the products we reviewed, as it’s capable of printing 28 pages per minute. For black and white documents, this is comparable to the previous models. But it can also match this speed for colored prints, which makes the others look like toys in this aspect. For printing letters, the speed is even faster at 35 ppm.
The imageCLASS MF753Cdw’s size isn’t all for nothing, as it has a decent paper capacity of 50 sheets in the automatic document feeder (ADF), 250 in the standard input cassette, 50 in the multipurpose tray, and 150 in the output tray. You can also add an additional paper tray to reach an impressive total capacity of 850 sheets.
Right under the printer’s top and the ADF system, you’ll find the large scanner capable of duplex scanning. The printer also comes with a copier and a fax machine to cover office-related needs.
The whole printing environment is controllable via a large and beautiful 5” touch-enabled LCD screen that you can even tilt to the height you want. It’s highly responsive and can help you customize the printing experience to your needs.
All these features make the Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw a strong contender for an office printer, but you’ll need some strong arms to handle its almost 50-pound weight and be ready to sacrifice some photo quality for standard colorful non-document prints.
- Portable with a small footprint
- Excellent connectivity options
- Great print quality for a printer in this category, especially when printing colorful photos
- Affordable
- Very slow printing speeds of 9 ppm for gray prints and 5.5 ppm for color
- Relatively high cost per print
- No duplex printing or ADF system
Portable printers fill a wide gap in the industry by delivering quality results with a tiny footprint. It’s one of our favorite categories, and for Canon, we chose the PIXMA TR150 wireless printer.
When not in use, the TR150 occupies an impressively small space of just 12.7” x 7.3” x 2.6” (L x W x H) and a light frame of just under 5 lbs. For such a featherweight printer with a height under 3”, we didn’t expect much from the TR150 at first, but we were quickly proven wrong.
First, the print quality is quite impressive for a printer in this category. It especially excelled at printing vibrant photos and capturing their color profiles with a decent breadth of accuracy.
For text documents, the TR150 delivers as well as you’d expect. The text may not be the sharpest, but we can hardly complain when we take a second look at the printer’s size.
The printer’s weight goes up slightly when you plug its battery in (which you need to buy separately at an additional cost), but it’s definitely worth it to turn it into a truly portable printer.
Keep in mind that the TR150 lacks features that you’ll find in bulkier and more expensive printers. For example, it’s not an all-in-one device, so it can’t scan, copy photos, or send faxes. In fact, it can’t even do duplex printing.
Additionally, the cost to print one paper is significantly higher than more expensive printers, but that’s something you should always expect in cheap portable machines like the PIXMA TR150.
- Highly affordable price; costs only a fraction of many other printers
- Decent features for the price tag
- Fairly small frame
- Good connectivity options
- Very slow printing speeds
- Relatively high cost per paper
Lastly, we’re finishing with the best budget Canon printer, and one of the best budget printers we’ve seen period: the PIXMA TR4720.
We’re not gonna sugarcoat anything here, it is a budget printer that costs less than half of what the second cheapest option on this list is. So unsurprisingly, it does lack the capabilities of other printers.
But on a per-dollar basis, the TR4720 performs surprisingly well. It prints documents with surprisingly sharp text. And even photo prints and other colorful images had a decent color profile and the fine details were mostly visible. So although you’ll struggle a bit with its slow printing speeds, the output is definitely satisfying.
As for the features, Canon has clearly tried to include everything they can in a printer of this price and stature. So although it only has manual duplexing, we can still call it an all-in-one printer because it’s capable of scanning (but obviously no duplex scanning), copying, and even sending faxes. It even has a flatbed with an ADF.
Again, due to the nature of these affordable and compact printers, the cost per paper is typically higher than their more expensive counterparts. As such, this isn’t the best option for frequent users.
Best Canon printer: features and considerations
You should always familiarize yourself with the main features to consider before buying a Canon printer. Here are the most important ones:
Printer Type
The first thing to consider is what type of printer suits your needs. For reference, the two main types are inkjet and laser.
Inkjet printers use colorful liquid ink to print directly on the paper, which produces higher-quality photos with prettier color profiles. Conversely, laser printers are better for printing sharp text documents at faster speeds.
Print Quality
Print quality can either refer to the color vibrance and attention to detail in printing photos or the sharpness of text when printing gray documents.
In either case, quality is determined by a lot of things, but the main spec to look for is the printer’s dots per inch (DPI).
The DPI refers to how many dots the printer can place on one square inch of paper, so the higher this number is, the better quality you should expect from prints.
Printing Speed
You may think you’ll “just be patient” with the printer, but if you need it for a busy setting, such as a large office, then you’ll definitely want a fast printer to avoid forming long queues.
Printing speed is measured in pages per minute (ppm, sometimes also images per second or ipm), which does exactly as you can imagine. In general, laser printers blow inkjet out of the water when it comes to printing speed. But generally, most models over 20 ppm are considered fast.
Connectivity Options
Modern printers don’t need to connect to your computer (or any other device) to work anymore. Instead, sending files via wireless technology is the modern way.
Look for printers that can connect to your devices via technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, then directly print from them. This also allows you to seamlessly print files from your phone, so it’s a necessity for most people.
What is the difference between inkjet and laser printers from Canon?
The main difference between inkjet and laser printers is that inkjet printers use wet ink to print on paper, while laser printers use a toner to fuse the image onto the paper at high temperatures.
As a result, Canon’s inkjet printers are better if you’re looking for higher-quality photos, while laser printers are better for high-volume printing, such as in an office setting.
How do I set up a wireless Canon printer?
Connecting your Canon printer is an easy process, but it may vary slightly by model. In general, you do it by tapping the antenna button on the display, choosing “Wi-Fi,” then “Settings” to configure your network.
From there, select “Wi-Fi setup” and you’ll have multiple options to connect your printer to your router.
What is the difference between Canon ink cartridges and third-party cartridges?
Canon’s ink cartridges are designed to work seamlessly with Canon printers, ensuring optimal output quality and enhancing the printer’s longevity, but it might be more pricey.
In contrast, when using a cheaper third-party cartridge, you need to ensure that it’s compatible with your Canon printer. Even then, you might run into issues with quality, warranty voidance, or else.
Our Verdict
That’s it for our overview of the best Canon printers. To recap, we admired the PIXMA G7020 for offering various robust features, including all-in-one capabilities like copying, faxing, and scanning. But we were completely blown away by its cost-effectiveness, as each paper will cost you less than a cent to print! And when you combine it with its large capacity, you get a printer that’s comfortable to operate over the long term.
If you need a more powerful printer, we’ve also got you covered with beefy options like the inkjet MAXIFY GX6020 or the laser Color imageCLASS MF753Cdw, both of which work excellent in office settings.
Lastly, people on a budget should consider the highly affordable all-in-one PIXMA TR4720 printer, which offers all the standard features of a typical Canon printer at a fraction of the price.