How to choose the Canon printer that suits your needs

If you have a large family who enjoy trips together, buying a two-seater sports car wouldn't be very practical. It's the same with printers. Which printer is right for you will vary according to your printing needs.

Many people mainly need to print colour or mono documents – from children's homework or student projects to business documents for the home office. Some people might want the ability to produce glossy photo prints at home, or paper products for crafting and other hobbies. You might want to print only occasionally or need a printer capable of a high-volume workflow. And, for ease of use, wireless connectivity is increasingly important for many.

There's a wide choice on the market, from affordable single-function inkjet printers to high-yield multi-function laser printers. Here we'll look at the range of Canon inkjet printers suited for the most common printing needs. In each category, models with conventional ink cartridges will make life easier in some scenarios, whereas MegaTank printers with high-capacity refillable ink tanks and low running costs might be a better fit for others.

Read on to find which Canon printers could be the best choice for you.

• Best printer for general home printing
• Best printer for small offices
• Best printer for families and students
• Best printer for photo prints
• Best printer for arts and crafting

A versatile printer for children, students and general family life needs to be affordable and easy to run. Starting simple, the Canon PIXMA TS3450 Series printer is extremely easy to set up and use, utilising just two FINE ink cartridges (black and tri-colour), with an option of high-capacity cartridges for even greater cost-effectiveness.

The PIXMA TS3450 Series is a compact and lightweight printer but has a built-in scanner for scanning and copying. As well as high-quality documents, it can output borderless 6x4-inch, 5x5-inch and 7x5-inch photo prints. It also has built-in one-touch Wi-Fi connectivity, so you can print from anywhere around the home, using your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you’re someone who does a lot of printing from home, there's a time-efficient and money-saving alternative to buying and replacing ink cartridges. Canon's range of MegaTank refillable inkjet printers feature large-capacity ink tanks instead of cartridges, which hold enough ink for up to 6,000 mono A4 sheets or up to 7,700 colour pages.¹

They're a bit more expensive upfront than some cartridge-based printers, but running costs are much lower, potentially reducing the total cost of ownership by as much as 80%. As and when you need to refill the ink tanks, it's quick, easy and mess-free. Ink is fed from the bottles by gravity with no squeezing involved, and the bottles have key-type nozzles to eliminate the risk of putting the wrong colour into the wrong tank.

Canon PIXMA G2570 range printers are speedy too, outputting pages at 11ipm (images per minute) for mono and 6ipm for colour. The Canon PIXMA G1530 is a single-function printer, while the Canon PIXMA G2570 adds a built-in scanner and the Canon PIXMA G3570 Series features both a scanner and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Canon PIXMA G4570 also adds a 35-sheet auto document feeder and direct fax facility.

Many people are working from home at least some of the time and need a more business-focused printer capable of multi-tasking different jobs. Canon's MAXIFY range, designed for fast, high-quality document printing, is the ideal fit, and also a great choice for a small office. Like the Canon PIXMA G2570 range, Canon's MAXIFY GX range of printers are MegaTank models, with even lower running costs due to the higher colour page yield.

The Canon MAXIFY GX3050 is a smart, budget-friendly choice. It's a speedy 3-in-1 printer that's ideal for office documents, outputting mono pages at up to 19ipm and colour pages at up to 13ipm. You can keep an eye on print job progress, carry out standalone copying tasks and check on printer status with a 3.4cm LCD screen and simple push-button interface. It has a 250-sheet input cassette at the front, an additional 100-sheet feeder at the rear, and a flat tray for thicker media. It also features auto duplex printing and Wi-Fi connectivity.

The Canon MAXIFY GX4050 has all this and more, adding a 6.9cm colour touchscreen plus 35-sheet auto document feeder for easily scanning and copying multi-page documents. It also features full standalone fax facilities and has Ethernet connectivity for easy networking in addition to Wi-Fi and USB.

If your job requires high-quality printing and lots of it, then a premium option such as the Canon MAXIFY GX6050 or MAXIFY GX7050 is a great choice. Both models keep things simple for printing, scanning and photocopying, with 6.9cm tiltable colour touchscreens, as well as 50-sheet auto document feeders. The MAXIFY GX7050 also boasts an additional input tray, giving it a total input capacity of 600 sheets, as well as direct fax facilities and two-sided scanning.

If you have children of school age in the family, then you'll want a printer that's easy to use for regular assignment printouts, but also offers an array of creative options. For students and younger children, plus the rest of the family, a built-in scanner will make it easy to copy documents and artwork, as well as upload them to mobile devices or the cloud when required.

The affordable Canon PIXMA TR4650 Series comes complete with a 20-sheet auto document feeder to simplify scanning and copying, and it has an auto duplex facility for double-sided printing. It's compatible with money-saving XL high-yield cartridges – ideal for students on a budget who need to print in bulk, for example when printing their dissertation.

To further reduce running costs, the premium Canon PIXMA G3560 and the Canon PIXMA G2570 range give you the advantages of Canon's MegaTank refillable ink tank system, including long-lasting ink capacity for efficient printing and less downtime.

If you are a photography student or a keen photo enthusiast, there's nothing better than seeing your photographs in print rather than just on-screen. Photo prints preserve special occasions and memories in a lasting form, and also make great gifts for friends and loved ones. Even if you want to print photos only occasionally, having a printer capable of creating glossy photo prints gives you more immediate results than ordering prints online, along with more creative control over the process.

The stylish, Wi-Fi-enabled Canon PIXMA TS8350a Series 3-in-1 printer uses six individual inks to produce colourful, high-quality photo prints, as well as great quality mono and colour documents, making it a good all-rounder. It can produce high-quality borderless images in sizes up to A4, so you can really appreciate all the details.

For a MegaTank advantage, greatly reducing the total costs of photo printing, the 3-in-1 Canon PIXMA G650 uses an extended range of six dye-based inks for enhanced colour and tonal range. A set of inks is sufficient for up to 3,800 6x4-inch colour photo lab-quality photo prints, with borderless photos at sizes up to A4. For document printing, a set of inks is enough for up to 3,700 mono or up to 8,000 colour A4 pages.²

If you want to go large on your photo printing, creating A3+ (33x43cm) borderless output for showing and selling your prints at fairs and galleries, the Canon PIXMA PRO-200 delivers unrivalled photo print quality on glossy and lustre photo papers, thanks to its eight dye-based inks. For matte photo paper and fine-art media, the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 is a class-leading, professional A3+ photo printer that uses 10 pigment-based inks for the ultimate in colour intensity and fidelity. Both of these photo printers can also create banners and panoramic prints of up to 99cm in length.

There's a feast of creative fun to be had for all ages with a Canon printer, from children's projects to custom greetings cards, party invitations, thank-you notes and more. In Canon's Creative Park app, you'll find free-to-download colouring pages, mazes and other printable activities in the Kids section. You can even add a personal touch to your printables by using the editing function to customise the templates.

For extra excitement, there's a wide range of printable games on the Canon Creative Park website, including bingo, ring toss and your very own chess set. These are easy to print at home and just as much fun to make as they are to play. There's also a great selection of papercrafts and 3D models available to print, including toys and animals.

The Canon PIXMA TS5350a Series and the Canon PIXMA TS7450 Series are both ideal for artistic projects, with options to print on a range of media from magnetic paper to double-sided matte photo paper.

As a premium option, the Canon PIXMA G650 with its six dye-based inks and MegaTank refillable tank system is every bit as suitable for arts and crafting as it is for top-quality photo prints.

There's something for everyone in Canon's range of inkjet printers. Whether you're young or young at heart, a student, a dedicated parent or a busy professional, you'll find a Canon printer that's just right for your needs.

For more guidance on which printers might suit your needs, also try the Canon printer selector.


Written by Matthew Richards and Alex Summersby