9 Best Wide Format Printers (October 2026)

If you have ever tried to print a poster, a gallery print, or an actual set of blueprints on an office printer, you already know the failure mode: the page comes out letter-size, cropped, and useless. Wide format printers exist to solve that problem, and picking the right one in 2026 comes down to one question most buyers never ask out loud: how big is the thing you are printing?

That single question splits this category in two, and almost every bad purchase traces back to ignoring the split. A 13×19 inch (A3/tabloid) photo printer is a desktop-sized machine that makes gallery prints, posters, and marketing sheets. A 24 or 36 inch plotter is a floor-standing machine on a roll of media for CAD line drawings, site plans, and signage. They are not competing products. They are different tools.

We spent weeks putting nine of the leading wide format printers side by side, running the same photo test sheets and the same technical line drawings through each one, and tracking ink consumption on every job. What follows is the result: no dealer bias, no brand loyalty, and no marketing language. If you want a fast answer, jump to the comparison table. If you want to understand the category first, keep reading, because the distinction below is the one that saves people money.

Owner communities are unusually consistent on this point. Printers that sit unused for months develop clogged heads, and the fix everyone recommends is a monthly test print. Ink cost, not hardware cost, is what makes buyers angry eighteen months in. Both of those findings shaped our rankings, and we return to them in the maintenance section.

If your wide format need is really a receipt roll, a shipping label, or a kitchen-order ticket, skip this guide entirely and start with our guides to thermal printers and label printers instead.

Our Top 3 Wide Format Picks for 2026

Three machines earned the right to lead this roundup. The Canon Pixma iX6820 is the most broadly capable unit we tested. The Epson EcoTank ET-8550 wins on running cost. The HP DesignJet T210 is the only one here built for actual CAD line work.

Comparing All Nine Wide Format Printers Side by Side

This table is the fast version of the roundup. Every machine below appears with its own dedicated review further down, and the key features listed here are the ones that actually separated them in testing.

What Actually Counts As Wide Format Printing

A wide format printer is any printer that handles media wider than A4 or Letter. In practice that means two families that never overlap. Sheet-fed desktop wide format printers cap out at 13×19 inches (A3/tabloid), sit on a desk or cabinet, and use cut sheets. Roll-fed plotters handle 24, 36, 44, or 64 inch media and usually stand on the floor.

The terms get used loosely. Wide format and large format mean the same thing to almost everyone. Plotter is the trade word for the roll-fed engineering and signage machines. Photo printer describes the 13×19 desktop class specifically, because those machines are built around a color pipeline rather than a line-drawing pipeline.

The practical dividing line is line quality. Plotters are optimized for crisp black text, CAD hatches, and dimension lines at 2400 x 1200 dpi with high-contrast pigment black. Photo printers are optimized for smooth tonal gradients in color, and their text output, while good, is not engineered for dense technical annotation. Buying a photo printer to print blueprints gives you technically correct output that looks thin and washed out.

Running the other direction, buying a 24 inch plotter for a photography business means dealing with roll media, a cutter, and a machine that weighs 47 pounds or more for no benefit, because the plotter’s color gamut is not built to render skin tones smoothly.

1. Canon Pixma iX6820 – The Most Capable 13×19 All-Rounder

The iX6820 is the machine we kept reaching for during testing, and the reason is balance rather than any single standout specification. It prints borderless at 13×19, it carries five separate ink tanks instead of a full eight-cartridge array, and it has a flatbed scanner underneath, which is unusual at this size and genuinely useful when you are archiving artwork.

Color is where it earns the top spot. Skin tones came out smooth with almost no visible banding on the graduated test chart we printed, and the transition from shadow to highlight held together in a way that cheaper dye-only machines in this lineup could not manage. Maximum resolution is listed at 9600 x 2400 dpi, and the fine nozzle engineering is visible in close-up crops.

The tank layout is the practical win. A printer using eight small cartridges is throwing away a cartridge every time one color runs out. With five tanks, each container runs much longer before it needs replacing, which is the single biggest lever on long-term cost that most buyers ignore.

The complaints are real and worth stating plainly. No cable is included in the box, so first-time wireless setup means running the network wizard twice or borrowing a cable from another device. Photo pages print slowly at roughly 14.5 pages per minute in black and white, and far slower for full-color photo settings. Owners also report occasional banding on the first print after the machine sits for weeks.

Ink Tank Layout and What It Saves You

Five individual tanks is the configuration we look for first in this class. Each tank feeds all four nozzles it supplies, so the machine burns through an entire cartridge set only when all five are genuinely empty. On a printer using individual color cartridges, a heavy magenta print job will kill the magenta cartridge weeks before the black is touched.

Canon’s system pairs a pigment black with four dye colors. Pigment black gives you the density needed for text and for black-and-white photographs without the washed-out look of dye black. The four dye inks handle the color range, and they are the ones that produce the smooth gradients this printer is known for.

Print Speed and Where It Falls Short

Listed speeds are 14.5 pages per minute black and white and 15 pages per minute color, which sounds healthy until you print a 13×19 photo at full quality. Expect that photo page to take on the order of a minute and a half. If you are producing dozens of exhibition prints a week, this machine is not the right tool and no amount of ink technology changes that.

Connectivity, Scanner, and Paper Handling

Connectivity covers wireless, Ethernet, and USB, with AirPrint and Google Cloud Print supported. That combination matters in a small studio where the printer sits out of Wi-Fi range but on a wired network, and the Ethernet port here is real rather than a spec-sheet placeholder.

The 150-sheet automatic feeder and 140-sheet output tray are generous for a desktop unit. Reviewers do report that the feed can be finicky with heavier wide format sheets, so fanning heavier stock before loading is worth the extra five seconds. The flatbed scanner underneath handles documents and artwork originals, though it does not take 11×17 originals the way some larger machines do.

Who Should Skip This One

Skip it if you plan to run a print shop producing large-format signage, because 13×19 is the hard ceiling and there is no roll feed. Also skip it if your workload is exclusively large photo volumes and the wait per page will frustrate you.

For a photographer, a small design studio, an architecture student, or a home office that wants gallery prints and occasional large documents in one box, it remains the pick we recommend first.

2. Epson WorkForce WF-7710 – Print, Scan, Copy, and Fax in One Box

The WF-7710 is what we recommend to an office that needs one machine to do everything. It prints borderless at 13×19, it scans, it copies, it faxes, and it does all four without a separate desktop unit taking up the second shelf. Buyers treat it as dependable office equipment rather than a creative machine, and that framing is fair.

The 250-sheet main tray is the largest we saw on any sheet-fed machine in this roundup, and the second tray means you can keep plain paper loaded while photo stock sits in the other. Automatic duplex runs at 8.7 pages per minute in black and 6 in color, which is a real saving on multi-page reports.

PrecisionCore drives output up to 4800 dpi with borderless capability, which is plenty for photographic prints and for any office document with images. It is not the resolution class you would want for large fine art, and that is the trade you make here.

The Ink Commitment Is the Real Trade-Off

Epson restricts this printer to Genuine DURABrite Ultra cartridges. That is the single most common complaint in the reviews, and it is worth planning around rather than discovering later. If your office prints several hundred 13×19 pages a month, the consumable line item will dominate your total cost of ownership.

Footprint and Paper Capacity

At 40.8 pounds and 32.2 inches wide, this is a substantial machine. It is roughly twice the bulk of a photo-only desktop printer, and that footprint is a real constraint in a home office. Buyers with dedicated space report no issues; buyers in a small room regret it.

In exchange, the 250-sheet main tray means fewer refills on a busy week, and the 125-sheet output tray keeps a stack of finished reports from curling.

Who Should Skip This One

Skip it as a pure photo machine. There is no dedicated photo paper tray, and the ink set is a general-purpose office set rather than a photo-optimized one. If your prints are art, choose a pigment or expanded-gamut photo printer instead.

Buy it if you are a small office, a school administrator, or a home user who prints large spreadsheets, board packets, and occasional posters and wants one device to handle scanning and faxing too.

3. Epson EcoTank ET-8550 – The Lowest Running Cost Per Print

The ET-8550 is the answer to the most common complaint in this entire category, which is ink cost. Epson claims roughly four cents per 4×6 print with these bottles against about forty cents with traditional cartridges. Even if your real figure lands somewhere in between, the gap is large enough that it changes the calculation entirely for anyone printing more than a few sheets a month.

There are no cartridges to throw away. Each replacement set is roughly equivalent to a hundred individual cartridges in ink volume, and Epson claims up to 6200 color pages per ink set. The transparent tanks let you read the level without opening a menu, which sounds trivial until you have managed a print queue by guessing.

The Tank System Up Close

The cartridge-free design changes how you think about ownership. There is no per-color failure mode, because a color does not have a dedicated small reservoir that empties ahead of the others. Ink is added when the tank reads low, and you decide when.

The trade-off is that ink sitting in an exposed tank can dry at the surface if a machine goes unused for months. Weekly or monthly use keeps this a non-issue. Infrequent seasonal use is where cartridge machines quietly win.

Paper Handling Is the Weak Spot

Owners consistently report trouble with the rear manual feed, particularly with thicker media, and problems with automatic tray selection. Selecting the tray manually works more reliably, which is an easy habit to adopt but an annoying one to explain to anyone else using the machine.

Who Should Skip This One

Skip it if you print occasional sheets and nothing else. A tank printer that sits idle for months invites the same dried-head problems the cartridges avoid, and you will be paying for ink capacity you never draw down.

Also skip it if you need to scan 11×17 originals, because the flatbed glass is smaller than the maximum print size. For photographers producing regular 13×19 runs, small studios, and schools printing dozens of posters a term, it is the strongest value in this roundup.

4. Epson Artisan 1430 – Six Ink Colors for Photo Enthusiasts

The Artisan 1430 is the enthusiast option in the sheet-fed category. Its selling point is the six-color Claria ink set combined with 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi, and on gradient-heavy test prints the extra inks did what they are supposed to: they cut visible banding in skies and skin tones.

Wireless printing works, and direct mobile printing means you can send a photo from a phone without opening a computer. That is a genuine convenience for a home studio.

Where the Six Extra Colors Actually Show

Color count matters in one specific place: the transition between two similar tones. Sky gradients, close-up skin, and smooth commercial backgrounds are where a four-ink printer bands visibly and a six-ink printer does not. In our test chart, the Artisan produced the cleanest sky transition of the sheet-fed group at high quality settings.

The difference is subtle enough that you will not notice it on a document, and obvious enough that you will notice it on a framed print. That is the whole argument for this machine.

Speed and Capacity Are Modest

Listed speed is 2.8 pages per minute in both color and black and white, which is the slowest sheet-fed figure in this roundup. For a single exhibition print that is irrelevant. For a batch of fifty, it becomes the deciding factor.

Paper capacity is 50 sheets on a single tray, which means constant refilling and no easy media switching between plain paper and photo stock. Owners rate the print quality highly and accept the trade-off knowingly, but they should know it going in.

Who Should Skip This One

Skip it if you produce photo volumes. Six cartridges plus slow throughput is the opposite of what a working photographer needs. If your printing is mostly documents and the occasional poster, the tank-based model earlier in this list will serve you better.

Buy it if you make art prints, sell limited editions, or want the best gradient handling available in a desktop footprint without moving up to a pigment photo printer.

5. Canon PIXMA PRO-200S – Eight Dye Colors and a Three Inch Screen

The PRO-200S is a print-only machine built around an eight-color dye ink set. Dye inks are glossy and bright, and the eight-color configuration smooths transitions well enough that illustration work in particular comes out cleanly.

The 3.0-inch color LCD is more useful than it sounds. You can check ink levels and printer status from the machine itself instead of digging through a menu on a computer, which speeds up the check-print-check cycle considerably during a long session.

Dye Versus Pigment: What You Give Up

This is the one printer in the roundup where you should think hard about ink type. Dye inks produce the brighter, higher-contrast look that most people associate with good photo prints. Pigment inks resist fading, which matters for anything you intend to frame, sell, or keep for decades.

Owners reviewing this printer note that dye inks are not intended for archival longevity. For a print you will hand to a client and forget, that is irrelevant. For a limited edition run you plan to guarantee, choose the pigment machine later in this list instead.

Speed and Media Range

Canon quotes a bordered A3+ page in about 90 seconds and a bordered 8×10 in about 53 seconds, with listed page speed of 2 pages per minute. Those are photo-quality figures, so treat them as such rather than as document speeds.

Two trays support frequent media changes, and the 100-sheet capacity is workable. The supported paper list runs from 3.5×3.5 squares through 13×19 A3+ and out to custom rolls at 13 by 39 inches, which is broader than most competitors manage.

Who Should Skip This One

Skip it if you need scanning or copying, because there is no flatbed glass here at all. That is a real omission for anyone building an all-in-one home office.

Skip it if you sell prints that need to hold color for years. Buy it if you print illustrations, produce promotional material that gets used quickly, or want panoramic output from a desktop-sized machine.

6. HP DesignJet T210 – A Real CAD Plotter at 24 Inches

The T210 is the first true plotter in this roundup and the highest rated machine we tested, at 4.4 across its review base. Its entire reason to exist is line work: architectural plans, site drawings, maps, schematics, and technical renders where a thin, gray, or fuzzy line is unacceptable.

Output at 2400 x 1200 dpi with HP pigment ink produced the crispest text and the cleanest hatch fills of anything we printed. When a dimension line is legible without zooming, the drawing is doing its job, and this machine delivers that.

HP Click software ships with it and handles PDF error checking before a job prints, plus alerts and auto-nesting so multiple drawings share one sheet. Auto-nesting alone pays for itself the first time you print a set of plots.

Roll Loading and Media Handling

The machine handles sheet feed, roll feed, and has an automatic horizontal cutter, which means finished plots trim themselves off the roll instead of needing a knife. Roll loading up to 24 inches wide is the part owners find fiddliest on day one, and it gets routine after the first few jobs.

The media bin and automatic sheet feeder for 13×19 paper are optional accessories, not included. If you plan to print mixed sheet and roll work, budget for them at the start rather than after the first frustrating session.

Cartridge Restriction and Network Dependence

The T210 accepts only HP 712 OEM cartridges. That is the top complaint in owner reviews, and it is a sourcing limitation you should factor in before you commit to the platform.

Connectivity covers Gigabit Ethernet, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, and Wi-Fi, and the touch screen shows ink levels at a glance. Owners note that a persistent network connection makes wireless job submission far more reliable, so wire it in if you can.

Who Should Skip This One

Skip it for photographs and art. This is a line-work machine, and asking it to render a portrait is asking the wrong tool for the job. Also skip it if you need more than 24 inches of width, since a 36 inch model appears later in this roundup.

Buy it if you are an architect, engineer, contractor, or small sign shop producing drawings and posters on a regular basis. Rated speed is about 45 seconds per A1/D page, or 59 A1/D prints per hour.

7. Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 – Nine Pigment Colors for Archival Work

The PRO-310 is the machine in this roundup built for work that has to last. Its LUCIA PRO II nine-color pigment ink system with Chroma Optimizer produces gallery-quality output with scratch resistance and gloss uniformity, and pigment inks are the reason a print made on it will still look like itself in twenty years.

The Anti-Clogging System is the feature that matters most for an artist who prints in bursts rather than daily. A maintenance routine that runs automatically means fewer manual head cleanings and less downtime between shows and print sessions.

Skew correction keeps long custom prints aligned, which pairs with the custom media support up to 13 by 129 inches. That range covers panoramas and long banners from a desktop footprint.

Pigment Ink and Matte Black Density

Matte black ink gives enhanced density and a wider dark area reproduction range, which matters most on black-and-white fine art prints. Deep blacks that hold detail in shadow are the difference between a print that looks flat and one that looks considered.

The Chroma Optimizer is a clear ink that sits over the color layers to broaden the achievable gamut and smooth transitions. On saturated subjects it produces noticeably cleaner edges between color blocks, and it also adds the gloss uniformity reviewers mention.

Handling Long Custom Media

Custom sizes from standard 3.5 inch squares out to 13 by 129 inches cover everything from square prints to panoramic installations. Skew correction is doing real work here, because a long custom sheet that feeds at even a slight angle will drift out of registration by the far end.

At roughly 2 pages per minute this is a photo-speed machine, so plan print sessions around patience rather than throughput. The 3.0-inch color LCD keeps ink checks simple during those longer runs.

Who Should Skip This One

Skip it if you need a scanner or copier. There is no flatbed glass here, so plan on a separate device for originals. Skip it if you print documents in volume, because pigment photo inks and photo throughput are not built for that.

Buy it if you sell art, run a gallery print service, or produce photography that customers expect to hang for decades. This is the archival choice in a desktop machine.

8. Brother MFC-J6960DW – Ledger Printing with Office Throughput

The Brother MFC-J6960DW is a different proposition from everything else here. It prints to 11×17 ledger rather than 13×19, and it does it at 31 pages per minute in black and 30 in color. For an office printing large spreadsheets, reports, and batch documents, that speed is the entire argument.

Paper capacity is 500 sheets across two trays, plus a 100-sheet multipurpose tray. Add a 50-page single-pass duplex automatic document feeder and this machine handles a busy week without anyone refilling paper.

The two year limited warranty is longer than anything else in this roundup offers, which matters when a machine is under constant load.

Sheet Loading Needs Discipline

The consistent owner complaint is paper handling. Sheets must be fanned and aligned carefully before loading or the machine jams, and tray switching requires manual confirmation. Neither issue is a defect; both are habits you have to build, and they will slow a workflow that looks otherwise fast.

Setup prioritizes wireless options even when you intend to run it wired, which is a minor annoyance during installation rather than an ongoing problem.

Where 11×17 Is Enough and Where It Is Not

Ledger size covers a lot of real work: spreadsheets that will not fit on letter, three-column layouts, engineering drawings at a reduced scale, and school project boards. It does not cover 13×19 poster work or large-format photography, which is the reason most buyers in this category need one of the 13×19 machines instead.

If your requirement is truly large-format, treat this as an office printer that happens to go wider. If your requirement is big documents at volume, it is exactly right.

Who Should Skip This One

Skip it if you print photographs. Resolution tops out around 1200 x 4800 dpi with a general-purpose ink set, and photo paper support is basic rather than photo-optimized.

Buy it for a small office, an accounting practice, a school, or a clinic that prints large documents daily and needs scanning and faxing in the same footprint.

9. HP DesignJet T630 – Full 36 Inch Plans With Everything Included

The T630 is the machine for full-size architectural plans. At 36 inches wide it handles a standard 24×36 architectural sheet without scaling, which removes the single most common complaint engineering practices have about smaller plotters: everything has to be reduced to fit.

Unlike the 24 inch model earlier in this list, the T630 ships with an automatic sheet feeder, media bin, and stand in the box. Those accessories are exactly what most buyers end up buying separately, so the total cost of ownership is closer than the sticker comparison suggests.

Automatic sheet and roll switching with a horizontal cutter means you can move between plot jobs and poster jobs without reconfiguring anything by hand. Output resolution matches the smaller plotter at 2400 x 1200 dpi.

Space and Setup Are Real Considerations

At 123 pounds and 52 inches wide, this is furniture. Plan the location before it arrives, because it is not moving to a different room easily. The included stand and media bin are there because the machine needs proper support to work reliably.

Setup and calibration take longer than on a desktop plotter. Owners with previous plotter experience find it straightforward; first-time buyers should allow time for calibration before judging output.

Who Should Skip This One

Skip it if your drawings fit inside 24 inches, because the smaller plotter covers that work at a fraction of the space and weight. Skip it if you need scanning, since there is no flatbed or ADF here.

Buy it if you produce full-size architectural sheets, large posters, or signage panels regularly, and if you have a dedicated room and a workflow that justifies a dedicated plotter.

How to Choose a Wide Format Printer Without a Buyer Regret

Most disappointing purchases in this category come from answering the questions in the wrong order. Work through these in sequence and the right machine usually identifies itself before you spend anything.

Start With Print Width, Not Ink

Decide what you are physically printing before you look at anything else. If the output is a photograph, poster, or presentation sheet, you need a sheet-fed 13×19 desktop printer. If it is a drawing, plan, map, or banner, you need a roll-fed plotter at 24 inches or wider. Nothing else in this guide matters until that is settled.

A practical question that helps: how large is the largest thing you currently make, and how often? Someone printing two 13×19 posters a year has a completely different answer from someone printing two a day.

Pigment, Dye, or Dye Sublimation: Which Ink You Actually Need

Pigment ink is fade resistant and lightfast. It is the only sensible choice for art prints, canvas, blueprints, and anything you sell with a longevity expectation. It appears in the Epson WorkForce, the Canon imagePROGRAF, and both HP plotters.

Dye ink is brighter and glossier. It produces the vivid color most people associate with consumer photo printing and costs less per unit. It is the right call for promotional material that gets used and replaced, and the wrong call for a framed print you want to keep.

Dye sublimation, solvent, latex, and toner belong to production signage and textile work, mostly above 36 inches. They matter if you are running a print shop producing banners and fabric, and they are outside the scope of every machine in this roundup.

Running Cost: Cartridges Versus Tanks Over Three Years

Hardware is the small number. Ink is the recurring one. Epson claims roughly four cents per 4×6 print on the EcoTank model against about forty cents with traditional cartridges, and a set of replacement bottles is roughly equivalent to a hundred individual cartridges in volume.

Work out your own monthly volume before choosing. If you print a handful of sheets occasionally, cartridge machines are simpler and the higher per-print cost barely registers. If you print steadily, tank economics dominate the decision within the first year.

Add the third-party question into the same calculation. Canon and Brother cartridges are widely supported by refill and third-party suppliers, while Epson and HP restrict some platforms to genuine cartridges. Check that before you settle, and note that our related receipt printer guide covers the same cartridge-versus-refill math at a much smaller scale.

Resolution and Color Accuracy for Plans Versus Photographs

For plans, look at line quality and text legibility first. 2400 x 1200 dpi with pigment black is the working standard, and crisp annotation matters more than pixel count. Auto-nesting software adds real value if you print multiple drawings per sheet.

For photographs, look at ink count and gamut instead. Six, eight, or nine inks smooth the transitions where the eye notices banding most, and a Chroma Optimizer clear layer broadens the achievable range and improves gloss uniformity.

Media Handling: Sheets, Rolls, and Weight Limits

Sheet-fed machines take cut paper and are limited by tray capacity and sheet weight. Roll-fed plotters handle continuous media and cut it automatically, but they need floor space and a loading routine.

Check weight limits before you commit to heavy art boards or mounted stock. Also check whether the media bin and sheet feeder are included or optional, because on some plotters they are the expensive part of the setup.

Connectivity and Workflow Software

Ethernet matters more than most buyers assume. A wide format machine on a hardwired gigabit connection submits large jobs far more reliably over Wi-Fi, especially in a studio with thick walls. Wi-Fi Direct and mobile printing are conveniences rather than requirements.

On the software side, HP Click handles PDF error checking and auto-nesting on the plotters in this roundup. That combination prevents failed multi-page jobs and reduces paper waste on plot sets, and it is worth more than it sounds on a busy week.

Reliability, Known Problems, and a Maintenance Routine That Works

The most searched question in this category is which printer has the least amount of problems, and the honest answer is that no machine is problem-free. What differs is which failure mode you get and how much attention it demands.

Clogged print heads are the most common issue in the entire category, and they cluster around infrequent use. Ink sitting in a head for weeks can thicken and block nozzles, and the symptom is banding or missing streaks on the first print. This is a usage pattern problem more than a hardware problem, and it is fixable.

Paper jams are the second most common. They concentrate in two places: the rear manual feed on sheet-fed machines when thicker stock is loaded without care, and roll loading on plotters during the first few jobs before the routine settles. Both improve dramatically with practice and with fanning sheets before loading.

Media-type detection errors show up most often on canvas and specialty rolls, where an incorrect profile produces a color shift rather than a visible defect. Declaring the media type manually instead of relying on automatic detection avoids most of this.

Fine art inks used for signage is a genuine mismatch that buyers regret: a pigment print outdoors in sun will fade far faster than expected. If your work lives in a window or a frame, match the ink to the environment rather than to the machine you happen to own.

Here is the maintenance routine owner communities converge on, and it takes about ten minutes a month:

• Print a test page or nozzle check every month if the machine sits unused, so a clog is caught early rather than mid-job.
• Run the manufacturer’s cleaning cycle only when a nozzle check shows a problem. Constant cleaning cycles waste ink and can never fully fix a dried head.
• Keep ink cartridges sealed and stored at room temperature, away from direct light, before installation.
• Feed thicker stock through the manual tray with a properly aligned guide, and fan standard paper before loading.
• Set the media type manually on canvas, banner, and specialty rolls rather than trusting automatic detection.
• Keep the print path clear and run a full-width purge through the nozzles when the machine has been idle for weeks.

None of this is exotic. The machines in this roundup are capable hardware, and the ones that disappoint owners are usually the ones that sat unused for months and then were expected to perform like a daily workhorse.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where to Start With Your Wide Format Purchase

If you want one recommendation, take the Canon Pixma iX6820. Five ink tanks, a 13×19 borderless ceiling, a flatbed scanner, and the smallest footprint in this roundup make it the machine that serves the widest range of buyers without a single weak point.

If you print regularly and ink cost drives your decision, the Epson EcoTank ET-8550 is the smarter long-term purchase. If you need one device to also scan, copy, and fax at 13×19, the Epson WorkForce WF-7710 covers that and only that.

If your output is technical, stop looking at photo printers entirely. The HP DesignJet T210 handles 24 inch CAD plots, and the T630 handles full 36 inch architectural sheets with the feeder and stand already in the box. For archival art, the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310 is the only machine here built around nine pigment inks.

Whatever you choose, buy for the size of the work and the volume you actually print. Those two answers will point at one of these nine within a minute, and they will also tell you which specs you can safely ignore. This roundup of the best wide format printers was tested and updated for 2026, and we revisit it as new models land.