Best Pigment Ink Printer For Your Home Office – 2022
Pigment ink printers are the real deal when it comes to producing professional-grade, fade-free, and long-lasting photo prints. Whether you’re a pro photographer or artist, getting the best pigment ink printer should be more of a necessity than an option.
The solid, opaque particles of pigment ink used in these printers help bring your art or photograph live on paper. You can’t even compare long-lasting pigment ink prints to dye prints which tend to fade fast—they do it even faster if exposed to elements such as UV rays.
Countless printer manufacturers are already producing pigment ink printers and this has made the market flooded—making it challenging to find the perfect model for your unique needs.
To give you an idea of what a good-quality pigment ink printer is capable of, we have selected some of the best performing printers on the market and discussed each of them in detail below.
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Best pigment ink printer:
1. HP ENVY 5055 Photo Printer
HP is a big name in the printing world and their HP Envy 5055 model makes it to our list of the top-rated pigment ink printers you can get today. This printer is a major upgrade to HP Envy 5055 and comes equipped with new features like Bluetooth, smart and improved Wifi connectivity, and faster printing speeds.
Featuring a pocket-friendly price, this printer is ideal for budget-minded users or those looking for a good printer for your home office.
Despite the low cost, this printer is incredibly versatile and lets you copy, scan, and pigment print borderless and high-quality photos or documents with crisp, sharp text. It accommodates a wide range of paper sizes including letter, legal, 4x6", 5x7", 8x10", and the No.10 envelopes.
This printer offers you optional HP Instant Ink for automatic ink delivery that keeps you well supplied and ensures you never run out of ink. The charges for this service are on the low side, so it’s a good way to save some bucks.
The printer connects to your computer via built-in WiFi concavity for wireless printing or via a USB 2.0 port for standard printing. It also supports mobile printing that lets you easily send documents to be printed from your mobile phone.
With the 2.2-inch touchscreen LCD display, you can easily adjust your preferred print settings as well as monitor the device activity.
Don’t forget that this unit comes with a solid construction that will see it through years of quality photo printing. It has an overall sleek appearance and its compact design makes it highly portable. You can easily carry it from one point to another. It will also save a lot of space in your home or office worktop.
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2. Canon Pixma iX6820 Business Printer
Canon PIXMA iX6820 also appears on our list as one of the most popular pigment ink printers on the market today. This model is ideal for office use. It can handle different paper sizes—from 4 x16-inch mailers to 11 x 17-inch spreadsheets, and even the oversized 13 x 19-inch presentation charts—making it the perfect unit for all your office printing needs.
The printer is designed to deliver excellent printing quality. It comes optimized with 9600 x 2400 maximum color dpi which grants you breathtaking printing detail.
You’ll appreciate that this printer uses a 5-tank system made up of 5 individual ink tanks. This means you’ll get an amazing color for your prints. It also allows you to replace any individual colors that have run out.
Most people dread the hassle of creating a document for printing from scratch. Canon understands this hassle too well and they send this printer to you with exclusive, downloadable solution templates to give you a quick start.
With the Ethernet port and built-in Wifi connectivity, you’ll enjoy a wide range of wireless printing and networking options. Other great features of this printer include auto power on and off for efficient power management.
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3. HP OfficeJet Pro 8025 Printer
So you want to upgrade your current printer to a better-performing unit? If yes, why not give HP OfficeJet Pro 8025 printer a try? This unit offers you faster printing (at 20 pages per minute) and includes fax, fast color copy, and scan functions—all in a smaller package than most models out there.
The print quality you get with this small printer is excellent. What’s more the printer operates quietly, so it’s a good choice for those who prefer a quiet office working environment.
Another cool thing you’ll enjoy is being able to connect your smartphone to this device and print your documents directly from your smartphone and other handheld devices.
The Scan function offers you scanned photos that look better than your original photos. So, if you have been looking for a great scanner to convert your old photos into digital format, this HP 8025 printer is ready to do it for you. Even better, the scanner is pretty fast and will scan those 4x6 photos in a matter of a second and a half!
Copying and faxing documents also work great!
Setting up this printer is a breeze and you don’t any special skills to get it up and printing. Plug it in, turn it on, install your pigment ink, load the paper, and then proceed to the printer software download page.
With this pigment print device, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up for HP instant program that delivers ink to your doorstep automatically—saving you time and money!
Unlike your current outdated printer which could be offering limited connectivity options, this HP unit will offer you more options including Bluetooth, WiFi, and Ethernet connection.
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4. Brother MFC-J805DW XL Extended Print Inkjet Printer
Brother MFC-J805DW is another great pigment-based inkjet printer that you can get for your home or personal use. It comes equipped with Brother’s re-engineered ink cartridges which hold more ink and work with an internal storage tank to deliver pages and pages of uninterrupted printing.
When you purchase this printer, you’ll receive up to 2 years (roughly 3000 pages per month printing) of ink which enables you to experience a true uninterrupted printing experience while saving a lot of money on inks.
Setting up this printer is incredibly easy for you. Operating it is also a breeze as it comes with on-screen instruction to guide through. You can also easily tilt the entire control panel with LCD display upward for optimal viewing. This means you won’t be bending and trying to reach each step on your printer display.
The label inside the paper tray shows the direction of the paper and print direction, further making the unit easy for you to operate. You can even remove the paper tray completely to make adjustments for smaller paper sizes.
The quality of the print is great for your personal printing needs. Besides printing, this printer also offers you copying, fax, and scanning functions. These extra functions work quite well.
Brother MFC-J805DW offers you versatile connectivity options with built-in wireless or USB connection. It supports mobile printing which is a convenient way to directly print or scan directly from your smartphone or tablet. The printer can handle various printing sizes with its 150 sheet capacity input tray that adjusts to accommodate the small letter to the legal sized paper.
The Brother printer comes in a pretty compact desktop print that makes it easily fits in nearly any workspace. The printer presents you with a 1.8" color display which lets you easily navigate to various printer features.
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5. HP OfficeJet Pro 9015 Printer
HP OfficeJet Pro 9015 Printer is an all-in-one printer offering you printing, copying, scanning, and faxing—all in one compact device. It comes with a 250-sheet capacity input tray that makes it suitable for handling large jobs.
The HP 9015 printer boasts fast performance, with the ability to print up to 32 pages per minute. This further makes it suitable for completing a large job in the shortest time possible.
Quality of print is good as the printer comes optimized with a high print resolution of up to 4800 x 1200 dpi. The printer supports borderless printing for media measuring up to 8.5 x 11". For non-borderless printing, it supports media up to 8.5 x 14".
The scanning function boasts1200 dpi CSI scanner which translates to excellent quality scan results.
As with all the other pigmented ink printers we have seen in this list, this HP unit also offers you a myriad of connectivity options. These include Wifi with WiFi direct feature, Ethernet, USB 2.0, and mobile printing options. WIFI direct, in particular, enables you to connect your printer to mobile devices for immediate printing.
You’ll be accessing all the settings and modes of this printer via the 2.65-inch color CGD (color graphic display) touchscreen display.
Security is top-notch with this printer, thanks to its built-in firewall that controls unwanted traffic, secure WiFi direction connections, and secure boot with self-healing WiFi. The printer even lets you lock and password secure your control panel and an embedded web server.
When you purchase this printer, you’ll receive up to 6 months of FREE ink supply. You just need to select HP Plus at the product setup to activate the benefits and you’ll be receiving a new ink supply automatically whenever you run low.
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6. Epson EcoTank ET-4760 Printer
Add this Epson to your list of top pigment ink printers for home or small office use. The 4-in-1 unit presents you with multiple functions like copying, scanning, faxing, and printing in one place—helping you save space and money.
One of the great things about this printer is that it is 100% Cartridge-free. So how does it work without a cartridge? It comes armed with large ink reservoirs which enable it to hold more ink and make refills more cost-saving for you.
The printer itself comes with enough ink supply to let you print up to 6000 color prints or up to 7500 black prints. The printing quality is outstanding for this printer, thanks to its 4 color ink set and an excellent print resolution of up to 4800 x 1200 dpi. This is the printer to let you create those vivid, sharp, and long-lasting images.
If you love faster devices, you’ll be pleased to discover that this unit features automatic 2 sided printing and can print as many as 15 pages per minute (black) and up to 8 ppm (color).
The unit lets you enjoy highly convenient mobile and voice-activated printing functions for a smooth, hassle-free printing experience.
You’ll need this printer if you often handle large printing jobs in your small office. This is because it features a large input tray with a capacity of 250 sheets and a 30-sheet automatic document feeder. It can print documents up to 8.5 x 14" and features a long document mode to support production of media up to 8.5 x 47.2 to meet all your printing needs.
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7. HP OfficeJet Pro 6978 Printer
For a long-term home use pigment inkjet printer at a pocket-friendly price, you can’t go wrong with this HP Envy 5660 photo printer. The model is sure to boost your office productivity with its fast printing scanning, copying, and faxing functions.
Compact as it looks, this printer is a real workhorse with the ability to print up to 20 pages per minute in black and up to 11 ppm in color. Moreover, it features a draft mode that lets you increase the printing speed up to 30ppm if you want your job done even faster.
it delivers a resolution of 600 x 1200 dpi which is quite acceptable for the price and offers you sharp photos and docs.
You’ll enjoy using the automatic 2-sided printing for printing, scanning, and copying. The 35-sheet auto document feeder further speeds up the printing process. And the ability to print documents as large as 8.4 x 14" means high versatility for your printing needs. The scanning unit, too, can scan docs up to 8.5 x 11.7" which lets you hassle-freely scan all your old photos without any problems.
HP equips this printer with a large 2.5-inch touchscreen color CGD display to provide you with an intuitive way to view your device status and adjust the settings. The USB port on the front part lets you print/scan docs directly to a portable drive. The unit also comes with wireless and Ethernet connectivity options.
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8. Epson EcoTank ET-3760 Cartridge-Free Printer
This Epson ET-3760 printer is ideal for small office or home use. It offers you an all-in-one scanning, copying, and printing, design.
It comes equipped with an 8.5 x 11.7" flatbed scanner that lets you scan photos and documents up to 8.5 x 14" with ADF. The scanning resolution is 2400 which translates to impressive scan results.
This Epson comes equipped with a large ink reservoir in the place of cartridges. This enables it to hold more ink and reduce the refilling costs. It also comes with enough ink to last up to 6000 color prints and 7500 black prints.
The printing quality for this printer is excellent, with its 4-color ink and a great resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi. While this isn’t the best resolution out there, it will be more than enough for creating sharp and vivid photos for family use and is ideal for the price range.
If you’re looking for faster pigment ink printers, you’ll also be impressed with this printer’s ability to print 2 sides of a document automatically in addition to its output print speeds of up to 15 ppm (papers per minute) for black prints and 8ppm for color printing.
The printer works with documents of varying sizes up to 8.5 x 14". It comes with a long document mode which lets you easily adjust it to accommodate media of up to 8.5 x 47.2".
You can easily adjust and monitor the printer settings on the 2.4" touchscreen.
Various connectivity options you’ll get with this unit include Ethernet, Wifi connectivity, and USB 2.0 options. Mobile printing is also supported and lets you easily print docs and photos directly from your smartphone. You also have the chance to print your projects and docs using the voice-activated feature.
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9. HP Envy 5660 Photo Printer
We’re edging closer to the end of our list of top pigment ink printers. This HP Envy 5660 photo printer is designed to offer you multiple functions—including printing, scanning, and copying functions.
Suitable for home use, this printer moves a step ahead of the standard inkjet models by letting you print through the cloud and connect directly to and print from your smartphone or tablet. And yes, this printer lets you directly print content from websites without necessarily using your computer.
Though a bit slower and offering average quality, this printer will still meet your needs if the quality seems okay for you.
The printer is incredibly easy to set up and will offer you an easy guide on its screen on how to set it up and start using it. The large 2.5" touchscreen works beautifully and makes this unit easy for you to monitor your printer status as well as adjust the settings for printing, scanning, or copying.
Unfortunately, this printer doesn’t come with an auto document feeder. It also lacks fax and Ethernet features. The speed is also on the lower side, so you would want to avoid using this printer for bulk printing work. In other words, these shortcomings limit it for personal or home office use.
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10. Epson Expression Photo HD XP-15000 Wide-Format Printer
If you’re on the market for the best pigment ink printer for wide-format printing, you’ll find this Epson XP-15000 a great option. Using the pigment ink, this unit will provide you with high definition (HD), crisp, and vibrant photo prints in a wide format of over A3 sizes.
You’ll have an easy time setting up this printer, thanks to its on-screen presented instructions on a large 2.4-inch LCD color display. The keys on the control panel give you easy and quick access to the menu and other printer functions. The control panel also offers you a tilting mechanism to let you easily read the screen from any direction.
The printer offers high-speed printing results and will take approx. 3 minutes only to produce a high-quality A4 print. While this isn’t the fastest printer speed available, it is decent for a printer in this price range.
The printer boasts a bunch of connectivity options including hi-speed USB ports to let you directly connect it to a computer or receive prints. Additionally, it has a USB host port that lets you easily print from removable storage devices such as hard disks and pen drives. Not to forget, it is WiFi-enabled and supports WiFi direct function.
We liked that Epson designed this printer with a hardened all-black plastic body to enable it to withstand regular use and serve you for long. It has an overall compact design, so it doesn’t take up much space on your desktop.
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What Makes The Right Pigment Ink Printer?
In this part, we have listed key factors to consider when buying a pigment inkjet printer. These will help you narrow down your choices and easily choose the perfect unit for your needs.
Print quality
One of the top factors to consider when looking for a pigment ink printer is the resolution of its prints. Different units come with varying qualities, so it’s always a good idea to choose one that offers you the highest quality but falls within your budget range. Go for high color resolutions if you plan to do more photo/color printing. Or go for monochrome resolution if you mostly do monochrome prints.
Printing speed
Some pigment printers can handle your job at faster speeds and we suggest that you go for such units if you usually find yourself with heavy volumes of work. If you print occasionally, however, printing speed might not be a major consideration for you.
Connectivity options
The most popular options in pigmented ink printers include WIF with WiFi Direct, Ethernet, high-speed USB, USB host, and NFC. The wireless connectivity options are highly convenient features to have in your printer, especially for office use or for multiple users. A printer that supports a wide range of devices is also great as it lets you utilize all your devices.
Printing versatility
If you usually find yourself working with documents of varying sizes and materials, consider going for a unit that can support a wide range of paper sizes and materials. For high-volume printing needs, you should also go for a unit with auto-duplexing to help save time and resources.
FAQ
Q: Can any printer use pigment ink?
You should only use pigment ink in printers designed to support pigment ink. Using the ink on dye-based inkjet printers risks clogging the inkjets. Always check the compatibility of any inkjet before you use it with pigment ink.
Q: Is pigment or dye ink better?
Pigment print is better than dye print because it’s smudge-free, fade-free, water-resistant, and can last for years and years. The only part where the dye ink beats pigment inks is that it’s cheaper.
Q: Can I use pigment ink on fabric?
You can print pigment ink to print art or graphic on a fabric. But keep in mind that you might need to pre-treat the material you plan to print on to improved color-fastness and increase wash resistance.
Q: Can I mix pigment and dye ink?
Mixing pigment and dye ink is not advisable because it can end up ruining your device’s print head or ink supply system.
Q. Is Canon Pixma ink dye or pigment?
Canon ink cartridges work in sets of both pigment and dye-based inks, which is why most Canon printers take two black cartridges. For example the Canon PGI-450XL high yield black ink cartridge is pigment-based, while the Canon CLI-451XL high yield black ink cartridge is dye-based.
Q. Is pigment ink good for document printing?
There are several reasons why pigment ink is a good choice for document printing. One factor that makes this type of ink a great option for printing is that it can be used with a wide variety of printers ranging from inkjet to laser printers. In addition, the beauty of this type of ink is that it will print images and text with quality and vibrancy on almost any type of paper without smearing or bleeding through.
Q. Is pigment ink permanent?
Inkjet printer ink is designed to be a long-lasting tool for printing, but does it last forever? The answer is no. Most pigments will fade, lose their color, or rub off of paper over time. But, it doesn't happen fast, it can last for decades!
Pigment inks appear to be 100% permanent when printing on fabric with no post treatment.
Q. Which is better pigment or dye ink?
It's hard to decide which is better, pigment ink or dye ink. While both are designed for printing on paper, they have distinct differences that make them perfect for different purposes. Pigment prints are more long-lasting and water-resistant, while dye prints are finer-looking and easier to dry. This makes pigment prints ideal for large quantities of text, whereas dye prints can be used to print images with greater detail.
Pigment inks are much more expensive than dye inks. Pigments are “elastic” and stick to paper better, while dye inks can be removed when they come in contact with water. The downside of pigment inks is that because the pigments are spread out on the surface of the paper, small scratches or dirt can cause light to scatter and make prints look grainy.
But in my honest opinion, pigments are better than dyes because they have a much wider color gamut. Pigments are also denser and can create more intense colors. Pigment inks also dry faster which results in less smudging during drying time. Dye based ink is better for line work because it is much finer allowing for much sharper edges, much better detail, and smoother gradations of color.
Final Verdict
That’s all about the best pigment ink printer on the market today. As we have mentioned earlier, pigment printers are the in-thing for professional artists and photographers who desired to create top-quality prints with high vibrancy, fade-free, and can last for decades. All the printers we have listed in this guide will offer you exceptional printing results. They come in varying budgets to suit different users. Whether you’re looking for the best printer for home/personal use, home office, or professional use, you’ll surely find a unit that works for you.
