Decorating the food we serve is a significant aspect of our food preparation. A little over a decade ago, the world did not have these fancy technologies that make food design easy and convenient. Then came edible printers. These printers significantly reduce the time we spend in decorating our food, especially cakes, pastries, and other baked goods.
Edible printers allow us to print the designs we want into our food seamlessly and efficiently. Edible printers opened up a lot of possibilities when it came to food design. You can print 3D images into your cakes in a matter of minutes using edible inks and paper. It goes without saying that edible printers, most of the time, produce outputs that reflect the taste of the food.
There’s a wide array of edible printers out there in the market, and choosing an edible printer for you can be a bit of a challenge, but you don’t have to worry because we’ve listed the best edible printers available for you to choose from.
Table of Contents
Best Edible Printer On The 2024 Market
HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One Portable Printer
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The HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One Portable Printer is a legitimate edible printer. This all-in-one portable printer has Bluetooth Smart Technology and Wi-Fi Direct, which doesn’t require a network and wireless capability, which can be perfect for mobile and on-the-go users. The sleek, compact design of this edible printer allows for easy storage. It has flexible power options that let you charge in the car, office, and of course, at home. That is just pure convenience. Furthermore, its long-lasting battery ensures that you will not be charging the printer multiple times a day.
This edible printer uses HP’s Thermal Inkjet printing technology and is compatible with a great number of operating systems, so there’s no need to worry even if you’re using a different operating system as it is undoubtedly supported by this printer. It has a duty cycle of up to five hundred pages, which means you can print up to five hundred edible photos using a standard edible ink cartridge. This edible printer also has duplex printing, which means you can print on both sides of the paper at once. Its power-saving capability makes sure that it will not weigh heavy on your electricity bill.
The HP OfficeJet 250 edible printer is best for people who regularly decorate their food with edible printed designs.
Pros
- Wireless Capability
- Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capable
- A sleek, compact design allows for easy storage
- Duplex printing lets you print on both sides of the paper at once
- Low power consumption.
Cons
- Some customers find it bulky
- Some users find that USB connectivity can be challenging at times.
CANON PIXMA iX6820 Wireless Business Printer
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The Canon Pixma iX6820 Wireless Business Printer is a highly-functional edible printer ideal for food design business owners. This edible printer prints around 10.4 colored images per minute, a speedy turnaround time that is very helpful for fast-paced edible printing businesses.
This edible printer uses FINE print head technology that can be combined with select edible papers to produce sharp, beautiful, edible designs that are sure to captivate your customers. The Auto Power-On feature automatically powers up the edible printer whenever you send a photo or document to be printed, which can be very convenient as you don’t have to come to the printer and manually turn the power on. The Quiet-Mode feature allows you to print anytime without worrying about disturbing your customers.
The Canon Pixma iX6820 has AirPrint functionality which exclusively supports apple products, and Google Cloud Print functionality which lets you print from any Cloud-Print-Aware application on any device in the network cloud to any printer. That means you can print from anywhere as long as you have internet.
The Canon Pixma iX6820 edible printer is recommended for food design printing business owners that want a highly-functional, top-of-the-line edible printer.
Pros
- 10.4 images per minute (IPM) print speed allows for fast-paced food design printing
- FINE print head technology produces sharp and beautiful images
- Auto-Power On feature automatically powers up the printer whenever you want to print
- The quiet-mode feature ensures worry-free, quiet printing
- AirPrint and Google Cloud Print functionalities.
Cons
- Some users find the AirPrint functionality to be unusable
- Some customers aren’t satisfied with the printer’s life.
Brother Inkjet Printer MFC-J985DW
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The Brother Inkjet Printer MFC-J985DW comes with “InkVestment” cartridges which can be a cost-effective solution for budget edible printing. Its business-capable features include duplex printing, a feature that allows you to print on both sides of the paper at once; up to 20-sheet automatic document feeder, which ensures continuous, uninterrupted printing to maximize your edible printing outputs; and wireless and mobile connectivity suitable for those who print out of their smartphones.
This edible printer has a 2.7-inch touchscreen display for easy feature navigation and a compact design that fits most spaces. It also has Cloud Service support that will let you print from cloud storage such as Google Drive, OneNote, OneDrive, and Dropbox.
The Brother Inkjet Printer MFC-J985DW also has an Ink Save Mode feature, which allows you to save a considerable amount of edible ink, which is very convenient, especially if you’re in the food design printing business. This edible printer works well with most known edible ink and paper brands and supports most operating systems.
Pros
- “InkVestment” cartridge lets you save a considerable amount of edible ink
- Duplex printing
- Up to 20-sheet ADF allows for uninterrupted printing
- Wireless connectivity suitable for mobile users
- Cloud Service support lets you print from known cloud storage.
Cons
- Some customers find the 2.7-inch display to be rather small
- Some users find that paper jams often occur with this edible printer.
Epson Expression ET-2650 EcoTank All-in-One Printer
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The Epson Expression ET-2650 EcoTank All-in-One Printer offers cartridge-free printing with easy-to-fill, supersized ink tanks compatible with edible printing. The supersized ink tank can store vast amounts of edible ink equivalent to about twenty cartridges which is absolutely convenient for everybody as it lessens refill instances.
This edible printer has a wireless connectivity feature fit for mobile users and a 1.44-inch display, and a built-in card slot that allows you to print your designs using removable SD cards. It also uses MicroPiezo Inkjet Technology which produces crisp, superior-quality images.
The Epson Expression ET-2650 EcoTank All-in-One Printer is suitable for both at-home food design hobbyists and food design business owners. This edible printer supports most operating systems but works best with Windows and Mac. It is also compatible with a lot of known edible ink and paper brands.
Pros
- Cartridge-free printing with easy-to-fill, supersized ink tanks compatible with edible printing
- Supersized ink tank stores edible ink equivalent to about twenty cartridges
- Wireless connectivity and built-in card slot for remote access and printing
- MicroPiezo Inkjet Technology produces crisp, superior-quality images
- Supports most operating systems.
Cons
- Some users find that the printer cannot handle heavy paper
- Some find its printing speed to be rather slow.
Lexmark Color Single-Function Laser Printer
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The Lexmark Color Single-Function Laser Printer is a robust, efficient printer that yields great photo printing results. Some people might get turned off when reading the term “Single-Function” but do not let that term fool you. The term “Single-Function” only means that this printer is solely made for printing and doesn’t have any other functionalities such as scanning and fax, like what the other printers in this list have but it doesn’t make this edible printer the least among this list of edible printers.
This printer’s PANTONE calibration feature makes it a superb edible printer, especially for printing 3D images. It also has built-in Wi-Fi, which lets you connect with AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Mopria on any network with existing Wi-Fi access. Furthermore, this printer uses the Lexmark Mobile Print technology, which is really convenient for mobile users.
The Lexmark Color Single-Function Laser Printer has energy management features that significantly reduce power consumption regardless of whether the device is active or in sleep mode. This printer is made of a steel frame, a long-life imaging system with a sturdy paper feeding system that dependably handles diverse media types.
Pros
- PANTONE calibration feature suitable for printing 3D images
- Excellent energy management features which significantly reduce power consumption
- Wireless connectivity lets you connect with AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Mopria
- Lexmark Mobile Print technology convenient for mobile users
- The sturdy printer build ensures long printer life.
Cons
- Some customers have had issues with wireless connectivity
- Some customers find the printer to consume too much ink.
Factors to Consider When Choosing an Edible Printer
Here’s what you should consider when choosing an edible printer that will work best for you:
Usage
This should be your number one consideration when it comes to choosing your edible printer. How are you going to use it, and what are you going to use it for? Do you have a food design printing business, or do you decorate food at home to please your family?
If you have a food design printing business, you want to choose a heavy-duty, fast-printing edible printer that can keep up with your business printing demands. If you are, however, a food design enthusiast that prints edible designs as a hobby, a mid-range edible printer will surely get the job done for you.
Edible Ink
Edible printers use particular edible inks that match their specifications. You want to make sure that you use inks that are safe for public consumption. You don’t want to come across fake edible inks that contain harmful toxins which can have very adverse effects on the body. It’s imperative that you find high-quality edible ink that will suit your edible printer.
Another thing with edible inks is their viscosity. Sometimes, edible printers can be very sensitive about this, so you want to make sure that the viscosity of your edible ink exactly matches the edible printer’s specification. Avoid buying inks from unknown brands, as they may not match your printer’s viscosity requirement.
Edible Cartridges
There are two types of edible cartridges: refillable and non-refillable. Non-refillable cartridges have microchips on the side which connect with the printer and inform you how many printing jobs remain. Once these microchips are activated and the cartridges run out, they cannot be used anymore.
Refillable cartridges can be used again after they’ve run out. Most manufacturers recommend refilling this type of cartridge more than three times. In addition to this, make sure that you buy a brand-new cartridge and not a recycled one. Indelible inks, once inserted into cartridges, can no longer be considered safe for consumption.
It’s probably okay if you’re reusing a used cartridge at home where you actually know how you’ve used it, but getting a used cartridge from somewhere else is not advisable.
Printing Speed
A good factor to consider when it comes to choosing an edible printer is its photo printing speed. Purchasing a printer that is compatible with most edible inks and papers can be a good indication that edible printer prints at considerable speed and will allow you to print more daily.
This is a good thing, especially for food design business owners that want to increase their daily outputs. You should consider how many edible printing jobs you need to fulfill in a given day. If you want to maximize your production, you might want to consider how well your printing tray feeds photo papers.
Edible printers do not use standard papers, so you should not be worried about its printing speed when using standard papers, but instead, it printing speed when printing using edible photo papers.
Need more upgrades in the kitchen? We also compared Gotham steel and Red Copper cookware, which you can check out!
Conclusion
There are several important factors to consider in choosing the best edible printer for your printing needs. Edible printers add a particular value to our food, and it is apparently a must-have device for food design enthusiasts and business owners alike.
The CANON PIXMA iX6820 Wireless Business Printer is my personal favorite and is the winner in this list for its excellent, user-friendly features and the sheer value it provides for everybody’s money. The Brother Inkjet Printer MFC-J985DW comes in a close second because of its “InkVestment” Ink Saving Mode feature and budget-friendly price.
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These are the best edible printers out there in the market, so make sure to choose based on the factors listed and based on your printing preferences as well. If you have any feedback or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.