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There will always will be a need to printer out large documents, designers and architects for instance might need to printer our client’s drawings or a product designer could benefit from technical drawings or a complete Excel spreadsheet being larger – that’s when a 11×17 printer comes into consideration.
Our 2017 best buy for wide format printers includes both laser and inkjet, in fact we explore which model would be best suited to your own buying needs. Are you looking for the cheapest?
The printer that outputs the best quality or a model that has all the features you need including scanning which are called all in ones.
Whatever your requirements be sure to our read buyers guide so checkout our top ten 11×17 printers below:
1.Canon Pixma iX6820 Wireless Business Printer
The elegant iX6820 is an amazing wide format printer that has many uses and currently ranks as our number one 11×17 inkjet printer. Whether you are looking for rich printed documents or a device that is cheaper to run then look at this Canon inkjet printer.
Features:
Resolution: Stunning 9600 real dpi on color documents. If you can look at a test printout from a iX6820 – the vibrant colors make prints come to life, you can even use the free software to capture images from home movies and print out in stunning high definition.
Speed: You would think that a wide format printer would take longer to print out, not this Canon. With a print speed of up to 14.5 pages per minute you won’t have to wait long for your Excel document to be sitting on your clients or bosses desk.
Connectivity: Use your smartphone to connect via PIXMA Printing solutions (PPS) or if used in an office connect via Ethernet/high speed USB or through the wireless adapter. Connecting this device takes just a couple of minutes by following handy quick start guide.
Good for: Printing stunning documents or photos at high resolutions. There is also a copy function, borderless printing and free software included to help create stunning, customizable prints.
2. Brother MFCJ6920DW Wireless Multifunction Inkjet Printer
A great, low cost all in one 11×17 printer is the MFCJ6930DW. It has loads of functions including duplex (two-sided printing), print/copy/fax and an impressive 500 sheet tray storage capacity.
For a recommended office tabloid printer, this would be the best choice. It is sturdy, durable and has impressive print quality without compromising on speed.
Features:
Resolution: Multipurpose printing at 2400dpi – want to print out on thicker material such as card or envelopes without worrying that the printer might jam up? The MFCJ6930DW is built specifically for varied tasks and reliability where you can load up the printer and print out as many documents as you want with having to stand over of the machine.
Speed: This one of the fastest tabloid printers currently on the market. How does 35 pages per minute on color and 27 on black and white sound to you? Don’t forget too that this model also has two sided print functionality.
Connectivity: Connect via NFC on Bluetooth or use Wi-Fi to connect your laptop or PC to print out without a cable. You can also download Brother Cloud apps or you can use your Google account to print via the cloud direct from your smartphone.
Good for: Super-fast wide format docs. The print quality isn’t quite as sharp as the Canon iX6820 but for a good office all-rounder you cannot go wrong with the MFCJ6920DW from Brother.
3. HP OfficeJet 7612 Wide Format All-in-One Photo Printer
Hewlett Packard know how to make a good printer and this OfficeJet 7612 is a fine addition to the family. You can scan, copy and fax as well as print high resolution documents up to A3 or 11×17. The scanner is good because it outputs documents to editable text via the software that comes with the printer.
HP claim that printed copies are much cheaper (50%) than laser equivalents, the printer only has 4 refill tanks but is still able to produce high quality prints including flyers, posters and brochures.
Features
Resolution: Color printing outputs at up to 4800 x 1200 dpi and black docs print out at 600 x 1200 dpi. Try to use HP approved paper and inks for best results – the copier can copy in color and the print speed is impressive, it takes just 19 seconds to print out a full color page.
Speed: A black printed page takes 15 seconds and the color is stated above at just under 20 seconds from pushing a button on the LCD screen to a printed copy in the out tray. Copying speed for an 11×17 doc is up to 6 copies per minute making this device a good all-rounder.
Connectivity: Print from your mobile phone, via Wi-Fi network, Apple AirPrint or Google Cloud. You can also connect the OfficeJet 7612 to your wired local network via high speed USB / Ethernet cable. Although quite lightweight for a tabloid printer its best to find a suitable spot in the home or office on a quality printer cart.
Good for: General high quality wide format printing on varied media such as envelopes (feeder included) and thin card. There is also duplex functionality, a bundle of free software for Windows based PCs included and a one year’s standard warranty included.
4. Lexmark 24Z0000 C925de Color Laser Printer
The first 11×17 laser printer to make our best 5 and it should be stated that this printer is not recommended for home use. Not only is it expensive but can also interfere with radio communications, in other words this is a seriously powerful printer – designed for digital commercial printing, in color and on wide format.
It is a wonderful machine capable of printing high speed documents at amazing quality. How does 30 printed pages per minute sound to you?
Features
Resolution: You might think the 600 dpi is low, but it’s dpi on an LED laser printer. It oozes quality and being duplex can print two sides at once. Set this machine up and let it go – both black and color prints look amazingly sharp with zero “fuzziness” even up close.
You can also load up different media types through the multipurpose feeder – so if you have envelopes or transparencies to print, no problem with the.24z0000.
Speed: The 800MHZ processing power and 256MB memory gives you huge CPU power to print at high speeds for long periods of time. 30 PPM for both color and b&w is immense speed and you could even publish small runs of multi-page booklets or short story books with this machine.
Connectivity: This is a wired only product through Ethernet or fast Ethernet, there is also a USB connection for direct printing of files stored on a flash drive.
Good for: Large runs of high quality documents printed at tabloid size. The printer is not cheap, but if industrial scale digital printing is what you are after then the Lexmark 24Z0000 C925de Color Laser Printer is the best buy for 2017.
5. HP OfficeJet Pro 7740 Wireless Color Wide Format All-in-One Printer
If rising printing costs are a concern for you then check out the HP Pro 7740. This new wide format 11×17 printer claims that printing a sheet is up to half of a color laser equivalent. Being an all in one there is also copy, scan and fax but the print output of up to 1200 dpi scan resolution boosts this device in to our top 5.
The large LCD viewscreen has a clear and concise touchscreen menu and with a 250 sheet tray you have plenty of storage without having to fill up the paper tray all the time.
Features:
Resolution: Best print quality on multi-color is up to 4800×1200 (enhanced dpi) using HP thermal inkjet technology on specialist HP photo paper. For single black color printing you are getting to get 1200×1200 rendered dpi – both these produce perfectly crisp documents and life like photographic prints.
Speed: HP state that the first print takes just 10 seconds for color and 9 seconds for black and white. Sometimes these claims are not realistic so look to add a few more seconds for a standard document print out, even more for a full color photo print. Copy speed is also fast, 33cpm for a base black draft compared to 13 cpm for a full color copy – don’t forget there is two sided printing and a respectable 8/6 ipm scanning time (single color/full color).
Connectivity: You can setup this printer on your own home or office network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, for true mobile printing you can connect your smartphone to Apple Airprint or Google Cloud Print. Alternatively there is a free HP mobile app you can download which connects to the HP OfficeJet Pro 7740.
Good for: Printing good quality documents at an affordable price. Also there is a full list of extra functions that will come in handy such as scan to email, automatic 2 sided printing, quick mobile printing and borderless printing. To summarize this printer is a great all round device suitable for all office tasks including printing out 11×17 word docs, tabloid excel sheets and rich color photo prints.
Summing Up: We hope our top 5 list of both laser and inkjets give you a good indication on what to look for in an 11×17 printer. Cheapest is not always the best option, in fact with the cheaper printers you often pay more for ink toners and refills so the actual price per printed page is much more.