Indeed, according to various reports online as flagged up by Apple Insider, the macOS Sonoma 14.4 update is breaking printers in some cases. In other cases, there appears to be a more limited impact, in that the printer still works, but selecting page sizes doesn’t.
It seems Sonoma 14.4 is either stripping out, or messing up, printer drivers in Apple’s operating system, rendering the devices non-functional, at least for the time being in many of these reported cases.
There are users complaining about printer functionality going very wonky on Reddit and Apple’s support forums – however, there does appear to be a solution.
Namely, as stated in the above Apple post, you need to head to System Settings, and ‘Privacy & Security’ and then ‘Full Disk Access’ to grant full disk access to ‘com.microsoft.dlp’ – and that might sort the issue.
This isn’t guaranteed, mind, but there are a number of users giving the thumbs-up and saying this move did get their printer (or printers) working in macOS again.
Analysis: A cocktail of possible causes?
Seemingly the issue pertains to Microsoft Defender (which is what the above disk access change relates to), and/or JAMF mobile device management software, and possibly some other factors. It’s difficult to know exactly what, but the most prominent commonality seems to be Defender.
The good news is that this doesn’t seem to be affecting too many macOS Sonoma 14.4 users, as while there are a number of reports, they aren’t too widespread. And they appear to relate to particular configurations, too, mainly in office scenarios.
Given that, hopefully your average user at home isn’t seeing this problem – or only in rare cases. In short, you’re probably pretty unlucky if you hit this snag outside of a business network setting – but it seems that there are isolated incidents of this occuring with individual Macs.
Some Windows 11 (and 10) users are experiencing buggy behavior relating to their printer, and Microsoft has just acknowledged this issue, elaborating on it further.
You may recall that we previously reported on the bug and how it’s causing the HP Smart app to be installed on PCs without an HP printer – or indeed with no printer at all in some instances, causing much scratching of heads.
Actually, the issue is somewhat broader than the stealthy and unwanted installation of this HP app (from the Microsoft Store), because in some cases, Windows 11 is renaming connected printers as a specific HP model (LaserJet M101-M106) and changing icons. Furthermore, if you click on such a renamed printer, you may get an error as follows: “No tasks are available for this page.”
So, this is a bit of a thorny one to unpick, but at least Microsoft has given us information on what’s happening here (as Windows Latest noticed).
The software giant advises: “Our investigations indicate that this issue is not caused by an HP update. In most cases, it should be possible to use the [affected] printer as expected, including queueing printing jobs, as well as other features such as copy, scan, or fax.
“Printers on the device will continue to use the expected drivers for printer operations. However, this issue might affect associations with other manufacturer-supplied printer apps used to extend basic printer capabilities. If this is the case, some or all of those extended functions might not work.”
To sum up, then, this glitch shouldn’t affect the general operation of any errantly-renamed printer, but it could interfere with functionality beyond the basics, perhaps.
Microsoft tells us a further investigation is underway and that it’ll update us when new info is available.
Analysis: Metadata mix-up?
What’s going on here? Well, the problem isn’t HP’s fault, so it must be Microsoft’s issue and therefore a wrinkle in Windows 11 (and Windows 10).
Windows Latest puts forward a theory that seems reasonable, namely that a recent Windows update used incorrect metadata relating to printers which is wrongly identifying a connected printer as a specific HP model (LaserJet M101-M106). After that has happened, Windows is then pulling the HP Smart app from the Microsoft Store automatically as it thinks an HP printer is now on the system.
What about the HP Smart app being installed on PCs where a printer isn’t even connected? As Windows Latest points out, on one of their computers, the Microsoft Print to PDF icon (present on all systems) was renamed as the aforementioned LaserJet, and hence the app was downloaded. Presumably this is happening to some other folks without a printer, too.
Note that this is all theorizing, and we need to wait for Microsoft to comment before we can be sure that’s what’s going on. The good news is that if this is the case, presumably the fix won’t be too difficult to implement.
If you don’t think you need one of the best home printers in your house, think again. Just like in the office, you need a printer in your household that can handle printing without a snag. After all, your time at home is just as important as your time at work.
The best home printers need to be more versatile than regular printers since the modern household needs to print out a wide range of documents. You'll often find you need to print out forms and documents in your day to day. Plus, a home printer that can do an excellent job printing your holiday snaps will save you from shelling out a lot of money. And, unlike big and bulky business printers, these are all-in-one printers that take up a small bit of space.
No matter what size of household and family demands you have, you’ll find the best home printer for you on this list. And, our price comparison tool makes sure you get the best deals on the one you pick as well.
Want your company or services to be added to this buyer’s guide? Please email your request to [email protected] with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line.
Whether you’re trying to run a more eco-friendly household or you’re just fed up with having to run out go get ink at the most inconvenient times – in the middle of printing your important documents, for example – you might love the Epson EcoTank ET-3760. This all-in-one printer is cartridge-free and comes with refillable bottles that contain up to two years’ worth of ink instead. It doesn’t have a massive paper capacity, only 150 sheets at a time, that’s hardly a deal-breaker, especially if you’re just mostly using it for personal stuff. It’s a bit expensive, but think of all the money you’ll save not having to run to the store and get replacement cartridges all the time.
Despite its compact size, the Brother INKvestment MFC-J995DW is a monster printer. It’s incredibly efficient, being able to print for up to a year without having to change its ink cartridge. And, it’s also a feature-rich and intuitive machine perfect for any home or small business office. You can print to it from just about any device wirelessly and, for mobile, you don’t even need a network to do it, thanks to its NFC (near field communication) technology that connects directly to the printer. While interfacing with its 2.7” color display, you can even print from and scan to the cloud.
Image Credit: Kyocera
This stout laser printer takes up relatively little space, given its high capacity for paper and toner. It means you can keep printing quickly and efficiently and with lower running costs than an equivalent inkjet. The display is rather fiddly, but in all other respects, this colour printer is easy to use and can be relied upon for immaculate mono and colour documents time after time.
Thanks to its 6-color individual ink system, the Canon Pixma TS9120 delivers exceptional photo quality results. The Canon also is very flexible with its connection capabilities, allowing for both bluetooth and wi-fi to print. And you’re not limited to any device. If you want to print from a tablet or smartphone or even from the cloud, the Canon can handle it. The printer also comes with some photo-specific features such as Photo Blue ink as part of the 6-color system and built-in creative filters to add something a little extra to your photos. Lastly, this printer comes in a choice of three different two-tone color options, giving you some cosmetic choices that you don’t really see with printers.
Image Credit: Ricoh
The Brother HLL2395DW is an ideal printer for any small business that needs to do a lot of printing and to do it quickly. So while you may be limited to black and white with this printer, you’ll be able to print up to 36 pages in a minute and could probably spit out a whole book before having to reload the printer, thanks to a 250 page capacity. Like other recent Brother printers, it has an intuitive display that allows you to print from and scan to cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive as well as its NFC “touch to connect” printing which allows you to access it from a mobile device without even needing a network connection. All-in-all, this is a pretty nifty printer.
Image Credit: Samsung
Samsung’s smart-looking laser printer is equipped with both Wi-Fi and NFC for easy mobile printing and is supported by a sophisticated mobile app. It’s an easy size to accommodate at home, but you can fit a useful amount of paper and toner inside, making it good for a monthly cycle of 40,000 pages. It won’t automatically print both sides of the page, but it does have a manual duplex mode.
Image Credit: TechRadar
When we tested it, this was the smallest laser printer around and likely to remain so. Being as small and inexpensive as an inkjet, yet with all the speed, economy and consistency of a laser, the LaserJet Pro M15w is in many ways the ideal home printer. It manages to hold one hundred sheets of paper and print on them at the respectable rate of 19ppm. There’s no duplex mode, sadly, and no display, but at this price it’s hard to argue.
This big Brother blurs the line between home and office printer by combining the fast print speed and high capacity of a laser machine with the superior photo finish of an inkjet. We would recommend it for both applications because although it is smaller than the laser equivalent MFC-L8690CDW, the inkjet MFC-J5945DW can handle A3 paper. There’s really nothing that this fully featured 4-in-1 can’t do and it carries out all tasks satisfactorily.
This humble all-in-one can scan and copy, but its real strength is in printing photos. Frustratingly, there’s no Ethernet port, nor a USB port for printing from a flash drive and it churns very slowly, but the results are surprisingly good for such an affordable inkjet. The supplied starter cartridges are rather light on ink, but if you replace them with high-capacity carts, then the running cost is competitive too.
Image Credit: Epson
Printers aimed at the home office that can handle A3 paper are not common, but ones that can automatically print on both sides of an A3 page are downright rare. The WorkForce WF-7210DTW is one such beast and it does so quite successfully. Print quality is impressive, be that monochrome text, or a glossy photo. The long list of features includes both Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity and the two paper trays can hold 500 sheets combined.
In this guide to the best photo printers, we look at the top devices for ensuring your photos look their best when you make physical copies of them.
No matter if you're a professional photographer, or merely a keen amateur that likes to take holiday photos, you'll want the very best photo printer your budget can stretch to – and we're here to help.
These days, there's a huge range of photo printers to choose from, so our best photo printers guide is here to make things more simple. We've picked the absolute cream of the crop when it comes to photo printers – from affordable desktop photo printers for everyday use, to expensive studio-quality professional photo printers and even wireless printers that can be used with a smartphone.
The best photo printers come in every shape and size, from budget photo printers that are easy to use, portable devices and even professional-level photo printers. Fortunately, this means that no matter what you’re looking for, you should be able to find the best photo printer for your needs.
Not only have we collected the very best photo printers for a huge range of budgets and use cases, our very own price comparison tool will also scour the internet for you and deliver the best prices.
The Canon Pixma Pro-100 is a monster of a photo printer. Its 8-ink dye system called ChromaLife 100+ provides excellent color accuracy and a wide range of colors for vivid prints that you would want to hang in a museum. Its large format allows you to print up to 13” x 19” prints and, with its two paper trays, you’re able to cover just about any paper stock you can think of, making this printer incredibly versatile.
Despite its sleek dimensions, this smooth 3-in-1 inkjet device is able to print on A3-size paper and uses not four, but six inkjet cartridges to achieve superior colour accuracy. It means your ink costs are rather high, but it’s worth it for the beautifully shaded results. The scanner is only A4-size, but it makes very high resolution scans and combined with the high print resolution, you can make near identical colour copies. There’s no fax and print speeds are slow, but in all other respects, the Epson Expression Photo XP-970 is hard to beat. For an idea of its performance you can read our review of the almost identical Epson Expression Photo XP-960.
This A2-size print-only device will suit any business that needs to turn out professional quality large format colour documents. It uses Epson’s nine-colour UltraChrome HD inkset for lifelike colour shading, which come in high capacity 80ml cartridges. Add the paper roll option and this machine can handle high print runs, or turn out impressive panoramic posters. Unsurprisingly, it takes up quite a bit of room and the cost is high, although considerably lower that outsourcing your prints.
Want to produce borderless photo-quality prints of up to 13” x 19”? Most printers just can’t do that. The Canon IP8720 however can. And with its 6-color ink and 9600 x 2400 max DPI, you get gorgeous and rich color reproduction as well as incredible detail. The Canon also allows for a plethora of ways to print including from mobile devices using their Canon Print App or from the cloud with AirPrint and Google Cloud Print.
It looks a little ungainly with the refillable ink tanks ruining the symmetry of this otherwise compact all-in-one, but it’s the refined EcoTank system that sets this model apart from the competition. If you can swallow the high price tag, your ongoing ink costs will be very low and Epson’s five-colour printing guarantees excellent image quality, especially with photos on photo paper.
This humble all-in-one can scan and copy, but its real strength is in printing photos. Frustratingly, there’s no Ethernet port, or USB port for printing from a flash drive and it churns very slowly, but the results are surprisingly good for such an affordable inkjet. The supplied starter cartridges are rather light on ink, but if you replace them with high-capacity carts, then the running cost is competitive too.
Sitting at the top of Canon’s Pixma range, the TS9150 looks like a premium product as you might expect, with a giant touchscreen display nestling up-front. It also boasts a high-resolution printing and scanning and Canon’s excellent six-ink system. By using black pigment ink alongside dye-based colours, photographic prints look especially realistic.
Canon’s most affordable printer to include ink tanks instead of cartridges is a modest 4-in-1 that could work well in a small office that needs to run out lots of colour documents. It prints very slowly and cannot print on both sides of the page, but in all other respects, it holds up well. The cartridge-less system is very economical and the box includes enough ink for 6,000 mono and 7,000 colour pages.
If you want results that look like they came from a photo lab, the Epson Surecolor P400 is hard to beat. Not only does it come with an 8-color ink set including both matte and photo black for a full spectrum of rich color, but it has cut-sheet and roll paper support that allows you to produce just about any project you can think of. The ink system includes 14 mL cartridges that can be individually replaced, making this a printer that won’t run out of ink in the middle of a project or waste precious ink.
HP’s oddly shaped all-in-one includes every feature from a fax facility, to an SD card slot, while giving you easy access to them via a colourful touchscreen interface. The coloured inks are combined in one cartridge and if you subscribe to HP’s Instant Ink service, it will be automatically replaced just before you run out. It feels a little flimsy, but photos prints in particular, look vibrant.
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