Printable vinyl is a permanent craft paper that we use for printing stickers and multiple signs for sticking on numerous media. Now the question arises here which is the best printer for printable vinyl? Without going to type, the simple is an inkjet printer rather than a laser printer.
Because printable vinyl is a special kind of paper, inkjet is ideal for handling multiple papers, whether expensive or cheap. On the other hand, only the costly laser printers are capable of handling printable vinyl. Another advantage of using inkjet is vinyl papers’ ink requirement. Vinyl does an ideal job with eco-solvent and solvent inks that you can easily use with inkjet to avoid faded colors and fast drying. While laser printers use laser beams for printing, and if you use them, you will be bound with fade printing.
After long research and experiments, I found a Canon printer for Cricut printable vinyl as with this printer. You don’t see a headache in shaping your final media.
Top List of Best Printers for Printable Vinyl
- Brother MFC-J805DW Color Inkjet Printer
- HP ENVY 5055 Wireless Photo Printer
- WorkForce WF-7710 Wide-format Color Inkjet Printer
- Canon Pixma Pro-100 Color Inkjet Printer
Brother MFC-J805DW Color Inkjet Printer
MFC-J805DW is an entry-level printer for sticker printing with print, scan, copy, and fax features. To upgrade your business, you can use an inkjet printer for printable vinyl at home, in offices, and shops. For its moderate volume, Brother is also a budget-friendly device.
This printer weighs only 19.8 pounds which is closely similar to the Canon TR8520, which is suitable to place in a small printing press. Brother MFC-J805DW has a manual-duplexer of 20 sheets which means you need to switch the paper after one side of scanning for the next side. But the printer supports cloud scanning.
You will find a button pad with a 1.8″ non-touchscreen for controlling the entire printer commands. Moreover, Brother will entertain you with 150 sheets of input tray with 5000 of monthly duty cycle. The Brother MFC-J805DW is a lean featured printer with multiple connectivity options but lacks Ethernet connectivity.
HP ENVY 5055 Wireless Photo Printer
If you are looking for an HP printer for printable vinyl, then you are at the right product as Envy 5055 is the best printer for stickers and art prints with high printing resolution. You can even use this AIO device for printing detailed photos.
The weight of the HP Envy is only 12 pounds which is smaller than Brother MFC-J805DW and similar to the Canon TS6320 wireless printers. Compared to X-7100’s color display, HP 5055 is a non-touch 2.2 inches monochrome display. In addition to printing yield, HP prints 1000 pages monthly while the XP-7100 prints 2000.
You will enjoy excellent connectivity options with HP, including Wifi, peer-to-peer connections, USB, and wireless Direct for printing. But both the Canon and Envy 5055 don’t support SD card scanning. On the other hand, Envy 7855 does support both SD cards and Bluetooth scanning and printing.
WorkForce WF-7710 Wide-format Color Inkjet Printer
WF-7710 is a perfect design for the Epson EcoTank printer for printable vinyl with its super tabloid (13×19″) printing. An ideal match with your business for high-resolution vinyl printing for shirts with wireless connectivity options.
As per the monthly duty cycle, Epson WF-7710 goes with 20000 pages which are 10000 pages less than Epson WF-7720 pages. With an automatic document, feeder WorkForce has 35 pages of auto-duplexing features. One more exciting thing is Epson 7710 holds the super-tabloid for ADF, but its brother WF-7720 does not do the same.
As for connectivity options, Epson EF-7710 is wealthy with Wifi-Direct, USB, and NFC. A more than better printing speed of 18 pages per minute for monochrome one-side printing and 10 pages per minute for color printing. You will handle its high printing cost if the printer is wealthy in many features.
Canon Pixma Pro-100 Color Inkjet Printer
Canon Pixma pro-100 is an inkjet AIO super tabloid wireless printer for printable vinyl. Not only in printable vinyl, but you can use it for your home printing and the best gift for photographers.
Canon with the dimension of 8.6 H, 27.2 W by 15.2 D is slightly larger than the Epson. Canon lacks an LCD for print preview like Epson R2000. There is a robust connectivity option, including Wifi, Ethernet, and USB. Canon Pixma has mainly two paper trays, one for photo printing papers and another for thicker media.
Canon’s printing speed is below the average, giving an output of 4×6″ images in 1 minute and 17 seconds. Whether the Epson will print faster just in 51 seconds. With a lower printing cost per page, Canon’s graphics output is a little subpar.
Can I print on vinyl with an inkjet printer? 200W
For vinyl paper, there is particular instruction that vinyl paper has two sides. One is glossy and smooth, that is, the back of the paper. While the other side is rough and matte, that is the front side. You are supposed to print on the matte side only.
Printing on vinyl is similar to regular paper, but for printing, you need to focus on some key points, which I will discuss below. Another essential thing is your printer setting according to the vinyl paper.
Necessary Requirements for Vinyl Printing
Step 1) Select the right printer for this job. Professionals find that an inkjet is the best option. We also checked laser printers for this purpose, some of which were also suitable.
Step 2) Second step is to find the best vinyl paper for printing. One is printable vinyl paper, and the other is printable sticker paper.
Step 3) Final step is cutting vinyl paper; for this job, most people use “Cricut” for proper cutting.
Advantages of Printing with InkJet Printer
I will discuss the advantages of using an inkjet printer for vinyl below.
- By using an inkjet, your ink cost will decrease on vinyl printing.
- Desktop inkjet’s ink does not take long to dry on vinyl.
- Vinyl printing with an inkjet printer is compatible for outdoor and indoor use.
- Comprehensive and complicated printing is easy with its white ink that makes a canvas on vinyl for transparent printing.
Problems You Can Face with Inkjet for Vinyl Printing
Every coin has two sides; similarly, every product has some advantages and some disadvantages. You should know both things.
- For the bulk of printing, this process will be slow.
- Maybe you don’t find a variety of colors for printing.
Can I print on vinyl with a Sublimation Printer 150W
Sublimation on vinyl is the best alternative to printable vinyl. It’s long-lasting and waterproof. It creates flawless and colorful designs and takes your project to the next level. There are two sublimation papers on which you can do vinyl printing: HTV and adhesive media. It’s not about waterproof only, but you can even sublimate on heat material like your mugs, shirts, and many more.
For successful sublimation on vinyl, you require a permanent non-removable vinyl. It can be any color, whether white or transparent. It can be glossy or matte does not matter.
Do I need Special Ink to print on vinyl?
Several ink types are available in the market, including magnetic ink, water-based ink, solvent, eco-solvent, and non-solvent. We will not discuss all of them as they all don’t for vinyl printing. We will discuss only our concerning part here.
Solvent-Based Ink
This type of ink work on non-laminated or, we can say, uncoated media. The advantage is that this ink costs less for printing on vinyl. You will find long-lasting durability with fade resistance and fulfill the jobs of large printing scales. Compared to the aqueous, they tend to dry faster, but the disadvantage is that it’s not eco-friendly, and you will find some health issues after use.
Eco-Solvent Ink
It is a bit thick ink and therefore doesn’t ask for a long time to dry out and is most advantageously eco-friendly ink. They provide your image detail with its six available colors, including cyan, magenta, yellow, black, light cyan, and light magenta.
This ink is even ultraviolet durable and waterproof not only for indoor but you can utilize it for outdoor use also. One additional requirement of this ink is unlike solvent ink which asks for lamination for sticking on media. At the last talk, I recommend you prefer eco-solvent ink as it is the professional choice and the ideal option to go with it.