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Best Edible Ink Printer 2024: Top picks for Cakes, Cookies, & More

Even this guide is secretly cake...
Last Updated on June 12, 2024
Best Edible Ink Printer
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Searching for the best edible ink printer to upgrade your baking to the next level? The meeting point between technology and confectionery, edible ink printers unlock a new dimension in the world of cakes and desserts by transforming intricate designs into edible works of art.

While there isn’t as wide a variety as other printer niches, such as determining the best printer for teachers, there are a few standout choices- which we’ve compiled here for you today! Whether you’re looking to upgrade your bakery business or just a consumer (in both senses), we’ve got you covered with this guide on the best edible ink printers!

How We Picked the Best Edible Ink Printer

Edible ink printers print images onto wafer sheets and sugar frosting, leaving you with detailed and delicious edible art. There are few printers that can intake edible ink, so it is vital to ensure that our printer choices do.

Outside of the obvious, we also looked at the standard professional features you’d expect from the best printer: printing speeds, connection options, user-friendliness, et cetera. Finally, we made sure to include a range of price options to hopefully match any budding baker’s needs!

Best Edible Ink Printer
Specifications
  • Printer Output: Color
  • Printer Type: InkJet
  • Connectivity Technology: USB, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth
  • Duplex Printing: Yes
What We Think

Ideal for the most complex of designs or the most amateur of bakers, the G6020 is a terrific edible ink printer from Canon.

Reasons to Buy
  • Ink tank system – the large ink reservoirs make for highly efficient (edible) ink usage.
  • Affordable – with a median price under $200, the G6020 is an easy investment for beginner bakers.
Reasons to Avoid
  • Slow print speeds – even inedible prints take a long time to be ready.

A printer for professional bakers and keen amateurs alike, the Canon PIXMA G6020 is a surprizingly affordable edible ink printer, boasting some of Canon’s best non-edible features. With large printing and ink capacities along with great connectivity features, we’re happy to call this the best edible ink printer!

The G6020 is an impressively compact printer with great efficiency with ink, of both the edible and inedible varieties! Compatible with Windows, Chromebooks and Macbooks, you’ll be able to print your treats from any device! And as if printing food wasn’t futuristic enough, you can even do it with your voice with integrated functionality with Amazon’s Alexa! When they do print, your designs have great detail and color – you’ll almost be put off eating them!

That is, when your designs eventually do print: the G6020 isn’t a particularly fast printer, even with standard prints or documents (which we don’t recommend eating). This humble speed issue aside, this low-cost, high-quality printer is perfect for bakery aficionados of any skill level!

Best Edible Ink Printer for Large Cakes
Specifications
  • Printer Output: Color
  • Printer Type: InkJet
  • Connectivity Technology: USB, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth
  • Duplex Printing: Yes
Reasons to Buy
  • Large print size – capable of 11″ x 17″ prints, the TS9520 is a great edible ink printer for ambitious bakers.
  • Compact and lightweight – in spite of the large print size, the TS9520 is surprisingly small.
Reasons to Avoid
  • Loud – the TS9520 is notably noisy for a printer.

If you’re needing to create edible art in an industrial quantity, then you don’t need to stray from Canon’s PIXMA range. The TS9520 is a great choice for larger designs, with a print size up to 11″ x 17″ and a great color gamut. For the baker in constant need of edible art, the TS9520 will be able to keep up with demand and is a great edible ink printer for larger designs.

In spite of this wide print size, the TS9520 doesn’t take up much more space than it needs to – meaning it can be kept easily in any studio or bakery. It’s rated for a range of other media such as documents and print designs, just make sure you remember to switch over the ink first if you don’t want an edible invoice! The printer utilizes a five-color inking system which provides lovely color accuracy, making it perfect for a host of complex designs.

However, a major downside of this model is the noise is produces when printing, which is loud even by printer standards. But if your kitchen is already loud enough to make The Bear look tranquil, then you may not notice any issue. All-in-all, for larger cakes and designs, the PIXMA TS9520 is the best edible ink printer choice for you.

Best Quality Edible Ink Printer
  • epson ecotank et-2850 printer review
  • epson ecotank et-2850 printer review
  • An Epson EcoTank ET-2550, one of the best printers for home, on a wooden desk with its ink levels visible on the front.
  • A person efficiently inserts a paper into an Epson EcoTank all-in-one printer, specifically the ET-2850.
  • The Epson EcoTank ET-2850, an all-in-one printer, is sitting on a table next to a plant in a home.
Highly Recommended
4 /5
Editor’s Rating
How We Review
Specifications
  • Printer Output: Color
  • Printer Type: InkJet
  • Connectivity Technology: USB, Bluetooth, WiFi Direct
  • Duplex Printing: Yes
  • Printer Output: Color
  • Printer Type: InkJet
  • Connectivity Technology: USB, Wi-Fi Direct
  • Duplex Printing: Yes
Show more
What We Think

The ET-2850 has been one of our go-to printers ever since we reviewed it, and it’s gamut of great features make it a clear cinch for top-quality edible ink prints.

Reasons to Buy
  • Highly efficient – the EcoTank system from Epson is one of the best in the business for ink economy.
  • Fast print speeds – even edible wafers are ready in little time with this surprisingly fast printer.
Reasons to Avoid
  • Poor color quality – the overall vibrance of prints, even non-edible ones, isn’t as impressive as we’d like.

Another pick for a versatile edible ink printer is this model from Epson, combining a lot of great features of other models in this guide. With a plug-and-play installation process and great ink economy, the ET-2850 is a great middle ground between quality and speed.

With large ink tanks capable of housing plenty of edible or inedible ink, this printer promises to leave behind the frustrations of constantly buying ink cartridges. This printer also has a few quality-of-life design choices we appreciate: the paper-in tray is located at the rear of the ET-2850, keeping your icing or wafer sheets flat as the ink is applied. They’re out of the printer in no time at all, and your designs come out with great resolution.

What’s less great, however, is the color gamut. We found it to be somewhat lacking in saturation by default, with more vibrant colors needing some tweaking to get right. It’s a small issue to overcome, however, and we’re still happy to recommend this top Epson printer.

Best Budget Edible Ink Printer
Specifications
  • Printer Output: Color
  • Printer Type: InkJet
  • Connectivity Technology: USB, WiFi Direct
  • Duplex Printing : Yes
What We Think

Even though all our choices thus far have been affordable offerings, the TR8620a’s price-to-performance is near-unmatched.

Reasons to Buy
  • Good print speeds – at 10 pages per minute for color documents, the TR8620a is a great option for office productivity.
  • Great color quality – this InkJet printer manages to recreate colors with the depth and vibrance they deserve.
Reasons to Avoid
  • Poor ink economy – the overall efficiency of the TR8620a is lesser than some other top edible ink printers.

For the creator on the budget, as we mentioned in our dedicated look at the best printers for invitations, you can’t go wrong with the Canon PIXMA TR8620a. A compactly-designed and speedy printer, this budget edible ink printer is a great starting point for entry-level bakers!

With a respectable sheet size of up to 8.5″ x 11.7″, this budget printer actually beats some of its competitors for print size. Having built-in wired and wireless connectivity options, the TR8620a is compatible with basically any device, making it even easier to print your designs. If you have an appetite for bright colors, worry not: the TR8620a has a reliable color gamut that accurately recreates your designs.

In a more hectic or accident-prone bakery, however, this printer will not last long: the design is notoriously poor-quality. Similarly, the money you save on the printer may not go far. With the TR8620a’s poor ink economy (and with edible ink being quite expensive), you’ll find yourself running dry and, well, running dry. That said, for a budget-friendly edible ink printer, there isn’t a better choice than the TR8620a!

Features and Considerations

Shopping for an edible ink printer can be tricky, especially for beginners. To make sure you get the best option for you, we prepared a list of features you should consider before making the purchase:

Printer Size

Whether you work out of a luxury bakery or just your apartment kitchen, space is an important factor to consider when buying an edible ink printer. We refer to a device’s “footprint” to measure how much space it takes up, and while most printers have relatively small footprints, some models can be quite bulky. Check your free space before purchasing!

Connection Options

Whether you design intensively in Photoshop or just want some minimalist additions to your confectionary, how you print is just as important as what you print. Make sure to check that your preferred device can be connected via wired or wireless methods. Similarly, make sure the file format is compatible!

Faster is generally speaking better when it comes to printers, so long as that speed doesn’t skimp on quality. For industrial or high-demand edible art, you’ll want to be going as quickly as possible. Most edible ink printers are already quite fast at printing other print media, but edible formats can be different! Make sure that your printer choice keeps the wait times to a minimum.

FAQs

Can I use regular ink for edible printing?

No: Standard ink isn’t meant for human consumption, it can have major effects on your health. Make sure the ink you buy is food-safe, otherwise you are putting your customers or close family at risk.

How long do edible images last?

Depending on the surrounding conditions, edible ink images can last anywhere from a few hours to a couple of weeks atop a cake. For instance, if the humidity or temperature is too high, the lifespan of the image will go down. In all cases, it’s better to consume the cake shortly after printing the image on top of it.

Verdict

Verdict
Specifications
  • Printer Output: Color
  • Printer Type: InkJet
  • Connectivity Technology: USB, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth
  • Duplex Printing: Yes

Crafting culinary art can be difficult enough without technology making things harder, but any of our choices here today should make your kitchen a stress-free place filled with great-quality edible art! For most applications, be they commercial or consumer-grade, the Canon PIXMA G6020 is the best edible ink printer! Though it isn’t the fastest on the market, it is a great marriage of a low space cost and high-quality returns. So if you are looking for detailed and delicious additions to your baking, there’s not a better printer on the market!

Got some designs too good to eat? Check out our guide on the best printer for graphic design.

Angus Warrender is a PCWer Writer and Editor. He's interested in a range of tech, from cameras to consoles, and has an eye for spotting the best products on the market!