travel label printers

The 10 Best Portable Printers That Can Print Anytime, Anywhere

These models from Canon, HP, and Kodak can deliver documents and photos on the go.

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These days, printers can feel like a relic of a bygone era, as more people are sharing documents and photos online. Still, even as our lives are increasingly digital, physical copies hold relevance. With these handy devices, documents can be shared with coworkers, on hand to annotate, and easily kept for archival purposes. Printing photos also offers a more tactile and enduring way to preserve memories, allowing you and your family to share and reminisce without relying solely on digital screens.

While the best portable printers offer the flexibility to print anytime, anywhere, it’s important to be aware of their limitations compared to traditional desktop printers. Major brands typically only offer a few portable options, and these models often prioritize portability over features and top-of-the-line print quality. A portable printer might not be the best choice if you or your recipient needs to print complex documents or high-resolution photos. However, for situations where portability is key and users only require basic printing capabilities, portable printers can be a valuable tool.

Best Portable Printers For Printing On-the-Go

• Best Overall: Canon PIXMA TR150 Wireless Mobile Printer
• Best Budget: HP Sprocket 2x3-inch Portable Photo Printer
• Best All-in-One: Electronic Features - US" class="body-link product-links css-1n88myu e1rq56bv0">HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One Portable Printer
• Best Basic: Epson WorkForce WF-110 Wireless Portable Printer
• Best Thermal Printer: Brother PocketJet PJ883

What to Consider

Like home office printers , there are different types of portable printers to consider, including document printers, all-in-one printers, and photo printers. Each type of portable printer serves distinct purposes, but the features to look for are generally the same. The one thing they all have in common is that they run on battery power. Whether you're shopping for yourself or buying a gift for a loved one, the portable printer you choose will depend on the specific tasks you need it for and your personal preferences.

It's important to note that owning a portable printer, similar to a home office printer, comes with ongoing expenses beyond the initial purchase price. The most significant ongoing cost is replacing the ink and paper. Photo printers typically use more expensive paper compared to standard printers. These costs can vary depending on the brand, size, and quantity you purchase.

Printer Size

The name “portable printer” can be relative, as some options, while significantly smaller than office printers, are still not ultra-compact. For instance, the Canon Pixma TR150 measures 12.7 inches wide and 7.3 inches deep, allowing it to print standard 8.5 x 11-inch documents. While this size makes it suitable for travel, it’s certainly not pocket-sized. Conversely, many portable photo printers are small enough to fit in your pants pocket.

Power Source

While the portable printers on this list boast the convenience of battery power, it’s important to note that you may have to purchase a battery kit separately, increasing the overall cost. To ensure your chosen printer meets your needs, consider whether a battery is included and how long the battery will last on a full charge. Manufacturers usually specify the estimated number of pages a printer can print on a single charge. For example, HP estimates its Sprocket portable photo printer can print 35 photos before its battery needs to be recharged.

Paper Handling

Due to their compact size, portable printers generally have limited paper-handling capabilities compared to traditional office printers. Paper tray capacities are typically smaller, often holding around 10-50 sheets at once. Additionally, some models might only accept specific paper sizes, like standard letters or A4, and may not handle thicker card stock or envelopes. The same applies to portable photo printers—they generally only work with a specific paper type and size.

How We Selected

As we mentioned earlier, your options are relatively limited when it comes to portable printers. To put this list together, we researched models from the industry’s leading brands — Canon , Epson , HP , etc. — ensuring they met our criteria outlined above. We vetted each product based on size, features, and price while analyzing user reviews and insights from expert publications. Our process ensured we put together a diverse range of options, each catering to specific needs and preferences.

Canon PIXMA TR150 Wireless Mobile Printer

The Canon Pixma TR150 offers the best balance of features, quality, and price—and it’s relatively portable, weighing 5.1 pounds with the optional battery attached. The inkjet printer can print documents and photos in various sizes, from 3.5 x 3.5 inches up to 8.5 x 11 inches; it also supports various paper types, including plain, glossy photo paper, greeting cards, and U.S. #10 envelopes. The rear paper tray can hold 50 sheets of plain paper, according to Canon.

The Pixma TR150 produces excellent results, whether you’re printing text pages or graphics, even handling complex documents like a PowerPoint project. It can also turn out decent photos in a pinch despite not being a dedicated photo printer.

Compared to similar models on this list, Canon's printer is smaller and lighter while still supporting a wide range of paper sizes and types. Its battery is also rated higher than the similarly-sized printer from HP and Epson. Canon rates the printer’s maximum duty cycle at 500 prints, which is the estimated number of pages it can print in a month without experiencing significant wear and tear.

Meanwhile, the Pixma supports many of the same features as an office printer, including support for templates like prescription forms, application forms, and consent forms. The 1.44-inch monochrome OLED display and controls make it simple to navigate the printer and change settings. According to Canon, the Pixma can print up to 330 pages on a full charge, which should get you plenty of use outside the office. Unfortunately, the battery is sold separately , raising the printer’s price if you want to go mobile.

If you're looking for the best portable printer with the most features, this one's it.

HP Sprocket 2x3-inch Portable Photo Printer

The HP Sprocket is an affordable pocket-sized printer about the size of a modern smartphone, making it easy to slip into your purse, backpack, or pocket. It utilizes Zink (zero ink) technology, so you don’t need to replace ink cartridges. If you’re unfamiliar with Zink, the technology uses heat to transfer colors onto special Zink paper, creating smudge-proof and tear-resistant prints that dry instantly. Zink paper has a sticky backing, allowing you to stick your photos on various surfaces.

HP offers a Sprocket app that allows you to edit your images with stickers, frames, and text overlays before printing. These features enable you to personalize your photos further beyond tweaking the colors. Speaking of colors, the Sprocket is available in a handful of shades, including Luna Pearl, Blush Pink, Lilac, and Black Noir. Each one features a speckled texture that adds a touch of sophistication, ensuring the printer is fashionable and fun. Even with all these features, the Sprocket is the most affordable model on this list, making it an excellent budget option.

Epson WorkForce WF-110 Wireless Portable Printer

When it comes to the best portable printers on the market, the Epson Workforce WF-110 is a compact and light mobile printer ideal for business travelers. Its 1.4-inch color LCD display simplifies setup, navigation, and operation. Plus, wireless connectivity lets you print directly from your smartphone or laptop, eliminating the need for cables. Epson estimates the printer can churn out roughly 7 standard monochrome text pages per minute, making it suitable for printing basic documents on the go.

The printer’s built-in battery will last for roughly 100 monochrome prints before it needs to be recharged. Epson offers an add-on external battery that can bump that up to around 500 prints. You can also run the portable printer on AC power when it’s available. Additionally, an SD card slot allows for convenient printing directly from memory cards, giving you more versatility. Whether you need to print occasionally at home or while traveling, the Epson WorkForce WF-110 is a capable option for light-duty tasks.

Canon SELPHY CP1500 Compact Photo Printer

The Canon Selphy CP1500 is a fantastic portable photo printer that uses a dye-sublimation process to create high-quality prints. It’s compatible with Canon-made dye-sub dry ink cartridges and can print at a 300 x 300 dpi resolution, which is fine for smaller images. The Canon Selphy CP1500 is the printer you want if you plan to make photo albums or send out postcard-sized pictures to friends and family.

The whole process is more playful than your average photo printer. The Selphy Layout app (Android or iOS) gives you more creative opportunities. You can edit photos, apply filters, overlay text, and create collages. A 3.5-inch LCD and physical controls allow you to print directly from a USB-C flash drive or microSD flash card. Unfortunately, the battery is sold separately (and it’s a pricey $99). Still, the Selphy CP1500 is a reliable portable photo printer that you can use if you want to print beautiful 4 x 6-inch images.

HP Sprocket Panorama

When it comes to the best portable printers, the HP Sprocket Panorama is a unique portable printer that breaks the mold of traditional photo formats. What’s neat is the printer uses a roll of Zink paper that allows you to create panoramic prints up to nine inches long. You can print a sprawling landscape image or even create a photo booth-style strip, perfect for capturing memories with friends and family. The Sprocket Panorama lets you print these expansive moments right from your smartphone.

You can pair the printer to your smartphone with the HP Sprocket app, which gives you tools to edit your photos and add text, drawings, and more. In addition to printing photos, the Sprocket Panorama can create stickers and labels, great for scrapbooking. When a print comes out of the printer, the button on top cuts the paper; it’s a fun little touch that adds to the overall experience.

HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One Portable Printer

The HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One Printer was chosen by our editors as one of the best all-in-one printers , and it’s making another appearance here. While it’s not quite as compact as our best overall pick, HP’s model boasts more capabilities, including printing documents and photos, scanning, and copying, essentially making it a mobile office in a portable printer. It also features an auto document feeder, simplifying tasks like scanning multi-page documents.

The main reason why this didn’t nab the best overall spot is the price. At $400, the HP OfficeJet 250 is a more expensive option. Unless you absolutely need the all-in-one capabilities, you’re better off going with our top pick. That said, it’s hard to argue the undeniable convenience and versatility it offers. For those who prioritize all-in-one functionality and are willing to invest in a slightly bulkier and pricier option, the HP OfficeJet 250 is a compelling choice.

Brother PocketJet PJ883

The Brother PocketJet PG883 is a nice option for those who prioritize ultimate portability. The ultra-compact monochrome thermal printer weighs just 1.34 pounds with the included battery (rated for an impressive 600 pages) and measures 10.04 x 2.17 x 1.18 inches, making it highly portable. Despite its size, it boasts an array of connectivity options, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and USB, ensuring you can print from various devices on the go.

There are some trade-offs to consider with the PocketJet PG883. It requires a special thermal paper, offered by Brother in various formats like rolls, single sheets, and fanfolds. While thermal printing eliminates the need for ink cartridges, it limits what you can print. Brother’s model is limited to monochrome, so it’s not suitable for photos or graphics. That said, it’s a solid option if you need to print simple text documents like receipts or shipping invoices on the go. Like a few other options on this list, the battery is sold separately .

Fujifilm Instax Link Wide Printer

The Fujifilm Instax Link Wide portable printer allows you to print using instant film, giving images a charming retro aesthetic. It’s a fun alternative to buying one of the brand’s instant film cameras. The printer pairs perfectly with the robust companion app, which boasts a range of filters, templates, and editing tools to elevate your photos from snapshots to cherished keepsakes.

The wide format of the Instax Link Wide complements the retro feel across Fuji’s line of products, including Fujifilm’s recent X100VI , which looks like a vintage camera and offers built-in “recipes” to simulate the look of film photography. The biggest consideration with the Instax Link Wide is the cost of instant film, which can add up quickly at roughly $1 per print. However, if you’re captivated by the unique charm of old-school photos, the Fujifilm Instax Link Wide will transport you back to the golden age of instant film photography.

Canon Ivy 2 Portable Photo Printer

The Canon IVY 2.0 is another zero ink (Zink) photo printer that makes 2 x 3-inch pictures. The big draw of Canon’s snapshot printer is its diminutive size; it measures 0.8 x 3.3 x 4.7 inches, making it small enough to stow in your pocket. Print resolution is 313 x 512 dpi, and images come out borderless. The sticky-backed Zink paper allows you to stick your images on most surfaces, making it a fun way to decorate a fridge or personalize notebooks and scrapbooks.

The Canon Mini Print app helps elevate the printer, allowing you to edit images, add text, and decorate frames, and more. You can even “tile” a photo by joining multiple prints together to create a larger image or collage. While the Canon IVY 2.0 doesn’t have the style of the Fujifilm, its small size and robust app features make it a fun option for parties and family gatherings.

Kodak Mini 3 Retro

The Kodak Mini 3 Retro is another compact photo printer in the same vein as the Canon Ivy 2.0 and HP Sprocket. The difference is that the Kodak printer produces square (3 x 3-inch) prints that look like they came straight out of a Polaroid camera. Similar to the Canon Selphy CP1500, the Mini 3 Retro uses dye-sub technology with a four pass method, with each pass applying a different color dye for more vibrant, detailed images. The final pass laminates each photo, making them water and dust-resistant.

The Mini 3 Retro is available in three colors, including Kodak’s iconic yellow. Like the other mini printers on this list, you can download an app to edit your images. You can customize the border with a number of templates and even create a collage with up to four photos on a single print. According to Kodak, the images you print should last up to 100 years.

Brandon Russell is a freelance writer covering gear and technology. He started his journey as a news writer at a small newspaper and later began reviewing smartphones, movies, and video games. In his free time, he enjoys the slower, more intentional experience of using a 35mm film camera and making short videos about movies he grew up watching.

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The 10 Best Portable Photo Printers for 2024

Print your favorite travel photos on the go.

In This Article

Jump to a Section

• Our top picks
• Tips for Buying
• Why Trust T + L

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Travel + Leisure / Marcus Millan

Portable photo printers allow us the freedom to print our favorite images while traveling, with some models able to even print stickers, notes, or labels as well. Whether you’re on a family vacation, friends’ trip, or a wedding abroad, having a portable photo printer on hand adds the ability to share photos instantly with your whole crew. The images serve as souvenirs you don’t need to buy, and ensure that pictures don’t remain trapped on one person’s smartphone only. 

Portable printers come in all different forms, so finding a balance of desired price point, quality of photos, and portability will help dictate what kind of model you need. To help out, we’ve researched and rounded up the best options that offer a wide variety of features and while remaining user friendly.

Best Overall

Fujifilm instax mini link 2 smartphone printer.

It combines all of the best features in one pocket-sized printer.

The prints are a little pricier per sheet than other models.

Compact and lightweight, the Fujifilm Instax Mini Link 2 Smartphone Printer is an all-around best bet portable photo printer for its ease of use, fun features, and travel-friendly size. It connects wirelessly to your phone via Bluetooth and prints 2-by-3-inch photos using thermal technology in approximately 15 seconds. It’s perfect for gifting to friends and family or for decorating your own space with memories. With such an easy set-up, you can get right to printing your photos. Download the free app to print and customize your photos so you can add personalizations with decorative features, stickers, and filters like neon colors, text, spray paint, glitter, bubbles, and more. You can even print a still capture from your favorite video. The new Instaxair feature allows you to add drawings and shapes to your images as well. For printing your smartphone photos on the go, this is our top pick.

The Details: 3.6 x 1.2 x 4.8 inches | 7.4 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB

Best Customizable

Polaroid hi-print pocket phone printer.

You can easily customize photos with stickers, frames, and more via the app.

The photos don’t stick that well.

The Polaroid Hi-print Pocket Photo Printer is our favorite pick for personalizing photos before printing easily via Bluetooth. Add that special creative touch with the multitude of stickers, filters, frames, text, and more that can be applied in the app. This pocket-sized printer is an ideal travel companion for any situation where you want to capture the memories for a physical souvenir. One of the best features of this very portable printer is how easy it is to use. The prints are vivid thanks to the dye-sub cartridge technology used in printing, and each high-quality photo is created in less than a minute. 

The Details: 7.28 x 5.43 x 3.98 inches | 1 pound | Micro USB

Best for Smartphones

Kodak wireless mobile photo mini printer.

It’s palm-sized and connects easily to your devices for printing.

The photos print with a warmer, yellow tint.

The Kodak Step Wireless Mobile Mini Color Printer connects to any iOS or Android smartphones, as well as tablets using Bluetooth or NFC (Near Field Communication), making it a breeze to print your photos on the go. The small, lightweight device is built to travel and produces high quality photos that are resistant to smudges, rips and tears, and moisture so you can transport them worry-free. With Zink (zero ink technology) you don’t ever need to replace ink cartridges, either. Download the free Kodak app and get your creative juices flowing, adding borders, filters, frames, and more to your photos for a more personal touch on these wallet-sized images. Photos print in under a minute, and the peel-and-stick back makes it easy to attach them to your fridge, notebooks, locker, or anywhere you’d like to display your memories.

The Details: 3 x 5 x 1 inches | 8.8 ounces | Bluetooth or NFC | Micro USB 

Most Lightweight

Liene mini instant portable photo printer.

It’s ultra lightweight and portable.

The app is a bit limited.

Clocking in at less than half a pound, the Liene photo printer is our pick for the most lightweight. This will take up minimal space in your bag, making it perfect for traveling. Print your memories from your phone on the 2-by-3-inch Zink paper with the simple-to-use Bluetooth connection. The sticky-backed photo paper allows you to decorate your space or items with your favorite images, and the Liene app makes it fun to add some personality as well. Use the filters, frames, text, and more to customize your photos for yourself or friends and family and color or mono (black and white) photo paper is available for purchase. We also love that you can choose to print your photos with a border, borderless, or polaroid style. Print up to 30 photos before needing to recharge the battery on this printer, too. 

The Details: 4.92 x 3.35 x 0.98 inches | 6.4 ounces | Bluetooth | USB-C

Best for Larger Photos

Lifeprint mobile printer.

Larger 3 by 4.5 inch photos give your travel images more stunning real estate.

The battery life isn’t as good as other models.

Most portable printers produce small, wallet-sized photos, but if you’re looking for your images to be a bit bigger, the Lifeprint 3 x 4.5 Portable Photo and Video Printer is our top choice. This user-friendly printer is easy to use via Bluetooth or Wi-fi connection and the Lifeprint app. We also love the social feature within the app which allows you to connect with friends and family members to share photos from anywhere. Print a still shot from a video and use the built-in Hyperphoto technology, an Augmented Reality feature that embeds the video in the photo print and can be watched using your smartphone when held over the image. Add effects, filters, text, and more within the app to personalize your photos before printing as well.

The Details: 1.9 x 5.3 x 7.5 inches | 12 ounces | Bluetooth and Wi-fi | Micro USB

Best for Wallet-size Photos

Hp sprocket select photo printer.

It creates wallet-sized prints that are smudge, water, and tear-resistant.

Some photos might have a pink or blue tint to them when printed.

We love the HP Sprocket Select Portable Instant Photo Printer for creating wallet-sized photos (2.3 x 3.4 inches), and quickly. Set up is very straightforward, making it easy for anyone to use. Vibrant images are printed without ink using the Zink technology and can be customized in the HP Sprocket app with frames, filters, and text. Another fun feature is the ability to turn your drawings into stickers that can be added to your memories for even more of a personalized touch. The printer itself has a slim, sleek design that won’t weigh your bag down or take up too much space, making it a fantastic travel companion. The sticker-backed photo paper means you can put them virtually anywhere from your wall to a scrapbook.

The Details: 5.13 x 3.48 x 0.69 inches | 10.8 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB

Best for Wide Photos

Fujifilm instax link wide printer.

It’s great for landscape or group photos.

It only takes Instax Wide Instant Film.

Most portable printers produce small prints and it can be tricky to get everything in frame. Enter the Fujifilm Instax Link Wide Printer, our top choice for printing wide, polaroid-style photos that measure 3 by 5 inches. Easy to use with the free Link Wide app, printing is a breeze directly from your smartphone via Bluetooth. Within the app, you can add a personal touch, resize and crop photos, and add text or filters. Print a still shot from your favorite videos and enjoy adding a QR code to view the full video or a specially recorded message, right from the physical photo. Another excellent feature that makes this wide printer so unique is the ability to choose from two different color output options: “natural mode” or “rich mode” depending on the aesthetic you’re going for. This device is compact and lightweight as well, making it perfect for bringing along to events and on vacations.

The Details: 6.1 x 2.8 x 7.6 inches | 12 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB

Best for Stickers

Canon ivy 2 mini photo printer.

It’s loaded with customization options like stickers, special effects, and collage layouts.

The battery life is short.

We love the user-friendly Canon Ivy 2 Mini Photo Printer for its portability and creative sticker options. This version has upgraded photo quality, with optimized skin tone colors, contrast, and sharpness. With Zink technology, no ink is needed for printing, and images print with a sticky back so you can use the photos to decorate any space you choose. Customize your sticker photos with the collage, circle, or regular rectangle printing shape, and add fun drawings and artsy stickers, text, and more within the Canon Mini Print app. With this travel-sized printer, creativity is the name of the game.

The Details: 4.7 x 0.8 x 3.3 inches | 8.8 ounces | Bluetooth | USB-C 

Best Square Prints

Canon selphy square qx10 compact photo printer.

The prints have a coating to protect against moisture and fading.

It requires an ink cassette and only comes with an included sample size to test print three photos.

For the Instagram square print-style aesthetic, the Canon Selphy QX10 Portable Square Photo Printer is our top choice. It’s easy to set up and use, and produces vibrant, high-quality photos perfect for crafting, gifting, or decorating. Its compact size makes it portable for tagging along on your adventures and sharing the memories. Downloading the free Canon Selphy Photo Layout 2.0 app allows your creativity to flow, with stamps, stickers, a variety of borders, text, date, frames, filters, and even a painting tool so you can personalize your images. It takes about 30 seconds to print, and then you’ll have a nice physical souvenir of your favorite photos.

The Details: 1.23 x 4.02 x 5.65 inches | 15.52 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB

Best Budget

Huijukeji bluetooth smart pocket inkless thermal printer.

The printer comes in a fun selection of pastel colors.

It only prints in black and white.

The HuiJuKeJi Bluetooth Smart Pocket Inkless Thermal Printer is our top choice for a budget-friendly option to print photos on the go. Portable and easy to use, you can connect this device to your smartphone via Bluetooth to produce small black and white prints. The ‘Tiny Print’ app allows you to customize and print a wide variety of items, from photos to labels, shopping lists, and notes to drawings or stickers. Also within the app, features like AI painting, portrait to anime, and line art encourage creativity. The printer comes with 11 rolls of paper for printing. For a portable printer that can create more than just black and white photos, this one gets the job done at a great price point.

The Details: ‎3.2 x 3.2 x 1.77 inches | 15 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB

Tips for Buying Portable Photo Printers

Decide the best printer size for your needs.

A portable photo printer should be compact in size and lightweight so it’s easy to transport in your bag of choice when traveling, such as a tote, purse, or backpack. You don’t want something bulky to bring with you on the go. Portable printers are designed to produce small prints and photo stickers. If you’re in the market for a photo printer that can create high-quality, full-sized prints, you’ll need to consider something other than a portable printer.

Look at ease of connectivity and printer speed

No one wants to fumble around with cords and encounter issues with connectivity when trying to print images from a smartphone. Finding a portable model that’s user-friendly and prints at a decent speed should be a priority. Most of the top printers will connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and require a free app on your smartphone to edit and print directly. If you will often be in areas where Wi-Fi is unreliable or nonexistent, consider a portable printer that connects via Bluetooth so that sending documents to print isn’t an issue. Printer speed is also a key feature to research when shopping for your portable printer, as you’ll be printing photos on the go. You don’t want to have to wait around for minutes to print just one photo. Typically, most portable printers have the ability to print one photo in under 30 seconds to one minute.

Consider print quality and ink technology

With your portable photo printer, you’ll want images that produce sharp, high-quality photos with high-resolution, if possible. Some models offer more of a vintage, polaroid look, while others print clearer and more vibrant photos. One of the aspects to look at when deciding on a portable photo printer is the ink and printing technology. Many models use Zink technology (zero ink) which has embedded crystals within each sheet of paper that prints vibrant photos using evenly distributed heating. Typically, this and dye-sublimation ink are known to offer fade-resistant prints that are also resistant to tearing and smudging. Dye-sublimation technology produces vivid, clear prints and uses ink and heat to create the image. While purchasing a printer that requires ink cassettes or cartridges might be more affordable, it’s an extra item to tote around and they are known to smudge. Thermal printers are another type of inkless printer, but they don’t produce the most high-quality or rich in color prints.

Review the paper requirements

Each photo printer will require its own type of specific photo paper based on the printing technology used as well as size. This is crucial to your photo printer working correctly (or at all). Some brands like Kodak and Fujifilm Instax sell paper made per printer model, such as if you have the wide photo printer vs. 2 by 3 inch wallet-sized. It’s key to evaluate how expensive refill packs of photo paper are when calculating the overall cost. Some photo printers do come in a bundle deal with a good starter pack of paper as that can be a more economical choice as well.

Choosing the right portable printer for your specific needs and mobility depends on many factors. While the main issue surrounds the size of the printer you’ll bring along on your travels, there are several other things to consider, too. If you plan to use your printer while out and about all day, you’ll need one with good battery life. Look at ease of use, and think about how creative you want to be with editing or customizing your photos in the app. Certain apps offer more flexibility with built-in tools and features like filters, text, frames, borders, stickers and even painting or drawing. It’s also important to decide if you want to print in color or black and white, or would like the option to do both. Additionally, the size of the prints you prefer will dictate the type of photo printer you’ll want to purchase. Most print wallet-sized or similar sized images, but there are options for wide, or even a bit larger photos (within reason). Some photo printers allow for printing stickers, drawings, labels and more, so it’s important to evaluate the capabilities that you’d like your printer to have. It’s also key to look at the ease of use and whether or not you’ll need to replace ink cartridges, regularly.

Many portable photo printers have the option to print via Wi-Fi, however it’s not necessary. Really, you just need a connection between the device you want to print from and the printer itself. Many offer Bluetooth, USB, or their own wireless connection platform within the device. Bluetooth is the most common, and is an easy way to print from your smartphone, laptop, or tablet once connected. This makes a portable photo printer truly mobile for whatever your needs are and wherever your travels take you.

Why Trust Travel + Leisure

A writer and travel photographer, T+L contributor Lauren Breedlove used her personal experience with finding the right portable photo printers for travel in order to curate this list. She also scoured the internet, researching and selecting the best portable printers to suit a wide array of needs.

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How-To Geek

The best portable printers of 2023.

Print photos and documents virtually everywhere and anywhere with these best portable printers.

Read update

We've reviewed our recommendations and are confident these are still the best portable printers you can buy.

A good portable printer maximizes space without sacrificing print quality. From photo printers to scanner and printer combos, portable printers serve several uses while catering to efficiency, whether in an office or home setting.

UPDATE: 11/29/2023

Canon pixma tr150, hprt mt810 bluetooth printer, canon selphy cp1500, phomemo m110 portable bluetooth printer, kodak step wireless printer, hp officejet 250 all-in-one, what to look for in a portable printer in 2023.

Home offices, small businesses, and household computer rooms have been forced to give up vital real estate to bulky printers for years. So, the first thing you'll want to consider is size. Just how portable do you need your printer to be? Do you have room for something just a little bigger, or do you need to condense the device down significantly?

There may be limitations on just how small you can go, though. Portable printers and scanners will likely occupy more room than a standard portable printer. Of course, the function of the printer will matter most. If you need a standard printer, you don't want to look at label or photo printers.

Consider the functions you need to make sure you're getting the most out of your next portable printer. Will you need to print in color, or does a monochromatic option work? Does your printing require special paper or even a specific type of ink ? How about connectivity, specifically to mobile devices? Is Bluetooth enough, or do you need a Wi-Fi-enabled printer?

While most portable printers will easily connect to your desktop or laptop, you may need it to offer a bit more when it comes to connectivity. If you're traveling with the printer or are using it on a photography job, you may want it to support an SD card or USB flash drive . Some advanced options may even connect directly to your camera via Bluetooth.

If you've ever shopped for a printer, you know it's not as easy as buying the first you see. The process is no easier for a portable printer, so we've aimed to simplify it with this list of the best portable printers you can buy today.

How-To Geek's product recommendations come from the same team of experts that have helped people fix their gadgets over one billion times. We only recommend the best products based on our research and expertise. We never accept payment to endorse or review a product. Read More »

Best Portable Printer Overall: Canon Pixma TR150

What should you expect from your portable printer? How about reliability, transportability, and clear text, all of which the Canon Pixma TR150 delivers? Canon fits the most important features of a printer into this small device, which measures 7.3 x 12.7 x 2.6 inches, weighs only 4.6 lbs, and features a 1.44-inch OLED display.

There are smaller ones on the market, like the Epson Workforce WF-110, but the Pixma TR150 makes up for not being the smallest by being well-rounded for a decent price. While its print speed of nine pages per minute is a little slower than the HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One's 20 per minute, being half the price tag of the multipurpose portable printer makes up for it.

The Pixa TR150 connects to your devices via the included USB-A to USB-C cable, or you can use a direct wireless connection. Unfortunately, it doesn't support a Bluetooth connection, though it does work with Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Mopria Print Service for convenient printing from your smartphone or tablet.

Despite its smaller size, the TR150 can hold up to 50 sheets of paper. The portable printer can also connect to a cloud to save up to five custom-made templates. Just a little more storage on the cloud or the option to save more for a small monthly fee would have been nice, but just having the option is helpful.

When not in use, the Pixma TR150 folds up and stores nicely. If you don't have a drawer to stow it in, its overall design is aesthetically pleasing and won't throw off the flow of your desktop.

The Canon Pixma TR150 is an efficient, compact printer that delivers on quality, performance, and convenience for an all-around positive portable printing experience.

Best Budget Portable Printer: HPRT MT810 Bluetooth Printer

Portable printers don't come cheap, so finding a budget option that is still functional and efficient does require you to make some concessions. To get in the $100 range, HPRT's MT810 Bluetooth Wireless Printer uses inkless thermal technology. It's a potential sacrifice in print quality for the benefit of a very compact printer and no expensive ink cartridges.

The MT810 uses a roll of thermal paper , so you'll need to tear or cut the page off once done printing. It's a minor inconvenience that's worth the reduced cost. Think of a receipt printer, just a consumer model that can print standard-sized and longer documents. Since the paper roll is stored inside the printer, there's also no need to walk around with a reem of paper that needs to be loaded and unloaded each time.

The printer connects to the HerePrint app (available on iOS and Android ) via Bluetooth, but you can also connect to your Windows or Mac computer using a USB-C cable. There's no Wi-Fi connection, but the Bluetooth 5.0 signal promises a reliable connection.

Since the MT810 uses thermal printing technology, which essentially burns the text or image onto specialty paper, there's no option to print in color. There's a little versatility in what you can print, such as 4-inch x 6-inch or standard A4 and A5-sized rolls.

HPRT's MT810 portable printing can go virtually anywhere you go thanks to its very compact size. At only 2.81lbs and 3.5 inches x 2 inches x 10 inches, the printer takes up very little room.

The MT810 is portable printing on the budget, with thermal technology that requires no ink or ribbons and can print virtually any length document.

Best Portable Photo Printer: Canon SELPHY CP1500

If you're in the market for a photo printer that can do it all---including joining you wherever you're shooting---then Canon's SELPHY CP1500 is your best option. It's not just a portable photo printer, though, especially with your phone and the SELPHY Layout app (available on iOS and Android).

The 3.5-inch display allows you to add basic edits like filters before printing. Canon's app is a little more advanced, so you can combine photos in collages or add borders to the final print. This means you never have to connect the CP1500 to your desktop if you don't want to.

Its compatibility with Wi-Fi connections and USB-A and SD card ports enhance the device's portability. The printer also works with Apple AirPrint , so you have many methods to send your favorite photos to the printer. The lack of a Bluetooth option means you won't be able to connect to your mobile devices outside your network, but it's a small concession considering the myriad of other options.

Though the CP1500 ships with a cumbersome power cord, you can purchase a rechargeable battery pack separately. If you're out taking nature photos, you can slap on the battery, pull the SD card from your camera, and start printing your favorite images. It's as convenient as portable photo printing will get.

Printing is relatively fast for a photo printer, at approximately one image per minute. However, that speed does come with a dip in quality, but that's only noticeable when compared to other printed photos.

Edit photos and print them on the spot with Canon's lightweight and compact SELPHY CP1500 portable photo printer,

Best Portable Label Printer: Phomemo M110 Portable Bluetooth Printer

Whether you're running a small business or love to print custom labels for holidays and birthdays, a portable label printer is a necessity. Phomemo's M110 Portable Bluetooth Printer offers convenient thermal, inkless printing on various label sizes. The built-in adjustable feed can handle labels from 0.78 inches to two inches.

Unfortunately, the M110 is not designed for shipping labels, but that still leaves a multitude of uses such as warehouse organization, pricing and barcodes, return address labels, and cable organization.

Because the M110 uses thermal printing, there's no option for a color print, but the bold black inkless print is clear and easy to read. Installing different label sizes is also a breeze, though rolls of thermal paper can be a little costly, depending on the size.

One of the M110's best features is its connectivity. Though it only works off Bluetooth and there's no Wi-Fi compatibility, the Print Master app (available on iOS and Android ) has quite a few useful functions. Along with label customization, the app supports printing labels from designated QR codes /barcodes, optical character recognition (OCR), and Excel documents Some features may be a little complicated for users, but if you can work it out, they can be a big time saver.

Save for some minor issues with battery life, no option for larger shipping labels, and aggressive location settings requirements, the M110 is a shoo-in for your label-making needs.

Phomemo's inkless M110 uses thermal printing for mess-free, low-cost label printing for most label sizes.

Best Portable Printer for iPhone: KODAK Step Wireless Printer

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have made connecting to an iPhone to print wirelessly rather user-friendly. However, you still need to make sure you're printing on a portable printer that can capture the detail and quality capable of the latest iPhone cameras.

KODAK's Step Wireless Printer does just that with zero-ink technology that reduces long-term costs while delivering brilliant colors. You won't even need a ribbon or toner as the printer uses zink technology, which uses sticky-backed paper and dye crystals. This reduces the potential for smudging, though it's a bigger hit to your wallet if any paper is wasted.

A paper pack costs approximately $30 for 50 2-inch x 3-inch sheets. That amounts to over $1.70 per sheet, whereas typical photo paper costs well under a dollar per page. For the added cost, though, you get the benefits of printing photos from your iPhone wherever and whenever needed.

The KODAK Step connects via Bluetooth and can link to the Kodak app (available on iOS and Android ) to create custom images using borders, stickers, text, and more. Dipping into your camera roll, choosing a photo, and preparing it for printing is a breeze.

The Step's biggest shortcoming is its inability to connect to a Windows or MacOS desktop or laptop. Every photo you want to print needs to be on your iPhone.

Easily connect to your iPhone with KODAK's Step portable printer and print your photos virtually anywhere with ink and ribbon-free printing.

Best Portable Printer and Scanner: HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One

At just under 15 inches long, the HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One is on the bigger side of portable, but the wireless printing and fast-charging battery help it qualify. Of course, its size is directly related to everything it's capable of, as a full-service printer that can deliver clear black and color prints.

The all-in-one is also equipped with a feeder scanner, so you can scan full-page documents despite the 7.8-inch depth. Since the pages you're scanning need to be fed through the printer, you won't be able to scan things like your driver's license or book pages.

The OfficeJet 250 connects to your mobile devices and desktop or laptop via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct. You can send prints via the HP ePrint app (available on iOS and Android ) to print from a Dropbox or choose photos to send to the portable printer. The app lets you oversee your cartridge levels, so you never run out of ink.

HP had to make some sacrifices with the OfficeJet 250, such as two-sided printing and a 10-sheet document feeder capacity. As expected for a portable, the printer is slower when running on battery at ten pages per minute in black and seven pages per minute in color. Plugged in, the print speed doubles.

This complete package allows you to print, copy, and scan documents with an efficient auto feeder that helps cut down on space.

Can I bring a portable printer on an airplane?

According to TSA, you can bring a portable printer on an airplane in the United States. When going through security, you will need to remove it from your bag and place it in a separate bin. Follow all regulations and guidelines for electronic devices once aboard the plane.

How do I connect my portable printer to a laptop?

Depending on the portable printer, you may be able to connect to your laptop using a USB cable or through a Wi-Fi network. If using a USB cable, plug the cord into an available USB port and turn the printer on.For both wired and wireless connections, type "Printers" in the Search bar in your Taskbar and select "Printers & scanners." From this screen, select "Add a printer or scanner" and then "Add device." Your portable printer should appear, at which point you'll select "Add device" again.At this point, your portable printer should be connected to your laptop and ready for printing.

How do I print from my iPhone?

The most common method of printing from your iPhone is by using AirPrint. For AirPrint to work, both your phone and portable printer must be on the same Wi-Fi network. You can print from Mail, Photos, or Safari using the "Share" feature, which should populate "Print" as an option.Some portable printers support Bluetooth connections, which you can set up by going into your iPhone's "Settings" and "Bluetooth." Tape the Bluetooth switch to "On" and make the printer discoverable by following its included directions. When the printer name appears on your iPhone, tap it to connect. Printing is performed the same way as it was over Wi-Fi.

Why is my printer offline?

Your portable printer may be offline for a number of reasons . The easiest solution is to check if the printer is on. If it is, check the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection to make sure your phone and printer are connected to one another.If you're still having issues, check the Print Spooler by searching for "Services" in your laptop's Search bar, then select "Services." In the window that opens, scroll until you find "Print Spooler." Right-click on it and select "Restart." The Print Spooler is responsible for managing print jobs to your computer.If all else fails, you can reinstall the printer and reconnect it to your device.

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The 10 Best Portable Printers for Travel in 2023 [Documents & Photos]

Amar Hussain

Senior Content Contributor

775 Published Articles

Countries Visited: 63 U.S. States Visited: 9

Keri Stooksbury

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Things To Consider With Portable Printers

1. the perfect printer for small jobs, 2. compact printers for workers on-the-go, 3. printer with rechargeable batteries, 4. the most slimline portable printer, 5. best multi-functional portable printer, 6. the most affordable portable printer, 1. the pocket-friendly photo printer, 2. portable 4 x 6 photo printer, 3. truly pocket-sized printer, 4. retro-style portable printer, final thoughts.

We may be compensated when you click on product links, such as credit cards, from one or more of our advertising partners. Terms apply to the offers below. See our Advertising Policy for more about our partners, how we make money, and our rating methodology. Opinions and recommendations are ours alone.

Even in an increasingly paperless world, there are still times when having a portable printer is crucial. Whether it’s for quickly printing important personal documents, labels for your small business, or printing photos, a good portable printer is bound to save you time and energy.

Some portable printers are great all-around and can print documents and pictures, while others stand out for top-quality photo printing — we’ve considered all the options for you.

Many portable printers are available these days with various functions and specifications to suit everyone’s needs. Before you click to buy, consider a few things to make sure you’ve found the right fit for you.

Primary Purpose

If you’re in the market for a portable printer, you’ll want to narrow down your search and ensure it’s capable of printing what you require . There’s no point in buying a high-tech printer if you just need bare-bones printing, or buying a standard printer when you only intend on printing photos.

For a range of projects, you might also want to consider looking for a good, multi-functional portable printer to suit your needs.

Weight and Size

The weight and size of a portable printer is an important factor in assessing how and where you will most need to use it. Smaller, lighter printers are ideal for those on the go — something to keep in mind if you frequent different workspaces but still need the option of printing.

Conversely, if you have a roomy home office where you need a printer but are less likely to move it around often, you might not be so picky about weight or larger dimensions.

Connection Type

Some people prefer printers that can easily connect with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and some prefer good old-fashioned USB connections. While there are pros and cons to each, it’s best to find a printer that has a connection type that works for you.

Bottom Line: Wireless options can be great for portability and a minimalist look, but wired printers won’t face issues with wireless disconnection and are also the most secure option.

Printing Speed and Quality

Printing speed is usually a tradeoff for portability when it comes to printers, but many portable options can still get the job done in a reasonable time. Printer speed is often referred to in “ppm” or (pages per minute) or “ipm” (images per minute), both of which give you a general idea of how quickly it does the job.

On the quality side, dpi, or dots per inch, is the most common way of gauging the printing resolution. These details may not matter much for plain text-only printing, but if you require high-quality, detailed output, then pay attention to these specs .

Power Source

If you’re planning on using a printer in an area where power isn’t an issue, you might not be as picky about its power source. However, rechargeable printers allow a lot more flexibility in where and how you print and come in really handy if you frequently travel for work.

The 6 Best Portable Printers for Documents

With enough portable printer options online to make your head spin, you’ll want to check out our round-up of top products below – bound to make your life a whole lot easier.

Canon PIXMA TS Series Wired Inkjet Printer

This single-function printer is perfect for low-volume printing and high-quality results. It can print documents and photos with resolutions as high as 4800 x 1200 dpi and up to 7.7 ipm in black ink and 4 ipm in color.

Capable of using most common paper types, it can hold up to 60 sheets of plain paper or 20 sheets of 4 x 6-inch photo paper. Using a hybrid ink system, pigment-based black ink produces crisp lines while dye-based ink yields beautiful, vibrant colors.

Weighing 7 pounds and measuring 20 x 12 x 3 inches, it’s a great option for your home office or small personal printing jobs. You won’t find Bluetooth or wireless connection here — just a standard, no-fuss USB connection with the included 4-foot cable.

For added performance, a selectable quiet mode keeps the noise down, and it has an automatic power-saving mode in case you forget to turn it off.

What We Like:

• Great for basic printing needs

What We Don’t Like:

• Reports of low ink reserve

HP OfficeJet 200 Portable Printer

Perfect if you change workspaces often or run small business booths, this printer is less than 5 pounds and can fit into a laptop bag and go where you need it. A rechargeable battery that reaches full charge in 90 minutes makes it a practical option for those on the go.

Devices with the free HP ePrint app downloaded can print wirelessly, and you can also print via the USB cable included. The tray holds up to 50 sheets of regular paper, and you can print both documents and high-quality photos.

Quality can be as much as 4800 x 1200 dpi, and speeds can reach up to 10 ppm for black ink; 7 ppm for color ink.

• Perfect size for toting around
• Wi-Fi setup may be time consuming

Epson Workforce WF-110 Wireless Mobile Printer

Compact and sleek, this slightly more affordable option offers wireless printing from various devices. Capable of running on AC power or its rechargeable battery , the WF-110 charges using USB cables or an AC adapter.

You can expect battery-operated print speeds of 3.5 ISO ppm for black ink and 2 ISO ppm for color, with up to 6.7 ISO ppm for black ink and 3.8 ISO ppm for color ink when it’s plugged in. Easily select features such as double-sided printing, or get quality photos printed up to 4 x 6 inches.

Under 5 pounds and small enough to fit into your bag, it also uses voice activation printing, so Google Assistant or Alexa can handle some of the work for you. A small LCD color display panel means easy setup and function selection, while the automatic power saving mode helps make the most of your battery life.

• A rechargeable battery makes it extra handy
• Slightly slower print speeds

HPRT Wireless Bluetooth Portable Printer

Impressively light at just 3.45 pounds, this slimline printer can print 300 dpi and can be easily slipped into your bag or purse without hassle. It comes with a carrying case and its design makes it a prime option for those requiring a travel printer or one for small offices with limited desk space.

Thermal transfer technology means this is a no-mess, inkless printer , and each easily replaceable thermal ribbon can print up to 45 sheets of standard letter-sized paper. It’s easy to use and set up, and once your device supports the app, you can get to printing via Bluetooth or USB input.

As part of it being so slimline, this printer doesn’t have a bulky paper tray, and it’s best used for single-page jobs as paper must be aligned and fed through the printer.

• Slimline design is perfect for traveling
• Limited to smaller print jobs

HP OfficeJet 250 All-In-One Portable Printer

While some machines keep it simple with printer-only functions, others are fully-loaded, like this all-in-one printer, scanner, and copier .

Wireless connection and quick setup make it user-friendly, and a color touch screen means you can easily toggle through mode selections. Print speeds average about 10 ppm black or 7 ppm color, and it is also capable of printing envelopes and card stock — a great feature for all types of business.

This is a great addition for professionals who travel frequently or those who need a printer capable of multiple tasks. It easily fits into your backpack, car, or carry-on, and it’s also pretty light at just 6.5 pounds.

The rechargeable battery is fully charged in under 3 hours, and it means one less cable you need to pack up to be on your way.

• Scan, copy, and print features
• Some wireless connection issues

Canon TS302 Wireless Inkjet Printer

If you’ve checked out a few portable printer options and been a little surprised at the cost, don’t worry — there are still affordable options to fit every budget. The TS302 is a good option for small businesses trying to keep costs down or for anyone with lower-output printing needs.

A smaller price tag doesn’t mean less capable, either — it’s still a wireless inkjet that can connect to smartphones and laptops to print, scan and copy your documents . It’s capable of printing in black and color, holds up to 60 sheets of standard-sized paper, and can also print quality 4 x 6 photo prints.

Still reasonably light at 6.5 pounds, it has slightly larger dimensions of 17 x 11.1 x 5.7 inches, but it’s still portable enough to pack up wherever work takes you.

• Great value for money
• Larger dimensions make it slightly less portable

The 4 Best Portable Photo Printers

Kodak step wireless mobile photo mini printer.

Camera phones have come a long way in making photography accessible, but printing all those memories can still be an obstacle.

The Kodak Step makes it easier, letting you print 2 x 3-inch black and color pictures in only 1 minute. It uses zero ink or “Zink” technology, so you’ll only need paper replacements instead of ink cartridges or ribbons .

This rechargeable printer is also compact at 3 x 5 x 1 inches and just 8.5 ounces, easily fitting into small purses and backpacks for printing at your fingertips. You can also use the Kodak app to edit your photos beforehand and add fun stickers — so there are loads of ways to customize your photos.

• Photo paper has adhesive backing for instant stickers
• Lower print quality

Kodak Dock Plus Portable Instant Photo Printer

Kodak has a few great options to fit various budgets, and the Dock Plus is one of their higher-end photo printers available. Though it supports Bluetooth connection, it mainly uses a USB-C docking port to connect your phone to the printer, but also includes an iOS adapter for iPhone users.

It prints 4 x 6-inch photos, which can be bordered or borderless, and uses a laminating process for fingerprint-free, long-lasting prints . The Kodak Photo Printer app lets you edit photos, add stickers, and even make collages as well, so the possibilities are endless.

You can easily pack it up to take with you, and it is a great way to print and share memories with others along the way.

• Prints larger 4 x 6 photos
• Paper might be tricky to refill

HP Sprocket Select Portable Instant Photo Printer

Although a few of the photo printers are pretty small, the Sprocket is quite literally pocket-sized at 3 x 4.5 inches and weighs in at only 6 ounces .

Supporting both Android and iOS, it uses Bluetooth to print 2.3 x 3.4-inch photos using Zink sticky-backed paper, meaning your photos can also instantly become stickers. The photo paper is easily reloadable 10 sheets at a time and is smudge-, water-, and tear-resistant for extra durability.

You can edit photos through the HP Sprocket app by adding text, doodles, stickers, and frames, making this rechargeable printer also really fun for kids to use.

• Small and convenient to carry around
• Bluetooth printing only

Kodak Mini 3 Retro Portable Photo Printer

If you want to enjoy new technology but still love classic vibes, this portable printer is a fun option. It prints 3 x 3-inch photos for that retro look , and you can use the Kodak app to customize them by selecting bordered or borderless options or by adding stickers, frames, and more.

Measuring 5.1 x 4.1 inches and weighing just under a pound, it can easily fit in your hand, purse, or backpack right, along with fingerprint-proof and water-resistant photos. It uses Bluetooth to connect to your favorite devices and has a rechargeable battery for portable convenience.

• New technology with retro vibes
• Limited photos per cartridge

Having a portable printer is a great option for quickly and seamlessly getting the job done without visiting printing centers or struggling with large, cumbersome printers. Increasingly popular and important with the rise of at-home work, there are tons of options to suit your style and preferences.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are portable printers cost-effective.

You should consider the price of the printer, replacement part costs, and frequency of use. Portable printers are most effective for small, low-output jobs where the convenience of having a compact printer outweighs the cost of outsourcing printing.

Can all portable printers print photos?

No, not all portable printers are capable of printing photos. Some printers are strictly for documents, others strictly for photos, and some cater to both needs. Read up on the specs to be sure you’re getting what you want, and pay particular attention to dpi for an idea of what kind of photo quality you’ll receive.

How do you connect to portable printers?

Portable printers use multiple technologies to connect, including Bluetooth, wireless, and USB wired connections. Although they are super convenient, it is worth noting that these connections are often less secure. If you are concerned about privacy and confidentiality, printers with wired options may be worth considering.

Are printers compatible with all operating systems?

No, some printers may not support certain operating systems. Check the technical specifications to make sure it’s compatible with your computer, tablet, or smartphone.

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About Amar Hussain

Amar is an avid traveler and tester of products. He has spent the last 13 years traveling all 7 continents and has put the products to the test on each of them. He has contributed to publications including Forbes, the Huffington Post, and more.

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The Best Portable Printers for 2024

Business trip, road trip, or just a trip across town our top tested travel printers will let you print photos, documents, and more on the spot, wherever you are..

Canon Pixma TR150 Wireless Portable Printer

HP OfficeJet 250 Mobile All-In-One Printer

Brother PocketJet PJ883

Canon Selphy CP1500

Kodak Step Instant Mobile Photo Printer

HP Sprocket 3x4 Instant Photo Printer

Kodak Mini 3 Retro (3x3) Portable Printer

Epson LabelWorks LW-PX300VP Full Printer Kit

Epson LabelWorks LW-PX900PCD Deluxe Kit

Colop e-mark

At first blush, the thought of a fully portable printer, designed to run on battery power, may seem like a total oxymoron: Carry your Canon? Haul your HP? Truth is, only a few current portable printers can serve as the kind of all-purpose printing tool you might picture when you think of a typical desktop printer. But like most tech today, printers have seen some serious diversification and specialization. Now, you can find a wealth of portable printers that aren't all-purpose but do a single thing well.

We've outlined below our top picks among portable printers we've tested. Read on for our labs-tested favorites, followed by the buying basics you should know when choosing one. Also note: At the very end of this article is a detailed spec breakout, in chart form, of our top choices.

You Can Trust Our Reviews

Deeper dive: our top tested picks, why we picked it.

The Canon Pixma TR150 Wireless Portable Printer is one of the most portable and most capable inkjet printers available. Just 4.5 pounds without its optional battery, or 5.1 pounds with it, it's smaller and lighter than its closest competition, if only by a small amount in most cases, and it delivers equal or better performance.

As with most other portables, the TR150 offers output quality well within the range you would expect from an inkjet. But it also delivers top-tier print speed for a portable model. On our tests, it was more than twice as fast on our business-applications suite as any of its competition, and just 4 seconds behind first place for photos, at 50 seconds each. It helps, too, that its cost per page is competitive, and its 50-sheet paper tray is more than enough for most printing needs on the road.

Who It's For

Anyone who needs a portable all-purpose printer on the go should at least consider the TR150, whether they need to connect by Wi-Fi Direct to mobile devices, by USB 2.0 to a PC, or by Wireless PictBridge to cameras that support it. However, one feature its competitors lack will pique road warriors who need to print output at a customer site. You can create up to five templates, save them to the printer, and then print directly from the control panel when needed. That's a neat trick that lets you print an application, a consent form, or a flyer for a potential customer without connecting anything to the printer.

• Small footprint
• Excellent print quality, especially photos
• Robust mobile device support
• Possible to save predefined templates onboard
• Optional detachable battery
• Slow output
• Lacks support for flash drives
• Somewhat high cost per page
• Rechargeable battery is pricey

The HP OfficeJet 250 All-in-One Printer is the only current AIO portable inkjet we know of, but that's not the only reason we've included it here. It impressed us enough when we reviewed it to earn an Editors' Choice award for a portable printer, with its ability to scan and copy being only one reason why.

Along with typical text quality for an inkjet, the OfficeJet 250 offers at least slightly above-par graphics and photos. It was also faster on our tests than most print-only portables. And while it can't print two-sided documents automatically (a limitation shared by its single-function competition), it offers manual duplexing, which lets you print one side, then reinsert the pages in the 50-page ADF to print the other side. The simplex (single-sided) scanner offers a separate 10-sheet ADF for scanning and copying. Connection choices include USB, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Direct, which lets you print from iOS and Android phones and tablets as well as PCs.

A portable AIO is of obvious interest to anyone who needs to both scan and print (including for copying) while on the go. But even within that group, it's not for everyone. If you usually need scanning only or printing only, you could be better off with a separate printer and scanner, to let you carry just the one you need on a given trip. But if you usually need both scanning and printing, the OfficeJet 250 will be less cumbersome to set up. Even better, it may be lighter that the combined weight of two units.

• Scans and copies.
• Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and USB connectivity.
• Rechargeable battery.
• 50-sheet input tray.
• 10-sheet ADF.
• Output quality worthy of a desktop inkjet.
• High claimed page yields for print cartridges.
• Lighter than its predecessor.
• Fast photo printing.
• Lacks a USB cable.
• Heavier than most laptops.

Portable thermal printers are a niche type. They are commonly used for applications that require printing in a vehicle—from receipts in a delivery truck to tickets in a police car. But their light weight and small size also make them good choices for everything from printing a roofing proposal at a potential customer's kitchen table to using simply as a highly portable printer for anything you might need to print on the go. The PocketJet PJ883 comes from a long line of Brother portable thermal models that do this one thing well: give you clean monochrome output from anywhere. This unit delivers highly flexible connectivity (via USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, or Bluetooth), and the output quality is better than you would expect from the print technology.

It's decidedly not for anyone who needs color output, but the PJ883 is great for traveling salespeople or contractors who need to generate documents, bills, or agreements on the spot. Brother also offers lesser, lower-cost models for folks who don't need to pay the premium for the PJ883's plethora of connection types. (Sometimes, just a USB will do.)

• Smaller and lighter than mobile inkjets
• Surprisingly good output quality
• Prints via USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and Bluetooth
• Thermal paper eliminates any need for ink
• Monochrome printing only

Most fully portable photo printers today offer wallet-size or slightly larger prints, so if you want a 4-by-6-inch picture size, which the Canon Selphy CP1500 offers, you have limited choices. Fortunately that doesn't mean you have to make compromises. The latest in the long-running Selphy line of portables, the CP1500 in particular delivers a solid feature set; drugstore-grade photo quality, courtesy of its dye sub technology; and a reasonably low running cost, at a bit above or below 30 cents per 4-by-6-inch photo. (The cost covers both the paper and required dye rolls.)

The CP1500 weighs 2.5 pounds with the paper cassette and its dye roll inserted, but not the optional battery, which can print up to 54 photos per charge, according to Canon. This model can print from an SD or microSD card, a USB thumb drive (you get a Type-C, not Type-A, port for that), an iOS or Android phone or tablet, or a macOS or Windows PC, and it can connect via USB cable or Wi-Fi.

In our tests, it took the CP1500 a bit less than a minute to print each sample photo, complete with a protective coating. And the dye sub picture comes out fully waterproof, without needing drying time, and with a long promised lifetime, rated at 100 years.

The CP1500's 4-by-6 inch picture size, image quality, and long life for its prints are aimed at producing photos likely to wind up displayed in a frame or saved in an album, and the image quality is easily suitable for that. If you're looking for a printer exclusively for wallet-size photos or sticking to various objects, you can use the CP1500 for those as well, but you'll have to cut the photos down to size after printing, and depend on refrigerator magnets, glue, and push pins to make them stick.

• Solid photo print quality
• Low running costs (for 4-by-6-inch media)
• Supports multiple paper sizes with inexpensive tray option
• Easy-to-use control panel
• Prints from USB and SD card memory devices
• Optional battery
• No Windows or macOS software (companion apps are phone-oriented)
• Photo paper stock provided in packs of consumables is thin

Printers for wallet-size photos are among the most portable printers today, and this Kodak model serves as a prime example of why. One big advantage it has over printers for larger photos is that keeping the photo size to 2 by 3 inches means the chassis can be trimmed down. The Step Instant measures all of 1 by 3 by 5 inches (HWD) and weighs just under a pound. As with much of its competition, it's designed as a phone and tablet accessory, offering Bluetooth and NFC as the only connection options, printing strictly from iOS and Android phones and tablets.

The printer uses Zink technology, which creates images by heating dye crystals embedded in the paper, without the ink cartridge or dye ribbon some other portables use (another slimming factor). Cost per print is reasonable, at around 50 cents, and the print speed is right-on among Zink printers we've tested, at around a minute a snap. The print quality is also on par among Zink-based printers, which is to say that the prints make for nice stickers and casual snapshots to share, but output from dye sub and inkjet printers tends to look a tad sharper.

Thanks to smartphones, almost nobody carries photos in wallets today, but there are plenty of other ways to use a wallet-size picture—from scrapbooking to sticking it on a locker door or notebook cover. Using Zink technology makes the sticking part easy, since you get an adhesive sticky back on the pictures, under a protective layer you can peel off (or not). And, of course, if you want to keep a picture in your wallet, it will let you do that as well.

• Low purchase price and competitive running costs
• Good output quality
• Multiple bundles available
• Supports NFC
• Only wireless (no USB) connectivity
• No support for Windows or macOS laptops or desktops

The key question for choosing any portable snapshot printer is whether it can print the photo sizes you want. That makes the HP Sprocket 3x4 a good candidate if you want photos up to 3 by 4 inches and no larger. Like most of its competition—including the Kodak Step Instant Mobile Photo Printer, our current top pick for wallet size (2-by-3-inch) photos—the Sprocket 3x4 is small and light, includes a built-in battery, connects without wires (using Bluetooth, in this case), and is reasonably inexpensive.

If the Sprocket 3x4's output is the right size for your needs, and you appreciate that its paper has adhesive on the back (with a peelable backing, so you can stick the photos wherever you like), it could easily be your best choice.

• Prints 3.5-by-4.25-inch photos on sticky-back photo paper
• Light (less than a pound, with battery)
• Prints from Android and iOS devices via Bluetooth
• Prints from your device's gallery and your Instagram, Facebook, Google accounts
• Sprocket App lets you take photos, as well as edit and print them
• Typical middling Zink output quality
• Finding features in the print app can be a challenge
• All photos print with white borders

For a photos with a square aspect ratio printed at just bit larger than wallet size, it's hard to beat the Kodak Mini 3 Retro. The printer weighs just shy of a pound, measures 1 by 5 by 4 inches (HWD), and prints 3-by-3-inch photos using dye-sub technology and a four-pass ribbon, with the last pass laying down a clear projective coating. As is typical of dye sub printers, the picture quality is a clear step above what you'd expect from competing printers that use Zink technology. Kodak promises a long life for the prints, too, rating them at up to 100 years.

Like many small-format portable photo printers, the Mini 3 Retro is basically a smartphone and tablet accessory. It connects by Bluetooth only, and it supports only Android and iOS devices. The onboard battery is rated for 25 prints on a charge. In addition to its high-quality output, the printer also offers a fast print speed and a low cost per print—for this category of printer, at least. We measured it at 43 seconds when printing edge to edge, and a few seconds faster when printing with a border. The most economical packs of ribbon and paper we could find at this writing work out to 33 cents per print.

The Mini 3 Retro's 1:1 aspect ratio—the ratio of width to height—for its photos will be of particular interest for Instagram users, thanks to the square shape being one of the preferred choices for Instagram Photos. The shape is also common on other social media sites for their profile pictures. Having the same aspect ratio for the printer will let you print those photos without needing to crop them first, although it also means you'll need to take the time to properly crop photos that use other aspect ratios before printing them with the Retro.

• Fine photo quality in 3-inch square print format
• Prints both borderless and bordered photos
• Comes with enough consumables for 68 photos
• Bluetooth only; no Wi-Fi connectivity
• Android or iOS only; no Windows or macOS support

Our top pick for light-duty standalone printing of industrial-style labels, the LW-PX300 can print on any of 81 continuous tapes. Choices include standard plastic (polyester), silver matte, strong adhesive, vinyl, fluorescent tapes, and magnetic tapes (think: refrigerator magnets). These come in a variety of colors, and in widths ranging from 6mm (0.24 inch) to 18mm (0.71 inch). Even better, the printer doesn't cost a lot. It lists for just $59 for the printer itself or $80 for the LW-PX300VP kit, which adds a hard-shell carrying case, a rubber case cover to help protect against damage, and an AC adapter you can use instead of six AA batteries when you're near a power outlet.

Designed for desktop or handheld use, the LW-PX300 offers a QWERTY keyboard, a comfortable shape for handheld thumb-typing, and a 1.8-pound weight with batteries. A backlit LCD makes it easy to see menu options and the label you're creating or about to print. It's strictly a standalone printer, but its firmware includes features like being able to store 50 labels to print as needed. And Epson's lifetime warranty means that unless you outgrow it, you'll likely never need to buy a new one.

If you need moderate or heavy-duty printing, you'll want a printer that's a little faster, and perhaps one that prints from a computer or mobile device. But for light-duty printing, the LW-PX300's wide choice of tapes and affordable price—alone or as part of the LW-PX300VP kit—can make it a compelling choice for small businesses and hobbyists. Quite simply, it will give you lots of label flexibility without having to spend a lot of money to get it.

• Affordable, industrial-style labeling
• Easy-to-use handheld design with QWERTY keyboard
• Tape choices include plastic, vinyl, magnetic, and fluorescent up to 18mm
• Saves up to 50 labels in memory for easy reprinting
• Lifetime warranty
• Noticeably slow print speed
• Doesn't connect to a PC or mobile device for printing
• Batteries not included

There are heavier-duty label printers than the LW-PX900, but they aren't handheld portables. The printer is available by itself with an AC adapter, but we'd recommend the LW-PX900PCD Deluxe Kit, which adds a rechargeable battery, a hard-shell carrying case, and two industrial magnets that let the printer stick to any handy ferromagnetic surface. Either choice comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Whatever type of industrial labeling you need, odds are that the LW-PX900 has a tape for it, with roughly 150 choices in widths from 4mm to 36mm (0.16 inch to 1.42 inches), and more than a dozen different types of tapes, most of which come in an assortment of colors as well as widths. For standalone printing, the LW-PX900 offers a QWERTY keyboard and onboard options that, among other features, let you add bar codes or any of 859 symbols to your labels as well as store up to 100 label definitions. It can also print from a Windows PC using Epson's Label Editor program, which is one of the most capable label programs we've seen.

Nearly any business that needs to print a lot of labels on a regular basis, particularly while on site at a job, should find the LW-PX900 worth considering, assuming it prints the type of labels you need, starting with the right width. If you need wider labels than it can print, you'll need to look elsewhere, and if you can get by without its widest labels, you might save a bit with another choice. But if the 1.42-inch width is the right size, or you need to label lots of cables (say, in a data center), the LW-PX900PCD Deluxe Kit is likely the printer you want.

• Has a keypad and memory for standalone printing, plus label app for Windows PCs
• Supports many label types and materials, in sizes up to 1.42 inches wide
• Can cut labels without cutting the backing, leaving a continuous strip
• Lifetime warranty, and tested to 4-foot drops
• Too heavy for comfortable thumb typing
• No macOS print app or driver available

The Colop e-mark, which you hold in your hand while printing and drag over the page you're printing on, is less a portable inkjet printer than a portable printhead, with your arm serving as the printer mechanism. It functions as the digital version of a rubber stamp. But more important, it's a major improvement over that stamp. It can hold three imprint designs in memory at once, and each can be up to 5.9 inches long. And you can easily switch among them as needed.

The e-mark lets you print in color, thanks to its use of a tricolor cartridge, and lets you both create and change the stored imprints whenever you like, using an app on your PC or Android device that's similar to a standard label-printer app. As with a rubber stamp, you can print on any surface that can accept ink. Unlike a rubber stamp, the e-mark is powered by a battery, but it can deliver hundreds of prints on a single charge.

The most obvious reason for getting the e-mark is to replace two or three rubber stamps you use regularly, to take up less space. But don't overlook its ability to replace a label printer for light-duty use, particularly in cases where you can print on something directly rather than paste a label on it. The app even includes a numbering generator that will let you create imprints that update themselves automatically, so you can, for example, stamp objects in serial-number order.

• Prints on lots of different materials.
• Sleek, miniature body.
• Easy-to-use design and print apps for PC and mobile.
• Good print quality.
• Low running costs.
• Quirky Android software.

Buying Guide: The Best Portable Printers for 2024

Choosing the right category of portable printer for how you print is usually easy. (If you want to print photos from your phone on the go, for example, you'll probably start by looking for a compact photo printer.) But it's still worth knowing what those categories are before you begin shopping. The four main classes of portable printer are (1) all-purpose printers, (2) photo printers, (3) label printers, and (4) monochrome thermal printers.

Let's take a look at each. (We'll also serve up some tips on how to pick the right one for the job at hand.)

All-Purpose Portable Inkjet Printers

It's not hard to find standard inkjet printers that are small and light enough to take with you on a business trip or vacation, so you can print a letter- or legal-size document in your hotel room before a meeting, or print photos of a family picnic. To count as "portable" for purposes of this roundup, however, the printer also needs the ability to run on battery power , at least as an option. The battery will let you print anywhere, including in your car or while on that picnic, with no AC outlet in sight. These true portables are rare, but they do exist—Canon, Epson, and HP have a handful. Their offerings even fall into two subcategories: single-function printer, and all-in-one printer.

These all-purpose printers are all inkjets. To the extent that you need to check out and compare basics like print quality, print speed, paper capacity, maximum duty cycle (how much you can print per month without risking damaging the printer), and whether the printer can duplex (print on both sides of the page), choosing among them is similar to choosing any all-purpose printer. But there are also some special considerations for portables.

SIZE AND WEIGHT. Any printer is portable if you have a big enough truck! The question is whether it's small and light enough to carry easily, particularly if you want to pack it in a suitcase or backpack. Weights for current all-purpose inkjet models range from 3.5 pounds to a little less than 7 pounds. Keep in mind, also, that if you don't need to bring the battery on a particular trip, you can shave off as much as half a pound. So check the weights both with and without batteries. (And if you might go without batteries, factor in the power cord or adapter.)

BATTERIES. In most cases, the battery isn't included in the base price, so if you want to use the printer on battery power, be sure to check whether one is included at the prices you're basing comparisons on. Also look for the battery life expressed in pages. Depending on how much you print on an average page, you may not get as many pages per charge as promised, but the higher the rating, the better. And because you don't want to be sitting in your car with a dead printer battery just when you need to print something for a meeting, consider buying a second battery, so you have a charged spare to fall back on.

CONSUMABLES AND PAPER HANDLING. This area also encompasses factors such as speed and running cost. The potential range of print quality across portable inkjets is comparable to what you would expect from any other inkjet. However speed, paper handling, cartridge capacity, and running cost are not. The small size of a portable printer is necessarily tied to slower, lighter-duty print and paper-feed mechanisms, as well as limits on how much paper can fit in the tray. Smaller printers also don't offer enough room for large ink cartridges, which leads to a higher cost per page.

For each of these issues, be prepared to adjust your expectations, making your comparisons to other portable models, rather than to inkjet printers in general. For example, an auto-duplexing mechanism, which is common for full-size inkjets, adds size and weight. So expect support for manual duplexing, at best, with the printer first printing all odd-numbered pages, then making you reinsert the stack before printing the other side of each sheet. (We cover all these areas in our reviews.)

CONNECTIONS. Most all-purpose portable printers offer both Wi-Fi and USB for connections. Some support PictBridge, as well, for printing photos directly from cameras that support the spec. If you want to connect cable-free via Wi-Fi, make sure the printer supports Wi-Fi Direct. And if you might need to print straight from your phone or tablet, make sure the printer also supports mobile printing with your specific device.

PORTABLE ALL-IN-ONES. Portable AIOs are even rarer than portable single-function printers. Don't expect a lot from the scanner in the way of paper handling or other scan capability. If you won't need scanning on every trip, consider pairing a printer-only portable with a portable scanner , so you can lighten the load on trips that won't need scanning.

Photo Printers: Portable Models

Portable photo printers are just what the name indicates: printers that are designed to work on battery power and are strictly for churning out snapshots. The key differentiator for these printers is the size of the prints.

Dedicated snapshot (or small-format) printers are limited to printing at smaller than letter size, and often at only one or two specific sizes. As we point out in our more general roundup of photo printers , these models are less centered on printing from a computer than on printing photos from whatever the source, and most are meant as standalone consumer gadgets. Their focus is on ease of use and on printing snapshots from smartphones.

PHOTO AND PRINTER SIZE. For obvious reasons, the smaller and more portable the printer, the smaller the maximum size photo it can print. Typical sizes are wallet size (roughly 2 by 3 to 2.5 by 3.5 inches), 4 by 6 inches, and Instagram-style square prints. Most models support just one of these. The printers themselves can weigh as little as a few ounces if limited to wallet-size photos or as much as three or more pounds for models that can print on 4-by-6 stock. Sizes can range from small enough to fit in a pocket or purse to large enough to need a backpack or briefcase.

BATTERIES. Compared with printers for 4-by-6-inch photos, smaller snapshot printers are more likely to include rechargeable batteries in their base price. But be sure to check, in either case, when comparing prices between printers and when ordering. Also check how many photos you can print on a full charge.

PRINT TECHNOLOGY. Virtually all portable photo printers use one of three technologies, and inkjet technology, notably, is no longer on the list. (Epson offers an inkjet for photos up to 5 by 7 inches, but it doesn't qualify as "fully portable" by our definition for this roundup, since it works only with AC power.)

The three current portable photo printer technologies are (1) Zink, which is short for Zero Ink, (2) instant film, the same as for instant cameras, and (3) dye sublimation, usually referred to as dye sub. Zink printers use special paper with embedded chemicals that create the image by changing color when heated. Dye sub printers also use special paper, but in combination with a dye-infused roll consisting of repeating panels that typically include the three primary colors (cyan, yellow, and magenta), plus a clear panel to add a protective coating. Printing each photo requires a separate pass for each panel. (Fun fact: They aren't really using dye sub technology, which is used for dyeing fabrics. They're technically "thermal dye transfer printers." But that doesn't stop anyone from calling them dye subs.)

OUTPUT QUALITY AND SPEED. One consideration when choosing a technology is that dye sub and instant film offer better quality than Zink, which is best reserved for photos that are destined to sit in your wallet, be taped to a locker door, or be pinned to a bulletin board. Beyond that, be sure to check our reviews for comments about each printer's photo quality. Speed is not much of an issue for any of these printers (as they're designed to output one or two prints at a go), but you'll want to confirm that for any printer you're considering. Our reviews include our timed results.

COST PER PHOTO. It's easy to compute the cost per photo for these printers. Zink paper, dye-sub supplies, and instant film all come in packs that deliver an exact number of photo prints. Dividing the cost per pack by that number tells you the cost per photo. If you're trying to decide between one printer with a low initial price and another with a higher price but a lower cost per photo, you might want to consider the total cost of ownership as well. Dividing the additional cost for the more expensive printer by the savings per photo for that printer will tell you how many photos you'll have to print for the lower cost per photo to save you money over the printer's lifetime.

CONNECTIONS. Some portable photo printers offer a USB connection and can print from a computer. Most are designed primarily to print wirelessly from phones or tablets using manufacturer-supplied apps. Older models often include Wi-Fi Direct, and also PictBridge, to print from cameras that support it. But for printers that are designed to work with smartphones, Bluetooth is the most common connection method supported.

Portable Label Printers

You'll actually see two types of label printers , also known as label makers, on the market. At the risk of oversimplifying a bit, some print paper labels that work best for applications like addressing envelopes and labeling file folders. Others print plastic labels that work best for applications that need more rugged labels, ranging from labeling cables in a data communications center or behind your computer to labeling an outdoor mailbox. The label types are a bit broader than simply paper in one case and plastic in the other, but "paper or plastic" is one handy way to think about them. Another is "office" versus "industrial" label printer.

Most label printers in the paper or office category are meant to sit on a desk. They're small enough to carry easily, but with rare exceptions aren't designed to work on battery power, so not fully portable. On the other hand, printers for plastic, or industrial-type, labeling come in both portable and AC-power only models. Here's what you need to know about them.

FIRST, CONSIDER THE LABEL TYPE. The most important issue for any label printer is whether it can print the type of labels you need at the sizes you need them. Inexpensive models aimed at home use might include tapes with photo-safe, acid-free adhesive, for example, while more expensive models meant for heavy-duty use will likely have more types—including vinyl tapes, heat-shrink tube tapes for cables, and magnetic tapes—but nothing suitable for photos.

Label length isn't usually an issue, since most printers use continuous rolls that you cut to size. But tape width is. Check that the printer can handle the widths you need. Also, keep in mind that the sheer number of choices isn't as important as the number of tape types, since many choices will just be different colors. Make sure there's an appropriate type of tape for your needs in the size or sizes you need it.

STANDALONE PRINTING (OR NOT). Label printers can print from one or more of three sources: By themselves as standalone devices; from a PC, usually connected by USB cable or through a network; or from phones and tablets, connected via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Standalone printing requires a built-in keyboard in either QWERTY or ABCD layout, and usually a one- or two-line LCD to preview what you type before you print the label. Features typically include built-in settings for creating different formats and onboard memory for storing labels you print repeatedly.

Printing from PCs and mobile devices is usually handled by manufacturer-supplied label apps. For PCs, the printer may also come with a driver to print from virtually any program with a print command. But note that setting the right page size and orientation for programs not designed for label printing can be a challenge. Using them can also mean doing without some features most label-printer programs offer, notably bar codes and QR codes.

For most portable use, a built-in keyboard or an app for a mobile device is usually the best choice, depending on which you prefer, but being able to design labels on a PC will let you use a full-size keyboard. If you have any doubts about which approach works best for you, pick a printer that offers more than one option. Also be sure to check the ease of use and range of features for both standalone printing and for apps.

HANDHELD OR NOT. Almost any label printer with its own keyboard will let you enter text while it's sitting on a flat surface. Most are shaped either to let you hold them in one hand while entering text with the other, or to hold in both hands and thumb-type. Pick the approach you're most comfortable with.

BATTERIES. Prices for some portable label printers don't include batteries, so check before buying. Also look for which kind of batteries the printer uses: rechargeable, standard, or either. For those that use rechargeable batteries, consider whether you need an extra, so you can have a spare charged battery handy when needed.

OUTPUT QUALITY AND SPEED. Output quality is not much of a concern for label printers. Resolutions for most range from 180dpi, which is suitable for most purposes, to 360dpi, which will make even small fonts crisp and readable. Print speed isn't usually a concern either, unless you're printing a lot of labels in one session and need to use them right away, in which case, waiting 10 seconds for each 4-inch label can feel like an eternity.

Because the label rolls are generally continuous, the time per label depends on the length, and the printers are rated in millimeters (mm) per second or inches per second (ips). Actual speed in our tests is usually slightly slower than the rating, but print time isn't the only factor to consider.

When using continuous rolls, you have to cut the labels at some point. Some printers have manual cutters, which means you need to take extra time for cutting. For printers with automatic cutting, turning off the auto cutting speeds up print time, but costs even more time later to cut each label off the strip. If you will be regularly printing a lot of labels at once, a key feature to look for is automatic cutting with half cuts, which cuts through the label itself while leaving the carrier strip untouched. This not only keeps the labels conveniently on a single strip, but it makes it far easier to peel each label off, by eliminating the time needed to poke at an edge for each to get the peeling started. In short, extra print time spent for automatic half-cutting can save far more time later.

COST PER LABEL. The cost per label for continuous rolls varies with the length of each label you print. If you want to compare running costs between competing models, divide the cost per roll by the number of inches in the roll, to get a comparable cost per inch. Be sure to do the calculation for the types and widths you plan to use.

SPECIALTY "RUBBER STAMP" PRINTERS. A small subcategory of label printers can substitute for rubber stamps. These are basically handheld inkjets that use a single cartridge, which could be your choice from a selection of single-color cartridges or a tricolor cartridge.

Portable Monochrome Thermal Printers

Start with an old-fashioned fax machine that prints on thermal paper (that is, without ink), throw out the parts that handle faxing, and what you're left with is a basic monochrome printing mechanism. Add your choice of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB connections, a battery, and a driver for your PC's operating system or an app for your mobile device, and you've got a portable, monochrome thermal printer.

Resolutions for these printers can be as low as 203 by 200dpi, which is fine for 10- or 12-point text, but can leave smaller fonts and graphics looking a little ragged. However, it's not hard to find models with 300dpi resolution, which is at the lower end of laser quality. And unlike the paper you may remember from fax machines, paper for many thermal printers is available in cut-sheet and fanfold formats, as well as rolls.

Some portable monochrome thermal printers are built around thermal wax transfer technology. Instead of using thermal paper that changes color in response to heat, these printers use standard paper and a ribbon that's coated with black wax. Heating the ribbon melts the wax, which then sticks to (transfers to) the paper.

Because the printheads are so similar between both types of thermal printers, the output quality is similar as well. The key practical difference between the two types is that you have to buy special paper for the more common thermal printers, but don't need ribbons, while you have to buy ribbons for the thermal wax transfer printers, but don't need special paper. Note that the ribbons retain what amounts to a negative image of anything you print, which means that if you're printing anything meant to be private, you need to be careful where you discard them.

Neither type of printer in this category can substitute for an inkjet if you need color printing, but most are smaller and lighter than portable inkjets. The smallest we've seen weigh just a smidge more than a pound and measure 1.2 by 10 by 2.2 inches (HWD). And because they don't use ink, the only running cost is for the paper. Note that batteries may be optional, and necessarily add weight, so check whether the battery is included, how many pages it can print, and how much it costs. If you don't need to print in color, and you need the lightest printer possible, thermal monochrome printers are well worth considering.

So, What Is the Best Portable Printer to Buy?

One key recommendation for all of these categories: By its nature, a portable printer is likely to suffer more physical abuse than one that sits on a desk. Be sure to check the warranty and consider extending it if you can. And note that at this writing, Epson's LabelWorks printers include a lifetime warranty, which is hard to beat. For printers for business use, also check to see if there's an overnight-replacement option and whether you can take advantage of it even when traveling.

Whatever you're looking for in a portable printer, one of the models above and below is likely a good fit. In addition, be sure to check out our portable choices for best photo printers and best label makers . And if you're looking for a lightweight, standard printer you can press into service as a quasi-portable with AC power only, take a look at our overall top printer recommendations and our picks for top inkjet printers .

More Inside PCMag.com

• The Best All-in-One Printers for 2024
• The Best Printers for 2024
• The Best Portable Scanners for 2024
• The Best Photo Printers for 2024
• The Best Label Makers for 2024

About M. David Stone

My experience.

Most of my current work for PCMag is about printers and projectors, but I've covered a wide variety of other subjects—in more than 4,000 pieces, over more than 40 years—including both computer-related areas and others ranging from ape language experiments, to politics, to cosmology, to space colonies. I've written for PCMag.com from its start, and for PC Magazine before that, as a Contributor, then a Contributing Editor, then as the Lead Analyst for Printers, Scanners, and Projectors, and now, after a short hiatus, back to Contributing Editor.

More From M. David Stone

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Best label printer of 2024

Organize your life with the best label printers on the market

• Best overall
• Best for ease
• Best on a budget
• Best for shipping
• Best rugged
• Best for beginners
• Best for SMBs

Best for connectivity

• Best portable
• How we test

If you're both creative and organized, you've probably thought more than once about investing in the best label printer. Whether this is to mark your jars of homemade honey, better organize the drawers in your workshop or just to mark out your craft supplies, a series of neat labels is the answer.

1. Best overall 2. Best for ease 3. Best on a budget 4. Best for shipping 5. Best rugged 6. Best for beginners 7. Best wired 8. Best for SMBs 9. Best for connectivity 10. Best portable 11. FAQs 12. How we test

These pocket-sized powerhouses are here to revolutionize your labeling game with their versatility and compact charm. In theory, all the best printers on the market are capable of printing labels. You could just feed a sheet of blank labels into your regular desktop printer, then try to print a few using an online template. However, this can be tricky to get right and can be time-consuming.

Instead, the very best label printers feature cutting-edge tools, vibrant printing options, and seamless connectivity that make these standalone label printers the unsung heroes of the organization realm.

The best label printer of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Best label printer overall

1. Epson LW-PX300

Specifications, reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

It's easy to see why Epson LW-PX300 garners such high reviews. The unit is extremely compact and you can input your own wording via the built-in QWERTY keyboard. It can even save and recall up to fifty different labels, so you can reprint at your leisure.

This is a standalone unit. It requires either 6 x AAA batteries (not included) or to be plugged in at all times. If you're willing to pay an extra $30 beyond the base price you can purchase a kit which includes an AC Adapter and carrying case amongst other accessories.

There's no way to connect the device to a smartphone or PC but this isn't a major drawback given how portable the Epson LW-PX300 is. Even with batteries it weighs just 1.8 lb (0.82 kg).

It can print to labels 0.71 inches (1.8 cm) wide and Epson offer over a hundred different types of tape for printing encompassing standard plastic, heat shrink tape and even magnetic decals.

Epson claims the average print speed is 0.24 inches (0.61 cm) per second, which is quite slow compared to other label makers. Still, unless you make a habit of mass label printing, this isn't a major disadvantage.

• ^ Back to the top

Best easy label printer

2. Brother P-touch CUBE Plus PT-P710BT

If you want an easy label making experience, then you can do far worse than the Brother P-touch CUBE series. We've deliberately selected the "Plus" model for review here as it can print on up to 1 inch (0.24 cm) tape whereas the regular Cube can only handle half that size.

Connectivity is by Bluetooth using a dedicated Smartphone app - and it seems even if your desktop PC/laptop is Bluetooth-enabled, you can't print from it. That’s disappointing, but not a deal-breaker.

The app makes the process of label making much easier by offering a variety of ready-to-use templates, fonts and symbols. You can also download desktop software for the P-touch and connect it to your computer via USB. You can also recharge the printer's internal rechargeable battery this way.

The P-touch CUBE Plus uses Brother P-touch TZe laminated label tapes, which are available in a huge range of colors and types including 'Premium Glitter' and matte.

At 1.41 lb (0.64 kg) you can easily slip the printer in your bag but this feather weight isn't surprising given the lack of onboard screen and keyboard. This makes it less ideal if you need to print labels in outdoor/wet environments where you wouldn't normally bring your smartphone.

Best label printer on a budget

3. Brother P-Touch PTD220

Another label printer in the Brother range, the PTD220 takes "no frills" to the extreme and yet remains a very affordable and capable label printer. It's one of Amazon 's best selling label makers and Brother even boasts it was recently designated by Martha Stewart as a "Good Thing" product!

Martha and the good people of Amazon may have given it their seal of approval due to the built-in QWERTY keyboard with monochrome display which supports up to 15 characters per line. They may also have been impressed by the fact the PTD220 can hold up to 30 previously-created labels in memory.

If you want to be more original, there are 25 pre-set label templates, as well as a selection of 14 fonts, 11 font styles, 99 frames and over 600 symbols.

Print speed is a respectable 20mm per second and label width is up to 12mm. Print quality is a clear 180 DPI, albeit only in monochrome.

The PTD220's stated weight is 1.08 lb (0.49 kg) but this doesn't include the 6 AAA batteries (not included) you need to run it. There's also no AC adapter or any way to connect this device to a PC. Still at this price, this printer is ideal for running off labels where you daren't bring more sensitive electronics.

Best label printer for shipping

4. Rollo USB Printer

The Rollo USB label printer is also one of Amazon's best-sellers. It's so-named as there's also a wireless version, which you can buy for an extra $100.

If you're willing to save your money and connect via cable in your home office/small business setup you'll find all your prayers answered if you need to print off multiple shipping labels.

Unlike many of the label printers we've reviewed this one doesn't rely on proprietary tape : Rollo claims it can print to any 4 x 6" shipping label, freeing you from vendor lock in. (This said, if you currently purchase the wireless version they'll throw in 500 free shipping labels too).

The custom "Rollo Ship Manager" app, is compatible with every version of Windows from XP onwards or macOS from v 10.9. It can be used to automatically generate shipping labels for a variety of online marketplaces and even generate shipping discounts for some couriers.

If you do this, you'll be amazed at the Rollo's print speed of 150mm per second - that is to say it can produce up to 60 shipping labels in one minute.

Naturally all of this is only useful to you if you're in the business of printing off shipping labels. If you just want to be able to label your food jars or stationery cupboard, it's hard to justify the price tag.

Best rugged label printer

5. Brady M210

Just from looking at the Brady M210 it's clear this isn't the kind of label printer you buy to organize your spice rack. It's an industrial label printer and is built to last, with the manufacturer claiming it's resistant to 6-foot drops meaning it's safe to bring on the job.

The Brady M210 also has a number of pre-loaded templates including electrical, safety and datacom symbols. It can generate UPC, DataMatrix, and QR Codes.

It supports over 90 types of cartridges (continuous tape and pre-sized labels) and 12 different material types.

There's an onboard gauge which tells you how much material is left and the printer can work with tape up to 0.75 inches (1.9 cm thick). Print speeds are up to 0.60 inches (1.52 cm) per second at a very respectable 203 DPI resolution.

The backlit LCD display makes it perfect for running off labels in dark places like electrical cupboards but we were disappointed to see the keyboard didn't follow the common QWERTY layout. On the plus side the printer has hot-keys you can use for fast label creation.

The basic printer requires 2 AAA batteries. But if you're willing to spend just under 100 dollars on all this, you could also consider doubling the price in order to get the rather expensive accessory kit. This includes an AC Adapter/Battery Charger, M21 Series Nylon Cloth Patch Panel, Wire and Cable Labels, Li-Ion Rechargeable Battery, Quick Start Guide, Replacement Power Cord, and a Hard Case.

Best label printer for beginners

6. brother p-touch cube pt-p300bt.

The P-Touch Cube uses thermal transfer to print onto a variety of Brother’s rolled paper tape and fabric ribbons. It requires no cartridges or cables, while batteries are included to make it truly portable. It’s controlled by a very user-friendly iOS/Android app, which makes it easy to design your labels from a wide choice of fonts and templates. 

The satisfyingly square printer has only two buttons, one to turn it on/off and another to cut the printed tape. Depending on the type of tape you choose, you’ll be able to make sticky colored labels of different widths, or personalized fabric ribbons for gift wrapping and garment labelling. 

The bundled white tape is laminated, making it fade resistant and able to survive the freezer, the microwave and the dishwasher. This inexpensive printer is effective, easy and fun to use, though the rolls of tape are somewhat expensive.  

Best wired label printer

7. Dymo LabelWriter 550

This compact thermal transfer printer is perfect for printing address labels, barcodes, name badges and price tags. It’s a simple and very speedy desktop device that can deliver up to sixty-two monochrome labels per minute. 

Thanks to thermal printing, you won't need to spend a lot on expensive ink or toner to run this label printer. The Dymo LabelWriter 550 lets you print precise label quantities, thereby eliminating excess waste of sheet labels. 

You can create and customize more than sixty label types using the free Dymo Connect Mac/Windows software and print wirelessly onto Dymo’s range of plastic and paper label rolls. 

The included software can tell you the size, type and number of labels reaming on the roll. It’s a reasonably rugged design that’ll sit just as happily on your desk, or in a laboratory or warehouse.  

Best label printer for small businesses

8. Epson ColorWorks TM-C3500

This miniature inkjet printer uses four individual pigment-based inks to create high-resolution full-color labels that dry more quickly than dye-based inks. They are more durable too, ensuring these sticky labels are smudge and water resistant straight away. 

It prints quickly at 103mm per second on a variety of paper and laminated media, and comes with software to help you design your labels. The initial purchase price may seem high, but with individual cartridges available separately, the running cost is lower than most label printers and the print quality is high. This is a high-resolution printer, but the images it prints are not photographic. 

The Epson TM-C3500 is quite suitable for users that need to print small batches of custom labels for new products. The labels get printed swiftly, there's no color bleeding, and they're fairly durable. 

9. Zebra ZD420T

This rugged label printer uses thermal transfer technology to print on rolls of paper between 15 and 112mm in width. That’s broad enough to print tickets, receipts, visitor passes, price tags or address labels. And thermal transfer technology means you don't need to spend on ink and toner. 

You can design the labels using the free software via your iOS, Android, or Windows device, and there are several ways to get connected. Wi-Fi is in-built and it can join your local wireless network, but it also offers Bluetooth in for making a direct connection and even an NFC module. The wireless connectivity makes it quite simple to print labels, but there are wired options too, like USB and Ethernet. 

It’s a fairly solid looking unit that can sit on your desk, or travel with you when you purchase the optional high-capacity battery pack.

Best portable label printer

10. Epson LabelWorks LW-PX400

This compact and lightweight label printer takes regular AA batteries (not included) and connects wirelessly to your PC or mobile device via Bluetooth, so it will work anywhere. It even comes with a clip-one rubber drop-guard. 

Thermal transfer technology means there’s no ink or toner to worry about, you simply buy the rolls of special laminated self-adhesive tape which come in cartridges that slot in easily. There are a few different width and color options to choose from and you get a roll of laminated white 12mm tape in the box. You also get an AC adapter and USB cable for hardwired desktop use.

Along with the AC connection, you have the option to run the printer using six AA batteries. The Epson LW-PX400 lacks a keypad, and you'll need to look at other options if that's a crucial feature for you.

Best label printer: FAQs

Can i print labels from my smartphone or tablet.

As you've seen in this guide, some label printers nowadays don't have a dedicated screen or keyboard. You can simply connect to them via specialist software wirelessly: for instance the Brother P-touch CUBE Plus can be configured via Bluetooth using a Smartphone app.

If you want to do this, make sure to check that your chosen app is compatible with your version of Android/iOS before installing. Check with the printer manufacturer's support team if you're unsure.

What types of labels can I print with a handheld label printer?

Handheld label printers can typically print various types of labels, including adhesive labels, barcode labels, shipping labels, cable labels, file folder labels, and more. Some models even offer specialty label options like heat-shrink tube labels or iron-on fabric labels.

Make sure to check with the printer manufacturer before buying any tape or labels to make sure it's compatible. For instance Dymo uses a special RFID chip in some of its label printers to make sure you're only using officially supported tape.

How to choose the best label printers 

The best label printer for you will depend on its intended use. If you're an industrial worker and need to label circuit boards and wires, a sturdy handheld printer with dedicated display like the Brady M210 might be for you. If you plan to print labels just for life admin or to better organize your hobbies, you can probably get away with a less expensive unit like the Epson LW-PX300.

Other factors and considerations include:

Print Speed

Most people using label printers don't need to run them off at breakneck speed but if you're doing this as part of a business, time is precious. This is where a speedy printer like Rollo's might come in useful, given that it can produce a 4 x 6" shipping label every second.

Print Quality

Pay close attention to the stated DPI (Dots Per Inch) of the printer before buying. You should also check with the manufacturer if there's a specific type of tape/label which works particularly well with their device. If the printer uses pre-made templates, try running off one of these first as a test before creating your own so you can compare.

If your label printer uses tape, make sure that your chosen tape type will work with the device before handing over any money.

Connectivity

If you're planning to print from home this is unlikely to be an issue but if you'll need labels on the fly make sure your other devices support the chosen connection method. Even if your phone supports Bluetooth, for instance, make sure to check the version used by the printer to ensure it's compatible with your mobile device.

Generally more expensive label printers will automatically cut label tape once your text has been printed. Others may require you to do it manually. This is worth checking if you plan to produce hundreds of labels.

How we test the best label printers:

We've tested the best label printers across multiple factors, starting with the type of printing technology they use — thermal or inkjet? 

We looked at what types of printing they'd be most suitable for, whether it's regular text, barcodes, images, or graphics. We evaluated the quality of the printing and the resolution, and checked for smudge and water resistance. 

We then analyzed the label printers' printing speeds and their recommended monthly print volumes. We considered how portable the label printers are and calculated their running costs.

We also checked the connectivity options that the printers featured, and whether they offered wire-free battery operation, among other things. 

Find our more about how we test, review, and rate printers on TechRadar Pro

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Nate Drake is a tech journalist specializing in cybersecurity and retro tech. He broke out from his cubicle at Apple 6 years ago and now spends his days sipping Earl Grey tea & writing elegant copy.

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The Best Portable Printers to Take on the Go

You can’t beat the convenience of documents and photos at your fingertips.

Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Why Trust Us?

If you have a small office or need to print papers while traveling, a portable printer is a worthwhile investment. These days, there are tons of compact, lightweight models are on the market—and many are relatively affordable. Most offer direct wireless connection to laptops and smart devices, so you will be able to connect and print with relative ease while on the go.

Whether you’re looking for a mini photo printer to take on vacation or need something to quickly generate documents before a client meeting, we’ve rounded up the best options to suit your needs and budget. Read on for our top recommendations, along with an explainer on portable printer types and other details you should know before buying.

Best Portable Printers

Best Overall

Hp officejet 200 portable printer.

HP DeskJet 3755 Compact All-in-One

Best for Smartphones

Kodak step wireless mobile printer.

Inconspicuous all-in-one

Hp tango x smart wireless printer.

Vibrant Colors

Canon pixma tr150.

Best for Peel-and-stick photos

Canon ivy mini photo printer.

Best Polaroids

Polaroid originals hi-print.

Fast Printing

Fujifilm instax mini link smartphone printer.

Best with Scanner

Hp officejet 250 all-in-one portable printer.

Ultra-Compact

Brother pocketjet direct thermal printer, what to consider.

The type of portable printer you get largely depends on what functionality you need, which boils down to photos or documents.

Portable photo printers are more compact and affordable and typically use either Zink or dye-sublimation technology. Zink (aka zero ink) printing takes special paper that holds the ink, which is then released through a pressure-printing process. Dye sublimation photo printers are similar, but use actual ink cartridges (which will have to be replaced) and can make more vibrant images by doing more passes on the photo paper. Another perk of dye sublimation is that the photos are water-resistant and more durable over time.

If you want the flexibility to print more than just photos, there are compact printers for standard text documents, too. Though they might not fit in your pocket, some are small enough to pack up in your work bag, and are relatively lightweight. Most use standard inkjet technology. Factors to take into account when comparing features are generally the same as full-size printers, such as print speed, paper auto feed, and two-sided printing.

In terms of powering up portable printers, some must be plugged into an outlet, whereas other run on a rechargeable battery.

Additionally, many portable printers come with nice-to-have features such as scanning and simultaneous connection to multiple devices.

How We Selected

We dug into our own research from previous reporting to select these models and consulted expert reviews from reliable sources like Tech Radar , PC Mag , and Tom’s Guide . Because there are several types of portable printers available, we made sure to include a variety of options across a range of price points for printing both photos and documents. Our final selection includes the best options from top brands including Canon, HP, Epson, and others.

For more printer options check out the best affordable printers , home printers , and small printers .

Thanks to its small size, light weight, and battery compartment, this HP OfficeJet can really print from anywhere. It functions like a standard inkjet printer, and it can print sheets between 3 by 5 inches to 8.5 by 14 inches, as well as envelopes.

This portable printer can fit up to 50 sheets of paper at a time, and it’s even Energy Star-certified. We also like that instead of replacing batteries, you can charge the printer via USB or an AC charger. There are a few downsides to this printer, however, including that it doesn’t have auto two-sided printing or a scanner bed.

If you’re looking for a compact wireless printer that won’t break the bank, the HP DeskJet 3755 is an unbeatable choice. Unlike many portable printers, this model is an all-in-one, meaning it’s able to print, scan, and copy documents.

It can hold up to 60 sheets of paper at a time, and it supports paper sizes up to 8.5 by 14 inches. The printer weighs just over 5 pounds, but the design is bulkier than other options, making it more cumbersome to travel with. Additionally, keep in mind that this printer requires a Wi-Fi connection for wireless printing.

The Kodakøl=k Step is designed to print images directly from your smartphone or tablet, and it’s incredibly easy to operate thanks to its zero-ink design.

The pocket-sized printer charges up via USB cable, and it can create around 25 prints per charge. It uses Bluetooth to connect to both iOS and Android devices, and the KODAK Step app allows you to edit images, create collages, apply filters, and more.

The HP Tango X is a compact printer that can compete with most all-in-ones. Though it doesn’t have a scanner bed, HP’s smart app can handle the occasional scanning and copying through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection.

Best of all, it comes in a fabric cover that can fold it up into a book-like package that’ll look inconspicuous on your desk or a bookshelf when not in use.

It’s not necessarily the most capable printer for its price point, but it’s an excellent option for storing away and pulling back out quickly for convenient, if infrequent, printing.

Canon’s Pixma line of printers are known for their ability to produce vibrant colors thanks to extra color ink cartridges added to the standard CMYK inkjets.

The Pixma TR150 similarly boasts a five-color ink system for high-quality color, whether you use it for photos or other paper documents. Its compact size and optional battery power make it truly portable, though keep in mind that the battery kit is sold separately.

Like other portable photo printers, the Canon Ivy can only connect via Bluetooth, though that shouldn’t be an issue for most smartphone users. Its advantage, however, is its majorly compact size. At only 4 by 3 inches, it fits in a pocket and you can pull out on-the-go to print 2 by 3–inch photos with a peel-and-stick backing.

Canon also offers its own Mini-Print app that allows you to add fun filters and effects to your photos before printing and sharing them with friends.

With its dye-sublimation technology, the Polaroid Hi-Print can create vibrant Polaroid-size prints right from your phone in under a minute.

This portable printer syncs up to your smartphone using Bluetooth, and its images are 2 by 3 inches—the size of a business card. Like HP’s portable printer, Polaroid offers an app for you to apply filters and more customizations to your photos, but you do have to purchase Polaroid’s photo paper cartridges separately.

Super portable, fast, and fun, the Fujifilm Instax is one of the best smartphone printers. It comes in a variety of color options and the Instax app allows you to add fun filters and frames, though it only connects to devices via Bluetooth.

When held vertically, you can print right from your smartphone, while turning it horizontally allows for “Fun Mode” to print from friends’ devices, too. The printer comes in several fun colors, and it offers an extremely fast printing speed of just 12 seconds.

Most portable printers do just that: print. However, if you’re looking for a model that’s a bit more versatile, one of your best options is the HP OfficeJet 250.

This all-in-one portable printer is able to print, copy, and scan documents, and it does it all using battery power, so you aren’t tethered to an outlet. You’re able to print to it from smartphones, tablets and laptops, and it can print documents up to legal size.

The Brother PocketJet thermal printer weighs less than a pound and it won't take up much room in a backpack or laptop bag thanks to its slim design.

The thermal printer also offers with direct compatibility across operating systems, so whether you are using MacOS, Windows or Linux, you should be able to use the printer. Additionally, the printer comes with a 2-year warranty to ensure its long-term worth considering the slightly more expensive price tag.

Canon Selphy Compact Photo Printer

This compact portable printer from Canon is designed exclusively for photo printing. What sets the the Selphy apart from other options is its solid lineup of features, lightweight form factor, and reasonable price point.

It has an easy-to-read pop-up LCD screen and can print photos in a range of sizes. The printer is also capable of connecting to multiples devices simultaneously to print collages and mixed images.

Epson WorkForce Wireless Mobile Printer

The Epson Workforce Wireless Mobile Printer is a great option for those seeking a lightweight, reliable printer for producing documents on the go.

It's designed to print full-size pages in full color, handy if you have a presentation to compile, and it connects directly with mobile devices and laptops. It also comes with an external detachable battery for quick, easy charging.

Kodak Mini 3 Retro Portable Photo Printer

Designed exclusively to produce 3 x 3 prints, Kodak's Mini 3 Retro is ideal for generating durable, water-resistant wallet photos. Photos are automatically laminated and the device is capable of adding borders and other effects on the photos. Downloading the app adds more fun features, like augmented reality and filters. Just think of it as old-school Instagram.

Camryn Rabideau is a freelance writer and product reviewer specializing in home, kitchen, and pet products. In her four years as a product tester, she's tested hundreds of items firsthand, and her work appears in publications such as Forbes, USA Today, The Spruce, Food52, and more.

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Best portable printers in 2024 -our top picks

The best portable printers let you print at home, at work and on the road

• Best overall
• Best for biz
• Best portability
• How to choose
• How we test

1. The list in brief 2. Best overall 3. Best bargain 4. Best for business 5. Best portability 6. How to choose 7. How we test

The best portable printers allow you to print from wherever you are, whether you're on a business trip or relaxing on a beach. By combining the ability to print into a compact device you can slip into a laptop bag or backpack, you can print documents and photos anytime time and anywhere. With Wi-Fi connectivity and often an optional battery, a mobile printer gives you the freedom to print even if you're away from an outlet.

Most portable printers are small, coming in at less than 5 pounds. Many even come with rechargeable batteries and car chargers for use on the road. Despite the small size, a lot of portable models still offer full-page printing with the same inkjet technology you're accustomed to. Many even have scan and copy capability to give you full functionality even when you're away from the office.

A few models ratchet up the portability by adopting more exotic technologies, like thermal printing in black-and-white, or shifting some functions (like document scanning and copying) to another device, like a smartphone. But the end result is the same, letting you take printing on the go wherever you please.

Alex Wawro is a lifelong journalist who's spent over a decade covering tech, games and entertainment. He oversees the computing department at Tom's Guide, which includes managing printer coverage.

The quick list

In a hurry? Here's a quick list of the best portable printers we recommend.

The best portable printer for most

We recommend the HP OfficeJet 250 as the best portable printer for most because it's fast to copy, scan and print on the go. The color touchscreen is also nice, and though it is a bit pricey we think it's worth the expense.

Read more below

The best value

The Canon Pixma TR150 is a great portable printer if you're on a budget because it's $200 or less and small enough to fit in a backpack, yet prints great photos and documents. 

The best portable printer for business

The Epson WorkForce EC-C110 is our most commonly recommended portable printer for business use because it's built for business printing and has a lower cost per page printed than other printers on this list.

The best portable printers you can buy now

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.

The best overall

1. HP OfficeJet 250

Specifications, reasons to buy, reasons to avoid.

This HP OfficeJet 250 maximizes what you can do on the go, offering fast copying and scanning, in addition to fast print speeds—with high image quality across the board. This portable printer is on the pricey side, but it offers a lot of features and performance in a compact package. The most immediate payoff is a large, 2.6-inch color touch screen, which makes for easy operation.

Better yet is a small, 10-page automatic document feeder for copying and scanning. This is the only portable printer we've tested that offers copy and scan functions, but with no flatbed scanner, the printer draws paper through the body of the OfficeJet for scanning and copying. Scans weren't always straight, and the paper path's 60-degree bend left me nervous about it possibly damaging photos. But having scanning and copying capability on the go is well-worth these compromises.

The OfficeJet 250 printed text very quickly from a PC, at 9 ppm. On battery power, text printed at 7 ppm. The OfficeJet 250 also printed quickly our six-page PDF of text and color graphics, taking 1:57, compared with the average of 2:27. Photo printing was extremely fast, as well. A 4 x 6-inch glossy photo printed in just 37.6 seconds, at default settings, and in just under 50 seconds at the high-quality setting. The closest competitor, the HP Tango X, took 1:15. The OfficeJet also was the fastest when printing from an iPhone, making a photo print in 42.9 seconds. 

Copy and scan speeds were fast, making a color copy in 19.5 seconds, compared with the average of 28.7 seconds for desktop inkjets. The OfficeJet made a black-and-white copy in 13.1 seconds, versus the 16-second desktop average. It made a 600 dpi color scan to JPEG in 1 minute and 21 seconds, and a 300 dpi black-and-white scan to PDF in 20.1 seconds (desktop models average 11 seconds).

Best of all, the speed didn't come with any trade-off in image quality. The very high-quality photo prints had rich, well-saturated colors, pleasing midtone transitions, and lots of fine details. Text documents printed with dark letterforms and edges looked quite sharp. Graphics on plain paper were equally attractive. Document scans looked accurate, with only some sharpness lost on text edges. Photo scans were attractive, with accurate colors and plenty of detail.

The HP OfficeJet offers mobile and cloud printing, but there are some quirks. Using the HP Smart iPhone app was problematic—the app turned a five-page .doc file into a four-page document, while the .docx version was reformatted onto six pages. Photos printed from the Box cloud storage service did not print in full. Roughly two-thirds of the photo would print—but the rest of the paper was left blank.

Ink costs for printing text documents are about average for portable printers, at 9 cents each. With standard cartridges, cost per color page is high, at 23 cents per page. Using high-yield cartridges, you can lower this to 17.3 cents, though this is still higher than the 15.5 cents per color page you get with the Canon iP110 when using standard cartridges. You can save even more money by using HP Instant Ink , HP's subscription service for ink refills by mail.

2. Canon Pixma TR150

Our expert review:

One of our favorite portable printers is the Canon Pixma TR150, a compact inkjet that's small enough to carry in a backpack, but still offers excellent document and photo printing. With a two-cartridge ink system and printing for text documents, graphics and even glossy photos, the Pixma TR150 is a solid choice for portable printing. It doesn't offer copy or scan functionality, but at $199, it's also a great option for your pocketbook.

An optional battery lets you use it when you're away from a wall outlet, but even without it, the Canon Pixma TR150 is one of the most portable and travel-friendly printers out there, weighing less than the HP OfficeJet 250 and offering a more affordable print-only option.

The Pixma TR150 measures a compact 12.7 x 7.3 x 2.6 inches when closed, and weighs just 4.5 pounds – and weighs only 5.1 pounds with an optional battery attached. It opens up to a larger size, accommodating a 50-page paper tray, a basic control panel and plenty of connectivity, so long as you don't need a card slot.

It also offers excellent print speeds, a five-page document in 38.7 seconds, or 7.8 ppm.

In addition to its great mobility, the portable Pixma TR150 made high-quality photos faster than other competing portable printers, and delivered excellent color and detail. It can also handle larger photo prints, but unlike some of our photo printing favorites, there is no copy or scan capability. You do get a solidly-built portable printer with optional battery and even support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice controls, but we love it for the great photos and low ink costs it offers.

Read our full Canon Pixma TR150 review .

The best for business

3. Epson WorkForce EC-C110

Of the four models outfitted with a battery, the Epson WorkForce EC-C110 is the least expensive. With the WorkForce moniker, this mobile printer is sold by business equipment resellers, and might be the best portable printer for business users. Of the inkjet models here, it is the lightest, weighing just 3.5 pounds.

You lift the lid and lean it back to serve as the 20-sheet input tray. Doing so reveals a small, 1.4-inch color LCD and four-way control buttons. Prints come out a slot on the front panel. You can use the LCD and buttons to change settings, configure Wi-Fi, and so on. You also need it to confirm the paper size, which I was prompted to do every time I loaded paper. 

The EC-C110's print speeds were slower than the average. Text printed at 5.8 ppm, versus the average of 6.9 ppm. Running on battery power slowed the EC-C110 substantially: Text printing slowed to 3.4 ppm. Our six-page PDF of mixed text and color graphics more slowly than any other inkjet in this roundup, taking 3:16, or 1.8 ppm. The average was 2.4 ppm.

The EC-C110 printed a photo at default settings from a PC via USB in 1:11. Printing at high resolution slowed the EC-C110 to 3:59. Over Wi-Fi Direct at high-quality settings from an iPhone was agonizingly slow, taking 5:28 to print one photo; printing a second snapshot took almost 7 minutes.

Print quality was high across the board. Text looked dark and sharp, though the letter edges looked a little rough up close. Color graphics printed with natural-looking colors and sharp details. Glossy photos looked very attractive.

Costs per page are better than the portable printers average. Estimated costs per page are 8.8 cents for text and 17.8 cents for color.

I ran into a glitch when trying to print 4 x 6-inch photos from a Windows 10 PC. In the print driver, an error said, "photo doesn't fit on selected paper." The online FAQ did not help, but changing the default paper size to 4-x-6 in the Windows 10 printing preferences solved the issue.

When printing with an iPhone, the EC-C110 had a tendency to drop the Wi-Fi Direct connection before I could finish printing. Resetting the connection and re-entering the password seemed to solve this issue.

Cloud printing may not always be seamless. The Epson iOS app reflowed text in .doc files opened from Box, the online storage service, turning a five-page document into a seven-page reflow that would not be worthy of a business meeting.

This Epson WorkForce model delivers below-average costs per page, Wi-Fi Direct connectivity, an LCD and control panel buttons, but low battery life and slower-than-average print speeds limit its appeal.

View our Epson coupon codes to help you save on the Epson WorkForce EC-C110

The best for portability

4. Brother PocketJet 773

The Brother PocketJet 773 offers a convenient way to print documents in a very compact package. It's the smallest and lightest printer in this roundup. Being a direct thermal printer, it prints only in black-and-white and uses special thermal-reactive paper instead of standard printer paper. It does not print onto photo papers. Because it doesn't use ink cartridges, you don't have to worry about running out of ink.

Designed to work in settings such as a police patrol car (for which there is a vehicle mount), the PocketJet 773 works with roll paper and fan-folded paper, in addition to individual sheets. Accessories include rugged cases for roll paper and fanfold paper, and a cigarette lighter adapter. 

The PocketJet 773 prints text documents from a PC with dark letterforms with very sharp edges, however, some text looked lumpy around the edges, reminiscent of a dot-matrix printer.  Text quality was also low in text documents printed from an iPhone. Graphics (converted to black-and-white) looked very pixelated, with obvious banding and flat black shadows.  On occasion, the PocketJet printed pages that were crooked or cropped incorrectly. This may have been due to following a print too quickly with a fresh page (you must feed one sheet at a time).

The PocketJet 773 printed more slowly than the mobile inkjet printers we tested. It was the slowest at printing our five-page text document (1:02). It also was the slowest at printing our six-page mixed text and graphics PDF (3:46), even though it was printing it in black-and-white (the inkjets printed it in color).

Going mobile isn't cheap. A battery runs for $123.99. And be careful when buying the printer online, since it is generally sold on its own, without the power cable or battery needed to power it.

Paper isn't cheap, either. Direct thermal printers require specialty thermal paper, a hundred sheets of which costs  $13.99, or 14 cents per page. But if you don't mind curling paper or folded paper, you have options. A 600-sheet continuous roll of thermal paper lowers printing costs to 10.3 cents per page. Fanfold paper costs 9.5 cents per page. By contrast, desktop inkjet printers offer costs per text page of 7.7 cents with standard cartridges, and 5.9 cents with high-yield cartridges, on average. 

The price is high on this compact thermal printer. But if you need a rugged and unobtrusive printer to generate necessary documents on the go, without fear of running out of ink, the PocketJet 773 is a good place to start.

How to choose the best printer for you

When selecting a portable printer, you'll want to consider a few key factors, such as how you intend to use the printer, what your document printing needs are and what level of portability will be best suited to your circumstances.

Printing needs: Do you need color printing or even photo printing capability? All of the printers listed above are inkjet models, except the Brother PocketJet 773, which is a direct thermal printer and only prints in black-and-white. The HP OfficeJet 250 is the only model with an automatic document feeder for copying and scanning. 

Portability: Portability is largely a question of size and weight. The HP Tango X is the largest of the bunch, measuring 15.3 x 24.4 x 10.2 inches (W x D x H) when printing and weighs 7.5 pounds. The Brother PocketJet 773, meanwhile, is a slim bar of a printer that weighs only one pound. Measuring just 10 x 2.2 by 1.2 inches (W xD x H), it's unobtrusive and very unlikely to get in the way, even in cramped environments, such as a car.

Battery: Most also have optional batteries, letting you print even when there's no outlet to use for power. These are accessories that need to be bought in addition to the printer itself, so plan your purchase accordingly. Many of these printers also offer car-charging options, which are ideal for use in a vehicle while out making sales calls or printing during a road trip.

Functions: Most of these portable models are single-function printers. They are too small to have a flatbed scanner for copying and scanning. One model does scan and copy, however: The HP OfficeJet 250. It has a partial lid that you fold forward to reveal a slender automatic document feeder. In addition, the HP Tango X offers what HP calls "copy" and "scan" functions via the smartphone HP Smart app. However, all this really amounts to is using your phone to take a picture (or "scan" if you will) of a document and then print it (or "copy," in HP Smart parlance). As outlined in our full review of the HP Tango X, the results were sub-par.

Price range: To help you find the right mobile printer, we considered a range of models and chose five products that we felt best represented the variety available. The printers we reviewed are priced from $200 to almost $500 (including accessories, such as a battery). Prices in this article include a battery, in some cases as part of a kit, except for the HP Tango X, which does not offer a battery option.

How we tested these printers

To test portable printers, we performed a variety of everyday tasks. To make the results comparable to desktop inkjet printers, we performed a few of the same printing speed tests, from a Windows 10 laptop: A five-page text document, and a six-page PDF with text and graphics.

While desktop models printed text pages at 8.8 ppm, on average, the portables were not far behind, at 6.9 ppm. The portable printers almost matched the desktop printers' 2.7 ppm average on color graphics, clocking in at 2.4 ppm. This average excludes the Brother PocketJet 773 because it prints only in black-and-white (and even so printed only at 1.6 ppm on this test).

For photo speed, we printed a 4 x 6-inch glossy snapshot. The Brother PocketJet 773, however, does not print on photo papers and was excluded from this test.

To test portability, we focus on the wireless and battery-powered functions of the printer. We perform a wireless network setup, evaluating the ease of use for connecting on the go. We also print from a laptop and smartphone using Wi-Fi Direct, and gauge the differences in performance compared to wired and outlet-powered printing. 

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Should Alcohol Labels Warn of Cancer Risks?

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To the Editor:

Re “ A Debate Over Cancer Warning Labels on Alcohol ” (Science Times, April 9):

This article does an admirable job of spotlighting efforts around the world to require cancer warnings on alcohol. In fact, similar efforts to improve alcohol labeling are gaining traction in the U.S.

Just last month, U.S. regulators held listening sessions about including ingredients, nutritional information and allergen labeling on alcoholic beverages. And in 2020, a coalition of seven health advocacy groups petitioned the U.S. government to adopt a cancer warning label.

U.S. law directs regulators to consult with the surgeon general and “promptly” report to Congress when the need for an amendment to alcohol warnings arises. But more than seven years have passed since the surgeon general proclaimed a link between alcohol and cancer with no action from the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which regulates most alcohol products.

It’s great news that governments are taking steps so that residents of Ireland, Thailand and Canada will finally get the truth about alcohol, and it’s long past time for the U.S. to follow suit.

Christina LiPuma Burlington, Vt. The writer is a policy associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

We object to how your article portrays the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States’ perspective with regard to labeling alcohol beverages to warn consumers about possible health concerns. DISCUS supports appropriate labeling, which has been required in the United States since 1988.

Unlike U.S. labels, which address a broad scope of health concerns in a clear manner, Ireland’s proposed labels suggest that any amount of consumption leads to liver disease or a fatal cancer. As DISCUS commented formally to the Irish government, the labels fail to differentiate between moderate and excessive alcohol consumption and contradict Ireland’s own low-risk guidelines on the responsible consumption of alcohol.

Consumers would be best served by a health warning label that is consistent throughout the European Union and accurately reflects scientific data on alcohol and health.

DISCUS is committed to and fully supports the public health objective of combating the harmful use of alcohol in all forms. For adults who choose to drink, we encourage moderate consumption; some people should not consume alcohol at all, and we support that decision. We encourage everyone to talk to their health care providers about alcohol to determine what is best for them based on individual factors and family history.

Amanda Berger Washington The writer is vice president, science and health, for the Distilled Spirits Council.

As a public health student, I find it fascinating that the need for clear warning labels on alcoholic beverages is up for debate. In my epidemiology class, the cancers we studied all had alcohol consumption as a risk factor. Thus, public health awareness about the link between alcohol and cancer must be prioritized.

Ireland’s decision to boldly label alcohol as a carcinogen is a step in the right direction. Sure, a label is no replacement for a detailed explanation of all the science behind why alcohol causes cancer, but it can serve as a bright red flag for those consuming it. Besides, warning labels on carcinogens are not a new concept, with cigarettes getting the warning treatment since the 1960s.

Warning labels do not mean that people are restricted from drinking. Rather, it is about giving consumers the facts they need to make informed decisions. So, let’s give credit where it’s due. Ireland’s proposal isn’t about demonizing alcohol; it’s about empowering consumers to make healthier choices. After all, who wouldn’t want to know if their favorite drink could be harming them?

Cheers to Ireland for leading the charge. Let’s raise a toast to transparency and good health everywhere.

Sinchana Srinivas Berkeley, Calif.

Re “ Dengue Fever Took Me by Surprise ,” by Deborah Heaney (Opinion guest essay, April 7):

We are doctors with extensive experience in public health and the prevention of infections and other health problems that can arise during travel. Dr. Heaney’s experience underscores the health risks associated with international travel and the challenges of getting evaluated for infections that are not endemic in the U.S.

We advise travelers to take steps to reduce the chance of becoming sick or receiving inappropriate or delayed care for a travel-related illness.

First, before your trip, learn about the specific risks at your destination with sources such as the C.D.C.’s Travelers’ Health website . For many travelers, visiting a clinic that specializes in travel medicine can also be important to get risk assessments based on the destination and individual health profiles. These clinics can also provide travel vaccinations, prophylactic medications for malaria (when needed), and preventive advice on food and water hygiene, insect bites and other travel health risks.

Second, in case you become ill during or after travel, seek timely evaluation. No matter where you seek care it is critical to inform your provider about recent travel so they consider the possibility of a travel-related illness.

Henry M. Wu Richard A. Goodman Atlanta The writers are on the faculty of Emory University’s School of Medicine and formerly worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

My experience with dengue and the medical community was very similar to Deborah Heaney’s. I was stricken with dengue during my second veterinary-related trip to Haiti in 2004.

My primary care doctor as well as a foreign disease specialist failed to recommend more than anti-inflammatories. I even had all the classic symptoms: fever, skin rash, severe joint pain and photophobia.

It was only after being seen at a hospital E.R. and receiving a spinal tap, fluids and chest radiographs that a definitive diagnosis was achieved — and then only because my wife did a basic internet search and suggested that they also draw blood for a dengue titer.

It is disturbing to hear that 20 years later, things have not changed.

Daniel Haskins Stanwood, Wash.

Re “ As Maine Ages, Immigrants Pick Up Labor Slack ” (front page, April 13):

I live on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Seasonal workers from abroad and immigrants make vital contributions to our community.

During the Trump administration this was complicated by politically motivated visa restrictions and later by pandemic necessities. While these problems have been mitigated, one problem is only getting worse: the lack of affordable housing.

As in New York City, our island’s limited space is dominated by private and commercial wealth. This affects all of us, including essential workers new to the U.S. and the businesses that rely on them.

When I was growing up in Brooklyn, rent stabilization helped my second-generation working-class family — and the city. On Mount Desert Island, towns are exploring legislation to support work force housing.

It is not enough to open doors and arms; people also need a roof over their heads. And government has a role.

Annlinn Kruger Bar Harbor, Maine

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New Delhi:  YouTuber Dhruv Rathee is a polarising figure—a fearless social media activist to some, and an anti-establishment troublemaker to others. He’s been sharing his bold political takes for nearly a decade, but it was his viral video ‘Is India Becoming a Dictatorship?’, released just before the Lok Sabha elections, that truly made him a phenomenon. Last week, he launched five new channels in Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Bengali, all featuring dubbed versions of the viral video and gathering over 1.3 lakh subscribers within a day.

Rathee’s journey from niche creator to household name, and the virality of his Hindi-language videos, reflects the evolving landscape of media consumption and the increasing demand for opinionated, accessible political content among the Indian public

Raised in a middle-class family in Rohtak, 29-year-old Rathee has said in one of his videos that he had little interest in politics until he became acquainted with the India Against Corruption movement in 2011, spearheaded by Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal. Back then, the Congress was in power, and Rathee is no fan of that party either. In a video titled ‘The Real Stoy of Dhruv Rathee’ last year, he pronounced himself as “100% anti-Congress”.

On his website, the Germany-based mechanical engineering graduate calls himself a “YouTube educator, activist, and travel vlogger” committed to making “objective, concise and simplified explanations of complex issues on a variety of subjects.” In a Frontline interview, he said he creates content in Hindi not just because it’s his mother tongue but because there’s “lack of high-quality educational content” in the language. But what really draws in viewers is his no-holds-barred political videos, which have helped him notch over 18 million subscribers on his main YouTube channel.

Rahul Sharma, a 22-year-old postgraduate student and civil services aspirant from Dehradun, said he is a regular visitor to Rathee’s channel because the videos help him understand various difficult issues.

“He engages his viewers while explaining the topic,” said Sharma. “Initially, I didn’t like him much because I was more of a pro-government guy but his videos actually made me see certain issues in a different light. Even though I don’t agree with him on all the topics, his videos are well researched.”

ThePrint contacted Rathee via WhatsApp, but a member of his team responded that he did not wish to contribute his comment to this article.

Also Read: Dhruv Rathee’s question is wrong. Instead, ask what kind of non-democracy India is becoming

Evolution of the Dhruv Rathee Show

Driven by a passion for YouTube and filmmaking, Dhruv Rathee began creating content in 2014 while studying in Germany, beginning with travel vlogs. By 2017, he had hit a milestone of 50,000 subscribers, but his focus was already shifting toward more politically charged content.

Two years into his vlogging, Rathee began focusing primarily on calling out the ruling BJP with videos like ‘Surgical Strike’, ‘Andh Bhakts and Their Logic’, ‘EVM Hacking’, ‘Reality of Yogi Adityanath’, and ‘3 Years of Modi Exposed’. His blunt style brought him to the forefront as a political content creator at a time when few dared to tread these waters.

Not everyone took kindly to his opinions. In 2018, he was even confronted with a police complaint following his video ‘BJP IT Cell part – 2’, but that didn’t stop him. He expanded his content to include fact-checking videos and launched Pee News, a mock news programme that parodied popular news channels, though this segment is no longer available in his video playlist. He also launched ‘The Dhruv Rathee Show’, collaborating with other YouTubers, including journalist and satirist Akash Bannerjee, who runs the channel ‘The Desh-Bhakt’.

As his content matured, Rathee brought more research into his work, and he is now reportedly supported by a team of about a dozen people. Besides his political videos, he also produces popular ‘how-to’ guides such as ‘How to Spot Fake News,’ ‘How to Boycott ‘Made in China’ Products,’ ‘How to Save Rivers,’ and ‘7 Tips to Get a Job.’  But it’s still his political videos that get the most traction, with the ‘Is India Becoming A Dictatorship?’  amassing over 23 million views on YouTube.

Also Read: Dhruv Rathee is wrong. If Modi is a dictator, why did he fail so often to get what he wants

‘Multiplier effect’

For some, Dhruv Rathee’s ‘Dictator’ video asked tougher questions than India’s political opposition, but critics argue that it’s easy to make bombastic content from the safety of another country. Rathee has been living in Germany for years since moving there for his mechanical engineering degree and recently married his long-time girlfriend Juli Lbr in Vienna.

Even so, Rathee’s outspokenness has not been without consequence. In September 2022, the Indian government blocked his video ‘Analyzing Imran Khan’s Electoral Loss: Political Turmoil in Pakistan’, citing incorrect depiction of Indian territory within Pakistan’s borders, according to ministry statements.

And for Rathee’s supporters, his physical distance from India is irrelevant.

“At least he is saying it, even if it means sitting far away from India and bringing attention to what’s lost behind the biases of mainstream media,” said M-Tech student Rahul Sharma, quoted earlier.

Watching Rathee’s videos, it becomes readily apparent that he’s not breaking new ground or offering fresh facts. Instead, his impact comes from his ‘fearless’ persona and knack for distilling public domain information into accessible content. For younger audiences who are still trying to understand the dynamics of Indian politics, Rathee’s videos are an informative and entertaining entry point. While ThePrint can’t pinpoint the exact age demographic of Rathee’s audience, comments and engagement on Twitter suggest a big youth following.

“I would describe Dhruv as not a political expert, but as a political opinion-maker, political educator, or political influencer,” said YouTuber Mohak Mangal, who runs his own channel ‘Soch’ and collaborated with Rathee in 2020 for a few political videos.

Mangal added that Rathee has been able to create an “engaged community” over the years. “He knows how YouTube and content creation works, there is some art and science to it, from the timing and the thumbnail to the title and hook in the intro—he understands them well,” he said.

The impact of this content should also not be underestimated, according to Mangal.

“When you make politically charged or emotionally engaging content about things that the mainstream media is not talking about, there is a multiplier effect,” he said. “People can see that institutions are crumbling but nobody really talks about it and suddenly someone does and that makes the community rise up.”

When Rathee posted the ‘Dictatorship’ video, it quickly trended of X with the hashtags #DhruvRathee and #dictator. While often criticised for focusing solely on the BJP, Rathee fills a vacuum that the mainstream media cannot fulfill—unbridled criticism of the ruling establishment.

In an interview with Akash Banerjee this month, Rathee clarified that he operates independently, without funding from any political party. He also claimed that he rejected an offer from a prominent party in South India.

So far, Rathee has not expressed any desire to join politics. In an older Q&A video titled ‘Who is Dhruv Rathee?’, the then 25-year-old Rathee was clear about his intentions. “I can’t say about the distant future, but for the next ten years, I can guarantee that I have no interest in joining politics,” he said. “I love making videos and educating people, so I will continue to do this for the foreseeable future.”

(Edited by Asavari Singh)

Also read: How TM Krishna got under the skin of the Carnatic music fraternity

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While the Russian capital has striven to move on, recent tensions with the West have stirred up memories of the past. Moscow has previously led the way with protests against Vladimir Putin, but even with the tumbling ruble and economic sanctions, his popularity remains strong.

This doesn’t make Russia a no-go area, and Moscow – with its cosmopolitan, globe-trotting denizens – is not the formidable crucible often depicted. In summer, temperatures soar and the city’s vast parklands flourish. The historic Gorky Park received a complete makeover in 2012, installing free Wi-Fi and even a beach, while the Soviet behemoth that was the Rossiya Hotel has been demolished to make way for an ambitious central park.

Before that project comes to fruition, there is Red Square to marvel at, not least the mind-boggling St Basil’s Cathedral. Built by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, its multi-coloured domes and acid-trip patterns seem to defy logic. Nearby is the 14th-century Kremlin and seat of the tsars.

Indeed architecture is one of the city’s main attractions, especially for aficionados of Soviet buildings. All too many have been destroyed to make way for gleaming 21st-century skyscrapers, but Stalin’s unmistakable Seven Sisters still stand tall against the modern towers.

The city is naturally keen to celebrate its great writers, composers and artists too. This sophisticated city boasts world-class institutions like the Bolshoi Theatre, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

As for nightlife, the city is becoming increasingly hedonistic – whether jazz, rock or vodka is your thing, there are plenty of options. Even the culinary circuit has come on leaps and bounds, though an evening at one of the city’s growing stable of world-class restaurants requires considerable investment. This is, after all, a capital of oligarchs.

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Book Accommodation

Featured hotels, izmailovo (gamma-delta).

Constructed to accommodate visitors to the 1980 Olympics, the concrete towers of the Izmailovo boast a staggering 8,000 rooms. Institutional in atmosphere, and located far out in the northern suburbs, the hotel is handy for the enormous Izmaylovo Market and has decent city centre links. There are several onsite restaurants and in-room Wi-Fi is available too.

Peking Hotel

Built in 1956 as a little sister to Stalin's Seven Sister skyscrapers, and intended as post-war headquarters for the secret police, Moscow's Peking Hotel is a heritage hotel with a small 'h', in a good location just northwest of the centre. Although slightly old-fashioned, its 130 rooms are comfortable enough, with satellite TV and en-suite bathrooms.

Warsaw Hotel

Although its location may not be one of Moscow's most picturesque, the Warsaw Hotel is convenient for Gorky Park. Considering the quality of the competition, this is one of the best cheap options in the city, with clean and comfortable rooms, albeit in a rather dated style. Wi-Fi is complimentary and the Oktyabrskaya Metro station is right next door.

Golden Apple

A boutique hotel on a refreshingly human scale, the Golden Apple offers imaginative styling and a personal touch that many 5-star hotels lack. Behind the baroque facade, its minimalist rooms are cosy, and there's an onsite restaurant and an open-plan bar too. Staff speak excellent English and there's Wi-Fi access, a gym and a sauna.

Historical Hotel Sovietsky

In the 1950s, Joseph Stalin decreed that the famous Yar restaurant should be upgraded to a hotel and the Historical Hotel Sovietsky was born. It quickly became a showcase for the image of sophistication that the Soviet government wished to present to the world, and its 107 rooms still conjures up the nostalgia of this period in history.

Hotel Danilovsky

It's hard to imagine a more atmospheric place to stay than the 12-century precincts of the historic Danilovsky Monastery. Set amidst chapels and gardens, the hotel is a modern construction, but the rooms are comfortable and all have a view of the stately monastery buildings. There's a sauna and bar onsite too.

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2018 Primetime Emmy & James Beard Award Winner

In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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21 Things to Know Before You Go to Moscow

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