Specialized designs have become commonplace whether you’re in a grocery store, out shopping, or even visiting a friends’ place. You’ll find them on t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and even on pillows.

While most are produced in factory settings, you can easily reproduce them in your house with a Cricut machine! Upload a design onto their Cricut Design Space app and then the machine will cut with perfect accuracy of the designs you want.

Of course, while Cricut machines can cut with perfect accuracy, it does not substitute as a printer. If you’re looking for a printer to initially print out designs to use on the Cricut machine, then you’ve come to the right place as we’ll review several printers that work well with a Cricut machine!

What Exactly is Cricut?

Pronounced as “cricket”, Cricut is a company that produces specialized electronic machines that can cut things with extreme precision and speed. These machines are rather small and look like printers for those not knowledgeable about them.

Cricut machines can cut through materials such as paper, cardstock, vinyl, poster boards, fabric, and iron-on. With the “Cricut Design Space” app, you can upload a digital file and then the Cricut machine will cut according to the design.

Common uses of a Cricut machine include various arts and crafts such as personalized greeting cards, stickers, and signs.

While you can feed the Cricut machine many materials, it does not have any printing capabilities. As an alternative around this, you can easily use an inkjet printer to print the designs you need then feed it into a Cricut machine.

Do I need a Printer for Cricut?

As a Cricut machine cannot print, a simple inkjet printer can fill the role of a printer. Simply print what the designs you want using your inkjet printer and then transfer the printed output into your Cricut machine.

Upload the same file you used for the inkjet printer onto the Cricut Design Space app and then choose how you want the Cricut machine to cut.

For those looking to create simple designs without the need of colored ink, then a Cricut machine and all their accessories are more than enough.

How does Sublimation Printing Play a Role?

Sublimation printing allows you to print onto surfaces beyond standard paper like t-shirts, vinyl, and fabrics.

While sublimation printing can print at the quality you’re looking for, you may need to finish your design by cutting the excess material.

Imagine this, you’re printing your logo onto stickers for your brand-new online shop on Etsy or a similar marketplace due to their growing popularity. After printing your logos using a sublimation printer, you still need to cut your stickers as you printed them out on square-shaped stickers.

This is where a Cricut machine comes in. Upload your sticker design onto the Design Space app and feed the Cricut machine your stickers. The machine will now automatically cut your stickers to the exact dimensions you want them to be.

This is one of many examples of how sublimation printing and a Cricut machine can be used in tandem to design various arts and crafts. If you’re looking into a printer that can handle sublimation printing, check out our article on the best printers for sublimation.

What is the Best Printer for Cricut?

As Cricut machines are associated with arts and crafts, you’ll want to consider only inkjet printers over laser printers as laser printers are designed to work well printing on typical office paper particularly in white and black colors.

Best Overall Cricut Printer
Epson EcoTank ET-2720

The Epson EcoTank ET-2720 is the best printer for Cricut machines due to its reliability and great price point.

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The Epson EcoTank ET-2720 strikes a fine balance between high-speed printing and great print quality. If you’re looking at the best printer for Cricut machines, this is your best bet.

With higher-than-average reviews, the EcoTank ET-2720 remains popular due to its simplicity and quality build of the printer. It does what it needs to do without the typical stresses that come with printers.

In addition, the advertised Piezo Heat-Free Technology really shines with its print output – which is important if you’re looking to create various logos and other designs that others might be looking at.

We’ve also recommended the EcoTank ET-2720 in our best sublimation printer for beginners article and for good reason – it’s relatively affordable and can easily function as a sublimation printer if the need arises.

On the other hand, some may be turned off by its rather no-frills design with no touchscreen capabilities or ability to print beyond A4 paper size (8.5 x 14 inches).

Specifications:

  • Weight: 8.8 lbs
  • Product Dimensions: 13.7 x 14.8 x 8.7 inches
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB
  • Maximum Resolution: 5760 x 1440 dpi

Pros

  • Reliable and great print quality for its price point
  • Able to use for sublimation if needed or swap back to inkjet
  • Easily purchasable given its popularity

Cons

  • Relatively no-frills beyond the print quality (e.g., no touchscreen)
  • Can print only up to standard A4 size (8.5 x 14 inches)

Budget Pick
HP Deskjet 2755e All-In-One

If all you need is to simply print, the budget-focused HP Deskjet 2755e is the best printer for Cricut machines.

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For most people, all you simply need is a printer that prints and nothing else. The HP Deskjet 2755e All-In-One is a bargain easily priced under $100 that does exactly that.

As a no-frills printer, the Deskjet 2755e is extremely easy to setup and works easily out of the box without complicated setup unlike other printers. It’s lightweight and compact that can fit anywhere in your home or office. Due to its simplicity and price, it’s a popular choice for many people as their household office printer.

This is a printer for those looking to work with simpler Cricut projects such as vinyl or stickers where quality doesn’t need to be perfect.

Due to its low cost, you won’t find anything else special about the printer. It simply prints, scans, and copies and that’s about it. For those looking for somewhat higher print quality or more features, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Specifications:

  • Weight: 7.55 lbs
  • Product Dimensions: 16.7 x 21.5 x 9.8 inches
  • Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB
  • Maximum Resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi

Pros

  • Extremely affordable
  • Effortless to set up
  • Great at exactly at what it does: print, scan and copy

Cons

  • Doesn’t have much else going for it due to its low price
  • Printing quality may be low for some

Best for High Quality Stickers and More
Canon Pixma Pro-200

The Canon Pixma Pro-200 is rather expensive but prints extremely high-quality prints that are great to be used in conjunction with Cricut machines.

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The Canon Pixma Pro-200 is the best printer for Cricut machines if your goal is to print professional quality prints, whether it’s a photograph or even animated designs. If you need to have something to be printed on canvas, fabric, stickers, or photo-quality prints, this is the printer for you.

Canon heavily advertises its 8-color dye-based ink system for good reason, the outputs for this printer are vibrant and rich. Despite the relatively high price tag, reviewers are satisfied with how the printer consistently produces beautiful prints without technical issues many other printers are plagued with.

In addition, the Pixma Pro-200 also has borderless printing features (up to 13 x 19 inches) which is extremely important for those looking to save on paper – you’re able to fit the maximum number of stickers or images onto a single sheet.

Beyond the ability to print beautiful prints, the Pixma Pro-200 does not have much other features going for it. Canon has invested the majority of its cost into the quality build and print quality. If you are hoping for other features such as scanning or copying, you are out of luck.

Specifications:

  • Weight: 32 lbs
  • Product Dimensions: 25.2 x 15 x 7.9 inches
  • Connectivity: USB, Ethernet, Wireless (Wi-Fi)
  • Maximum Resolution: 4800 x 2400 dpi

Pros

  • Very high-quality print output
  • Borderless printing features
  • Easy to set up

Cons

  • Doesn’t have any other features other than printing
  • Price tag could be expensive for some for a printer that focuses purely on quality prints

Best for Dual Sublimation and Inkjet
Epson EcoTank ET-15000

The Epson EcoTank ET-15000 has the unique feature of being able to do sublimation and inkjet printing at the same time - without the need to swap or convert the printer!

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There may be times where you need to do some sublimation printing and other times a regular inkjet printer will just do the trick. This is where the Epson EcoTank ET-15000 comes in. It is uniquely designed to hold both sublimation and regular inkjet inks at the same time allowing you to utilize both printing functions.

Due to its large size, you’ll find the ET-15000 a beast when it comes to ink management (it can hold a fair amount of ink before you need to refill them) as well as fast print speeds.

While it has a great slew of features, it is rather expensive when compared to other printers on this list. Even with the price tag, those in unique situations where they need to do sublimation printing alongside regular inkjet printing may find the ET-15000 the perfect printer to complete their tasks.

Specifications:

  • Weight: 27.5 pounds
  • Product Dimensions: 22.7 x 17.6 x 13 inches
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi, USB, Ethernet
  • Maximum Resolution: 4800 x 1200 dpi

Pros

  • Can be used as a sublimation printer and inkjet printer at the same time
  • Efficient print speeds
  • Large tanks allowing for less refills needed

Cons

  • Rather pricey when compared to others in the market
  • Manufacturing defects has been noted in several reviews

Best for Premium Prints
Epson Surecolor P700

The Epson Surecolor P700 is an expensive printer that prints extremely professional and high-quality photos.

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At the extreme top end, the Epson Surecolor P700 is the best printer for Cricut machines for those looking to print the absolute highest quality photographs or designs.

Marketed towards artists and business owners, its hefty price tag is due to the ability of the printer being able to print at high resolutions (5760 x 1440 dpi) while being able to work with various materials such as vinyl or thick cardstock.

With many positive reviews on the wide color gamut and rich colors the Surecolor P700 is able to produce, this printer is great for showing off your designs at their peak levels.

Other useful features include having different nozzles for black ink types, so you don’t need to swap between photo and matte black inks and smart apps to print directly from your mobile device.

Specifications:

  • Weight: 35.3 lbs
  • Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 30.3 x 16.5 inches
  • Connectivity: USB, Ethernet, Wireless (Wi-Fi)
  • Maximum Resolution: 5760 x 1440 dpi

Pros

  • High resolution and color gamut resulting in top-of-the-line prints
  • Useful features for designers such as separate black ink for photo and matte black
  • Setup process extremely fast

Cons

  • Very high price tag

Conclusion

As you think about purchasing the best printer for your Cricut machine, think ahead of what you are planning to print.

Is your plan to print in large quantities or you are planning to use the printer for business purposes? In this case, consider investing into higher quality printers such as the Canon Pixma Pro-200 or Epson Surecolor P700 to really show off your designs.

On the other spectrum, if you’re looking to get your creativity out there but keeping it just as fun projects, more budget-friendly printers would more likely make sense for your situation. Two printers discussed above, the EcoTank ET-2720 or HP Deskjet 2755e All-In-One are great recommendations.

Finally, talking about the world of Cricut machines is not complete without mentioning sublimation printing. As they often go hand-in-hand, especially in an arts and crafts environment, consider investing into a printer that has the ability to do sublimation printing, such as the Epson EcoTank ET-15000, if your situation calls for it.

We’ve discussed sublimation printing a lot during this article. If you’re interested in getting into sublimation printing, check out our article on the best sublimation printers for beginners that have overlap on two printers, the Epson Ecotank 2720 and ET-15000!