When it comes to printers, Epson is one of the first names that jumps to mind. And with good reason: The company offers every type you're likely interested in, from a dedicated photo printer for snapshot prints on up to models with much bigger output. Some focus on photo quality, while some don't (although most offer at least drugstore-quality prints); some offer low initial prices, while others offer low-cost ink instead. And although most are color printers, a few are strictly monochrome.

In short, whatever you need from a printer, Epson probably has it in one of its lines. The challenge is to find the right one. In this overview, we'll highlight both what application and what sort of user each of Epson's family sub-brands is meant for, and discuss the key characteristics that define each. Immediately below are our top tested Epson printers for a variety of applications, followed by our guide to the Epson families.

Epson Printers 101: How to Distinguish the Families

When we combed though Epson's website, we found as many as 25 distinct printer category names, depending on how you parse them. Many are barely mentioned here. They range from floor-standing, enterprise-level inkjets that compete with lasers to commercial and production printers for garments, graphics, signage (what you and I call "signs"), and high-volume label printing, some of which cost more than your average car. Epson also offers point of sale (POS) printers, some (necessarily noisy) 9- and 24-pin dot matrix models, and even models for commercial printing of labels on CDs and DVDs, some of which burn the discs as well as print the labels. We'll ignore those categories here, except to mention the family names where appropriate.

If you group related families together and leave out the ones mentioned above, you're left with just six that matter for most folks and print on paper: Expression, EcoTank, WorkForce, PictureMate, SureColor, and LabelWorks.

Epson Expression: Designed for the Home

What the three Expression sub-brands have in common is that they use ink cartridges, offer a low initial price, and are aimed at home users with moderate print needs. For those who don't print a lot, the total cost of ownership can be lower than for higher-priced tank printers with lower running costs.

Epson Expression Photo XP-8700 Wireless All-in-One (Credit: Epson)

Expression Home printers all print, scan, and copy; offer flatbed scanning only; and are meant primarily for everyday home printing needs. Expression Premium models are aimed at essentially the same sort of user, and are also three-function AIOs, but they offer a boost in photo quality by adding photo black ink to the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) inks. They also offer the choice between getting one with a flatbed scanner only, or one with an auto-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) for two-sided copying and scanning.

Expression Photo printers like the XP-8700 Wireless All-in-One are aimed at crafters and photo enthusiasts as well as home users in general, and they use six-color ink systems for even better photo quality. This sub-family includes both letter-size and tabloid-size (11-by-17-inch) three-function AIOs, plus one single-function printer, which prints at up to supertabloid size (13 by 19 inches).

Epson EcoTank: Low Running Costs

EcoTank printers are designed to give home, home-office, and small-office users a low running cost, with inexpensive ink that comes by the bottle. For those who print enough pages over the printer's lifetime, the lower running cost can mean a lower total cost of ownership than less-expensive printers with more-expensive ink. The sub-brand choices for EcoTank printers are EcoTank, EcoTank Photo, EcoTank Pro, and EcoTank Mono.

The first category, straight-up EcoTank, offers three-function AIOs at the low end, with flatbed scanning only, but adds faxing and an ADF as you move up the price scale. EcoTank Photo printers are aimed at scrapbookers, crafters, and creative professionals, and can handle printable optical discs. They offer six-color printing for better-quality photos and graphics, and can print at up to letter-size (for the ET-8500) or up to supertabloid-size (for the ET-8550).

Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550 All-in-One Wide-Format Supertank (Credit: Epson)

EcoTank Pro models are designed for the range from home office to small businesses or workgroups. They all offer Ethernet as well as Wi-Fi for network connection; most can fax as well as print, copy, and scan; and the top models can print at up to 13 by 19 inches, as well as scan at up to 11 by 17 inches.

The EcoTank Mono sub-brand (also referred to on Epson's site as EcoTank Black & White) is Epson's answer to mono lasers. It's designed for small and home offices that print lots of documents and don't need color. The models in this category range from a single-function printer to a four-function AIO with an ADF that supports manual duplexing. All come with two years of unlimited ink, with no subscription needed and no fee.

Epson EcoTank ET-M3170 Wireless Monochrome All-in-One Supertank (Credit: Epson)

Epson PictureMate and SureColor: Photos Small to Large

The PictureMate and SureColor sub-brands are at the two extremes of the Epson printing spectrum. PictureMate offers what Epson calls a "personal photo lab" and is limited at this writing to a single model, the PictureMate PM-400, which has been on the market for a long time now. It's meant primarily to print small-format photos, up to 5 by 7 inches, and can print from a variety of sources, including memory cards.

In contrast, the SureColor moniker goes with several categories: The SureColor P-, F-, T-, S-, R-, and V-Series. These are mostly floor-standing, large-format printers, and each series is designed for a different application, from gallery-level photos, to architectural and engineering drawings, to commercial printing like outdoor signage.

Epson SureColor P700 (Credit: Epson)

The only SureColor models that matter for this overview are the least-expensive SureColor P-Series models. Although they're designed for printing professional-quality photos, fine art, and graphic design output, the low end of the line is inexpensive enough that serious photo enthusiasts may want to consider them. The two of interest are the SureColor P700, which prints on paper up to 13 inches wide, and the SureColor P900, which prints at up to 17 inches wide. Both use a 10-color ink system with archival pigment ink.

Epson WorkForce Printers: Workaday Printing, From Home Office on Up

The WorkForce umbrella covers a lot of territory. In addition to the WorkForce and WorkForce Pro categories, which are sold primarily through consumer channels and are aimed at small and home offices, you'll also find WorkForce Supertank, WorkForce Enterprise, and WorkForce Pro HC categories sold primarily though business channels, putting them outside the scope of this overview. Note that the Supertank category is the only one where the category name comes after the model number rather than before it.

Most printers in the WorkForce category are identified as WorkForce WF, followed by a model number, as in WorkForce WF-1234. (You'll find some exceptions to this naming rule, but most are reserved for models sold through business channels.) Both WorkForce and WorkForce Pro printers are aimed at small and home offices that are looking for a low initial price. As already mentioned, this can make good sense if you print little enough that the low printer price combined with relatively expensive ink cartridges will give you a lower total cost of ownership than a higher-cost tank printer with lower-cost ink.

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4830 Wireless All-in-One (Credit: Epson)

Most WorkForce WF models are four-function AIOs (meaning they print, copy, scan, and fax). They all offer two-sided printing, an ADF that copies one side only, and the ability to copy single-sided originals to two-sided copies. The one print-only model is the WF-110 Wireless Mobile Printer, which is appropriate for anyone who needs a printer on the go.

WorkForce Pro printers are divided into two distinct categories, both identified as WorkForce Pro WF plus a model number. Choose For Work on the Epson site, then Printers, then Printers and All-in-Ones, pick WorkForce Pro as a filter, and you'll see one set of WorkForce Pro WF printers. Choose the WorkForce Pro WF-Series filter instead, and you'll see an entirely different set.

Printers in the first set are aimed at small offices that need somewhat heavier-duty printing than the WorkForce WF models offer, or features like being able to print or scan a larger page size. Most are four-function AIOs, but there's also a print-only model in the mix, which can handle paper up to 13 by 19 inches and offers two 250-sheet paper trays. Some of the AIO models offer similarly high paper capacities and maximum paper sizes, along with being able to scan at up to 11 by 17 inches. Others are limited to a maximum of legal-size paper.

The second set of WorkForce WF models is aimed at heavier-duty use. The low end of the range starts where the high end of the first set leaves off, and it runs all the way up to floor-standing models suitable for large workgroups.

Epson LabelWorks: Industrial-Style Labels at Home or at Work

You'll find the current set of Epson LabelWorks printers on its own section of the vendor's website. All of the LabelWorks printers use industrial-style labels, meaning that most of the available tapes are plastic (polyester), though some other kinds exist as well, including vinyl and magnetic (similar to flexible refrigerator magnets), as well as some specifically for labeling cables, and others designed for home users, including a printable ribbon label.

Epson LabelWorks LW-PX400 (Credit: Epson)

The printers include models for both home use and work. They run all the way from the strictly standalone LW-PX300 (which requires typing label text on its own keyboard, and is limited to a maximum 0.71-inch-wide label tape) to the LW-Z5010PX, which can handle 2-inch-wide tapes and can create and print labels as a standalone printer, or from a PC or mobile device. A nice touch for all of them is that Epson offers a lifetime warranty. Most offer a large choice of label types, which you'll want to check before buying to make sure the printer can print the kinds of labels you need.

Epson also offers two label-printer sub-brands that are outside the scope of this overview. ColorWorks printers deliver full-color labels on demand, for businesses that print enough to justify the printers' prices, while the SurePress sub-brand covers the sort of digital label press that needs more floor space than a small family room.

So, What Is the Best Epson Printer to Buy?

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by all the Epson printers available, but you can cut the list down to a manageable size by finding the sub-brands most appropriate for your needs, before looking at details like paper handling or the copy and scan capabilities. We've picked the best Epson printers in multiple use cases, based on our tests and overall evaluations. For more options—from Epson and other manufacturers—check out our favorite inkjet printers and favorite printers overall, as well as our picks for the best photo printers, the best business printers, and the best wide-format printers.