Printer that is good with envelopes

January 25, 2019 6:27 AM

Seeking a printer that is good at printing envelopes. Hoping to keep this within a budget but if that isn't possible, please suggest the alternative expensive printer that is awesome.

I've looked at Wirecutter and there doesn't seem to be convincing information about printing envelopes that don't come out wrinkled or curved or badly printed. Have you used a recent printer that does a good job with envelopes? I'd love to hear about it.

posted by sciencegeek to Technology (6 answers total)

You've probably figured this out on your own, but printers with a straight-through path do better on envelopes. Unfortunately, that makes them bigger (paper goes in one side, comes out the other). Do you want laser or inkjet? I have an ancient Lexmark E210 (which is a Samsung printer engine) that works pretty well, and an almost-as-ancient HP MP250 inkjet. My more-recent laser printers have serpentine paper paths, and tend to wrinkle envelopes.
posted by spacewrench at 6:53 AM on January 25, 2019

My brother printer (here I think but I can double check) has a manual feed tray on the back for things like card stock. It doesn’t pull the paper around the drums from that load tray. I use it to print business cards and shipping labels but I haven’t tried with envelopes though it says it can do them.
posted by Crystalinne at 7:08 AM on January 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

Depending on your use case, you can buy a specific envelope feeder for most business-level printers. They're a couple hundred bucks, but if you're in an office setting it's probably cheaper than maintaining a second printer.
posted by matrixclown at 7:14 AM on January 25, 2019

Would a label printer be an alternative?
posted by ShooBoo at 8:36 AM on January 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: We cannot use a label printer and for reasons of frequency of use would like to have a workhorse of a laser printer just for our envelopes.

I am hoping to get a recommendation for something I can purchase now. While I appreciate hearing about your older printers, I don't think I can easily source one unless it is a relatively current model.
posted by sciencegeek at 8:56 AM on January 25, 2019

Inkjet is better for envelopes - laser printing means heat that can seal them.
Straight-through is much better than a printer that turns the paper around.
I've never had a problem with using standard desktop inkjet printers, but I've also never had any notable amount to print. It often took me 2-3 tries to find the settings that let them line up properly without skew, but after that, they worked fine.

Something like this Pixma printer should work fine. (I have no experience with this particular printer, and the ones I have used, are long obsolete and no longer sold.)
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 4:36 PM on January 25, 2019