Best Printer for College Students (2025) — Do You Even Need One?

Most college students don’t need a printer. The campus library has them, the student center has them, and 90% of assignments are submitted digitally. But if your major requires printed work — architecture drawings, design comps, lab reports, sheet music, legal documents — buying a printer is cheaper than feeding the library machine for four years. Here’s the honest breakdown, and the three printers worth buying if you’re in that camp.

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Do College Students Actually Need a Printer in 2025?

Probably not. Here’s the real breakdown:

You don’t need a printer if: Your assignments are submitted through Canvas, Google Classroom, or email. You’re comfortable reading PDFs on screen. Your campus library or student center has free or cheap printing available. You print fewer than 20 pages a month.

You probably do need a printer if: Your major regularly requires printed work — architecture, engineering (drawings, schematics), education (lesson plans, student handouts), nursing (clinical forms, HIPAA compliance exercises), or law. Your professor specifically requires printed submissions. You do any kind of design work and need physical proofs. You live far from campus and can’t easily run to the library.

The honest math: campus printers typically cost ≈$0.10 per black-and-white page and ≈$0.25 to $0.50 per color page. If you print 50 pages a month, that’s ≈$60 a year in campus printing — less than most budget printers cost up front, before ink. Unless you’re printing regularly enough that campus printing becomes genuinely inconvenient, a good campus printing plan beats owning a printer.

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Our Top Picks

🥇 HP DeskJet 2755e — Best Overall (≈$60)

The HP DeskJet 2755e is the printer most college students should buy if they decide they need one. It’s compact — small enough to live on the corner of a dorm desk without eating the whole surface — handles printing, scanning, and copying, and connects wirelessly so you can print from your phone or laptop without a cable.

Print quality is good for everyday documents: crisp text, adequate color for charts and graphs. It’s not a photo printer — color accuracy is serviceable, not precise — but for syllabi, research papers, and the occasional infographic, the output is fine. Speed runs about 8 pages per minute for black-and-white, which is slow compared to a laser but irrelevant when you’re printing a 12-page essay, not a 300-page report.

The main cost lever is HP Instant Ink, HP’s subscription ink service. For ≈$1 to $5 per month you get a fixed number of pages and HP mails replacement cartridges before you run out. If you print occasionally and sporadically — which describes most students — this keeps costs predictable. Without Instant Ink, standard HP cartridges are expensive on a per-page basis, so the subscription is worth enrolling in.

Specs: Print/scan/copy • Wireless + USB • ≈8 ppm black • 4800×1200 DPI • Dimensions: 16.6” × 12.4” × 5.7”

Check HP DeskJet 2755e Price

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📸 Canon PIXMA TR4720 — Best for Photos (≈$80)

The Canon PIXMA TR4720 costs ≈$20 more than the HP and earns it in one area: color output. Canon’s PIXMA line has better color accuracy than comparable HP inkjets, and the TR4720’s four-ink system (black, cyan, magenta, yellow) produces noticeably richer prints for photos, posters, and anything with saturated color. If you’re in a design, photography, or art major and occasionally need printed proofs, the Canon is the right choice.

Everything else is competitive with the HP: wireless printing from phone and laptop, a flatbed scanner for scanning documents and photos, a 60-sheet paper tray, and support for AirPrint and Google Cloud Print. It’s slightly larger than the DeskJet at 17.4” × 12.7” × 6.2”, which still fits on a desk but is less compact.

The per-page ink cost is similar to the HP without a subscription — meaning it’s expensive per page if you don’t keep the cartridges fed. Canon doesn’t have an equivalent to HP Instant Ink, so you’re buying replacement cartridges as needed. For students who print occasionally, the cost difference between the Canon and HP is absorbed over a semester.

Specs: Print/scan/copy • Wireless + USB • AirPrint • ≈8 ppm black • 4800×1200 DPI • Dimensions: 17.4” × 12.7” × 6.2”

Check Canon PIXMA TR4720 Price

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⚡ Brother HL-L2350DW — Best Laser (≈$110)

The Brother HL-L2350DW is a black-and-white laser printer. It doesn’t do color, and it doesn’t scan or copy. What it does: prints sharp, fast, cheap text documents at a cost per page that makes inkjet printers look like a scam.

The included starter toner cartridge prints about 700 pages. A standard replacement cartridge (≈$20) prints around 1,200 pages — that’s ≈$0.017 per page. Inkjet printers typically run ≈$0.05 to $0.10 per black-and-white page without a subscription. Over four years of regular document printing, the Brother saves you real money.

Speed is the other win: 32 pages per minute. Printing a 30-page research paper takes under a minute. The laser mechanism also handles heat better than inkjet — the printout is fully dry the moment it exits, no smearing, no waiting. The wireless printing setup is straightforward and works with Windows, macOS, and iOS.

The trade-offs are clear: no color, no scan, no copy. If you only print black-and-white documents and you do it regularly, the HL-L2350DW is the most cost-efficient printer on this list. If you need color or scanning, it’s not the right tool.

Specs: Print only (no scan/copy) • Wireless + USB • 32 ppm • Up to 2400 DPI • Dimensions: 14.0” × 13.7” × 7.2”

Check Brother HL-L2350DW Price

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Inkjet vs Laser Printer for College

The choice comes down to what you’re printing:

Choose laser if: You print primarily text documents — papers, reports, readings, forms. You print often enough that per-page cost matters. You want fast output without waiting for ink to dry. You don’t need to scan or copy (the Brother doesn’t).

Choose inkjet if: You occasionally print photos or color graphics. You need scan and copy functionality in addition to printing. Your print volume is low and the per-page cost difference doesn’t add up to much. You want a lower upfront cost.

For most students who need a printer, inkjet wins on versatility. For students in paper-heavy programs — law, business, education — where document volume is high and color is rarely needed, a laser printer pays for itself within a semester.

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The Hidden Cost of Cheap Printers: Ink

A $50 printer sounds like a deal until you buy ink. Printer manufacturers frequently sell hardware at thin margins and recover profit through proprietary ink cartridges. A basic inkjet starter cartridge might print 100 to 150 pages before running dry. Replacement packs cost $25 to $40 and print 200 to 300 pages. The math can land at ≈$0.10 to $0.15 per page — or ≈$30 to $45 in ink per month for a heavy-printing student.

How to avoid this:

• Check the per-page cost before buying, not the printer price. Manufacturers publish this; it’s usually in the spec sheet.
• Use HP Instant Ink with the DeskJet if your volume is low. The monthly subscription is cheaper than buying cartridges ad hoc.
• Buy XL cartridges when they exist — they cost more up front but less per page.
• Consider laser if you print regularly — toner cartridges are more expensive to buy but last far longer per dollar.

The Brother HL-L2350DW’s ≈$0.017 per page is roughly 5× cheaper than a typical inkjet without a plan. Over 3,000 pages (a realistic four-year total for a heavy-printing student), that’s a difference of ≈$150 in ink costs alone.

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Best Places to Print on Campus for Free

Before buying any printer, check what’s available on campus:

Library printers: Most university libraries offer free black-and-white printing with a student ID — typically a monthly page allowance (50–200 pages) before per-page charges kick in. Color printing is usually available at ≈$0.25 to $0.50 per page.

Student centers: Many campus centers have printing stations, sometimes subsidized or free for enrolled students. Hours vary but often run later than department offices.

Department labs: Engineering, architecture, design, and CS departments often have specialty printers — large-format plotters, laser cutters, poster printers — available to students in those majors. Check with your department before buying specialty equipment.

Staples / FedEx Office: If you need a one-off large format print or a document printed outside campus hours, campus-area print shops are affordable. Not free, but cheaper than owning a printer you’ll use twice.

For most students, campus printing plus the occasional Staples run covers everything without owning a printer.

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How They Compare

	HP DeskJet 2755e	Canon PIXMA TR4720	Brother HL-L2350DW
Price	≈$60	≈$80	≈$110
Cost per page	≈$0.05–0.08	≈$0.05–0.08	≈$0.017
Wireless	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scan/Copy	Yes	Yes	No
Speed	≈8 ppm	≈8 ppm	32 ppm
Color	Yes	Yes (better)	No
Best For	Most students	Photos + color	Document-heavy

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Brother HL-L2350DW: Pros and Cons

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Who Should Buy the HP DeskJet 2755e

Buy it if: You’ve decided you need a printer and aren’t sure how often you’ll use it. The HP covers all the bases — print, scan, copy, wireless — at the lowest entry cost, and HP Instant Ink gives you a way to keep ink costs predictable. It’s the safest, most versatile choice for students who print occasionally across a mix of document types.

Skip it if: You print heavily and only need documents — the Brother’s per-page cost advantage is too large to ignore. Also skip it if color accuracy matters for your work — the Canon’s output is noticeably better for anything photo-adjacent.

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Final Verdict

Most college students should use campus printing and not own a printer at all. But for students who print regularly enough that campus trips are a genuine inconvenience — or whose majors require it — the HP DeskJet 2755e at ≈$60 is the right starting point. It handles everything, fits in a dorm, and HP Instant Ink keeps the cost of ownership manageable.

Heavy document printers: Brother HL-L2350DW. Color and photo work: Canon PIXMA TR4720. And if you’re on the fence — check your campus library’s printing policy first. You might already have the printer you need.

Check HP DeskJet 2755e Price on Amazon

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