Epson and Canon Printers: A Plain-English Guide
Last verified: August 2026
Epson and Canon make some of the best-value printers around, but a printer is still the one gadget that can make a grown adult say words they'd never use in church. Here is both brands, side by side, in plain English.
About Epson and Canon Printers
Both brands sell a few families. Epson EcoTank (models start with ET-) and Canon MegaTank (the G series) have refillable tanks you fill from cheap bottles - higher price up front, very cheap ink after. Epson WorkForce (WF-), Canon PIXMA, and MAXIFY use snap-in cartridges - cheaper to buy, pricier to feed over time.
The fastest way to tell what you own: if there are see-through ink reservoirs on the front you fill from a bottle, it is a tank printer. If you snap in little plastic cartridges, it is a cartridge model. If you print often, a tank printer usually pays for itself; if you barely print, a cheap cartridge model is fine.
Each brand has one free app that does the heavy lifting - Epson Smart Panel and Canon PRINT - for setup, printing, scanning, ink levels, and cleaning. From an iPhone you can print with AirPrint and from Android with Mopria, often with no app at all, as long as everything is on the same Wi-Fi.
When to skip the DIY and just call: New printer set up right · Faded or streaky prints · Won't connect to Wi-Fi
Common Questions
1 How do I set up a new tank printer?
- Remove all the orange tape and shipping bits, front and inside - missing one is a classic cause of it won't work.
- Match each ink bottle to its colored tank and let it drain fully; the bottles are keyed so you can't fill the wrong one.
- Load a small stack of plain paper - don't overfill the tray.
- Turn it on and let it charge the ink or initialize; it takes several minutes and makes clunky noises, so don't unplug it.
- Run the first nozzle check so you know the printhead is happy before you trust it with anything important.
2 How do I print from my phone?
- On iPhone or iPad, open the item, tap the Share button, tap Print, pick your printer, and tap Print (AirPrint).
- On Android, tap the menu, choose Print, pick your printer, and print (Mopria).
- Make sure the phone and printer are on the SAME Wi-Fi - not the guest network and not cell data.
- On older Android phones without it, install the free Mopria Print Service from Google Play.
- For fussier photo work - borderless or glossy paper - the brand app gives you more control.
3 My prints are faded or streaky - what do I do?
- It is almost always a clogged nozzle - dried ink in the tiny printhead holes.
- Run a Nozzle Check from the app or Settings > Maintenance; it prints a pattern showing which colors are blocked.
- If the pattern has gaps, run one Head Cleaning, then print the nozzle check again.
- Rest between cleanings - two or three back to back rarely helps and burns through ink.
- Prevent it by printing at least a little something every week or two so the ink keeps moving.
4 How do I avoid the fake printer-support scam?
- Get drivers only from epson.com/support or usa.canon.com/support by typing the address yourself.
- Ignore search-engine ads and lookalike sites - the top result is often a scammer, not the real maker.
- A fake driver always fails, then shows an urgent error with a phone number - that failure is the scam.
- Never let anyone remote into your computer over a printer problem, and never pay a fee to fix a driver.
- Don't fall for the warranty myth: by the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, third-party ink alone can't void your whole warranty.
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