I need a printer for text and some photos, as noted in my first post. I spent many hours reading reviews and there was no stand-out. Several days ago, my SIL sent a photo she printed at home of an online image of an oil painting. It was so outstanding, I could hardly believe my eyes. Hers is a Canon Pixma mg5320. I ordered an updated version, Canon Pixma mg6320 which has a gray cartridge for better b/w photos. This printer is mainly for text but I was really wowed by her photo, esp as she is not a tech person.

You'll probably find the least expensive printer at WalMart, but they'll probably have a more limited selection than Office Max or Best Buy. I haven't been to a Sears in ages, but I don't remember seeing much in the way of printers when I was there. One advantage to OfficeMax and BestBuy is that they will probably have print samples with the printers and they may be able to help you decide what would best fit your needs. I use a monochrome laser printer for most of what I print, because I do lots of plain text documents. There's a color inkjet upstairs that is shared on the network, so I can print there if I need color. Long ago, I used to buy Canon inkjets, but the last few I've bought have been HP. We got a multifunction (printer/copier/scanner) and use it to print just about everything, including pictures. If you're going to do many photos, you should get photo paper for best results.

Thanks for all the considerations! I have made careful measurements, including when the top of the printer is "open" to have proper clearances all around, I took note of the on/off switch (it's in the front). I will probably do a simple flat rollout on a shelf in the pantry. The pantry is centrally located on the main floor at the perimeter of the kitchen so I think very convenient for anyone printing for homework or anything else. Since I'm sure our home will outlast our printer I'll probably try to make the shelf a little larger than I think I need to accommodate a future printer of different dimensions, although I think if needed I'd be able to find one to fit a certain space restriction since I'll never want an oversized printer for simple household printer functions.

I have owned three Epsons and while they were superior to the print output of an HP I was able to try at home, I too noticed the ink dries quickly in them if you don't print often. I also found they were not very intuitive setting up for printing on 4"x6" photo paper. That may have changed/improved since I used my Epson (7+ years ago) but I still want to avoid one because of the ink issue. I'm going to do some comparisons with Canon and HP printers today and make a decision soon I hope. I am in the process of (re)starting my own home-based design business again. I had it for eight years before accepting an offer I couldn't refuse from a high tech company 7 years ago. I left them in September 2012 and wanted to get my travel to Southeast Asia out of the way before I got serious about going back to work.