Printers

5 Best Printers with SD Card Reader (2023 Reviews & Guide)

Both SD Cards an USB Thumb Drives have security features which although are optional, do provide digital content theft protection features. The SD is abbreviation for Secure Digital.

Similar to USB thumb drives, SD cards are also supported by many printer brands and models.

The purpose is to physically carry the files to be printed to the printer in the SD Card and print the required files in the required manner. Similarly, in case of AIO printers, you can save scanned files to the SD card and take it anywhere.

For you convenience, in this article, we will talk about the best printers with SD card reader.

DisclosureAs an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Benefits of a SD Card Support in Printers

The printers and AIOs with SD Card support have a distinctive edge over printers that do not offer this feature.

Let us say, your office has an AIO printer for all office work related to printing, scanning, copying and FAX receiving and transfer.

If you want to take out prints of some media, you would need to have the AIO printer connected to your computer so that you can send the print command to the printer along with the details of whatever it is you wish to print.

This dependency of having a device connected to the printer can be eliminated by using physical storage medium like SD Cards. You simply copy whatever you wish to print, to the SD Card and take it physically to the printer.

Many scenarios are relevant here including the following,

  1. 1
    Printing from a print shop
  2. 2
    Printing from a printer in another office or another department of your office where you do not have connectivity.
  3. 3
    Using the printer of a family member which you may not have direct access to.

Similarly, the scanner output files can be copied to the SD Card and taken wherever needed, without any need of direct connectivity of your mobile device or PC with the AIO printer.

Here, you must make sure that the SD Card you are using is compatible with the SD Card reader in the AIO printer. The AIO printer specifications have the detail mentioned.

This is because SD Cards come in varying sizes, transfer speeds and standards according to how recent they are.

You can use the following details:

MINIMUM WRITE SPEED

Speed Class

C6:
  • Write: Normal
  • Highest MB/sec: 6
  • Recording: HD
C10:
  • Write: High-speed
  • Highest MB/sec: 10
  • Recording: HD

UHS Speed Class (2010)

U1
  • Write: UHS-I/II/III
  • Highest MB/sec: 10
  • Recording: HD
U3
  • Write: UHS-I/II/III
  • Highest MB/sec: 30
  • Recording: 4K

Note: Video Speed Class (2016) is not needed for Printer use. Recommended is highlighted in Red.

We hope that this information will better help you choose the right printer with SD card reader.

You can learn more about SD card speed class here.


List of Best Printers with SD Card Reader 

We have selected the following printers as the best in this category:

  1. 1
    Brother MFC-J995DW – Basic AIO Printer with a Super Tank
  2. 2
    Epson Expression Premium ET-7750 – Best Printer with SD Card Reader in Terms of Operating Costs
  3. 3
    Epson XP-830 – Compact and Versatile Photo Printer
  4. 4
    Canon TS9120 – High Quality Six Ink Photo Printer
  5. 5
    Canon SELPHY CP1300 – Portable Photo Printer with an SD Card

5 Best Printers With SD Card Readers Reviewed

1. Brother MFC-J995DW – Basic AIO Printer with a Super Tank

Brother MFC-J995DW INKvestmentTank Color...
  • Up to 1 year of ink in box: Using the...
  • Inkvestment tank system: Reengineered ink...
  • Eliminate ink replacement guesswork: Brother...
  • Mobile device printing: Desktop and mobile...

Brother MFC-J995DW is a great entry level printer suitable for home or small office use that have decently large printing volume.

Of course, its major feature is the large supertank ink reservoir that can allow thousands of prints at a relatively cheap cost.

Another major plus point is a mix of convenience and productivity features that counter balance its entry-level performance.

It comes with gazillion connectivity options using Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, NFC, USB and SD Card support along with great software features for image handling, direct transfer and cloud access.

They have also thrown in a 20-page ADF, albeit it only allows single side scanning only.

The per print cost at 1 cent for monochrome and less than 5 cents for color is excellent for the price range, plus with auto-duplex printing.

The ink handling “INKvestment Tank” is a hybrid approach with replaceable cartridges that empty into fixed ink tanks giving you enough ink that will last almost a year.

No more re-fill bottles. This is more of a convenience feature because it does not lower the running cost.

Related: How To Get More Ink From A Printer Cartridge

Although it is a good all-rounder printer, the input and output capacities in this printer are a little low and its photo print quality is lower than that of text and graphics, but again as we know that this is an entry level printer so this isn’t much of a big deal.

Again, if you came here looking for a rather affordable printer than can print fairly high amount of pages, then in our opinion this is the best printer with SD card reader.

Dimensions and Weight

(7.7 x 17.1 x 13.4) inches (HxWxD)

19.2 pounds


2. Epson Expression Premium ET-7750 – Best Printer with SD Card Reader in Terms of Operating Costs

Epson Expression Premium EcoTank Wireless...
  • Epson strongly recommends the use of Genuine...
  • Cartridge-free printing — comes with up to...
  • Includes enough ink to print documents up to...
  • Save up to 80 percent on ink with replacement...

The Epson Expression Premium ET7750 is an AIO Supertank inkjet printer; a flagship printer among the new 7 offerings from Epson.

So, one should not expect it to be cheap; as a matter of fact, it is the most expensive printers in this list.

While the Brother MFC-J995DW above is also a printer with a supertank, this one takes the printing volume and low operating cost to the next level.

The ET7750 is the first five-ink supertank photo printer in consumer-grade which causes the running costs to nose-dive beyond competition (0.3 cents per page monochrome and 1.1 cents per page color). For this reason alone, the printer is the among least expensive to operate that too at photo grade quality; one of its major selling points of the ET7750.

Exceptional color photo print quality, superb text and graphics printing up to Tabloid (A3) size; borderless if desired and also prints labels on optical disks. Hence, as the least expensive photo AIO, this printer is highly favored by photo enthusiasts and it also makes this printer ideal for photo printing.

The connectivity options in this printer are also decent; we get Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Ethernet, USB to single PCUSB thumb drive support and also SD card support. Unfortunately, there is no support for NFC which is a letdown considering the price of this printer.

The ET7750 is very slow as compared to other printers in its category, it also lacks ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) and also doesn’t have a touch display in it, so an ideal AIO pretty much for the photo printing or high volume printing niche.

Again, if you want a printer that can print 14,000 black and 9,000 color pages per one full tank and with very low operating costs, then this is the best printer with SD card reader.

Dimensions and Weight

(17.8 x 20.7 x 29.3) inches (HxWxD)

23.4 pounds


3. Epson XP-830 – Compact and Versatile Photo Printer

Epson XP-830 Wireless Color Photo Printer...
  • Form Factor: Print, Copy, Scan, Fax

The Epson XP-830 is a light-duty small-in-one inkjet printer that can fax also. This printer is great for home use and is an excellent entry level printer. It has great connectivity choices, is compact and the features in this printer are also great, knowing that this printer doesn’t cost a lot.

The Epson XP-830 is a versatile printer.

  • It comes with a lot of connectivity features; it has an SD card reader, support for USB, Wi-fi, Wi-fi Direct and is also compatible with Google Cloud Print, Facebook and Epson Connect Solutions. So, you can print any document you want to without having to worry about compatibility.
  • Other than having 30-page duplexing ADF, a flatbed scanner and duplex printing, the XP-830 has very good photo print quality and can also print on optical disks.

Now we know that this printer is a highly versatile one, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a bulky printer too. It is rather a very small and compact printer that won’t take much space on your desk and can fit in a small place too.

This printer, while having its pros, also has its cons. The Epson XP-830 has a limited paper capacity and its running cost is higher than that of normal printers.

Basically, this printer is the jack of all trades. It is suited in plethora of environments ranging from home use to office use. It has robust scanning and duplexing capability and for average use, this is the best printer with SD card reader.

Dimensions and Weight

(7.5 x 15.4 x 13.3) inches (HxWxD)

21.5 pounds


4. Canon TS9120 – High Quality Six Ink Photo Printer

On Sale Today
Canon TS9120 Wireless All-In-One Printer with...
  • Inspire your creativity with prints that will...
  • Enjoy the simplicity of connecting your...
  • The PIXMA TS9120 Wireless printer is the...
  • With intuitive features like the 5.0" LCD...

If you are looking for a printer that doesn’t break the bank and still gives you studio grade photo prints, then this is the best printer with SD card reader in our opinion.

The TS9120 is another one of canon’s six-ink photo printing masters that maintains the tradition of printing vibrant, accurately colored and extremely detailed photos. The text and graphics print quality is above average.

Of course the higher the number of inks, the better would be the photo print quality. On the other hand though, higher number of inks also means a higher operating cost and slower printing speeds.

This particular series; the TS series has specially been designed by Canon for family and home-based office use. The installation of this printer is pretty basic and easy. It also has a lot of connectivity options. With this printer we get Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth 4.0 and also the support for SD card which is a great plus point.

One thing to be noted is that while this printer does have a flatbed scanner it does not have automatic document feeder.

Although it has many connectivity options but it still lacks Wi-Fi-Direct and also doesn’t have the support for NFC. In truth, you don’t really need WiFi Direct or NFC given that this printer has Bluetooth 4.0.

In the end, this is an affordable photo printer with limited AIO capabilities. Therefore, if you are a photographer or an artist, then this is certainly the best printers with SD Card reader for you.

Dimensions and Weight

(5.6 x 14.7 x 12.8) inches (HxWxD)

14.7 pounds


5. Canon SELPHY CP1300 – Portable Photo Printer with an SD Card

Canon Selphy CP1300 Wireless Compact Photo...
  • Not only will your photos be instantly dry,...
  • Enjoy the simplicity of connecting your...
  • The sleek, portable design lets you bring the...
  • With the tilting 3.2 inches LCD screen it's...

The Canon Selphy CP1300 is a small, compact and portable Wireless photo printer and it has a lot of great features inside.

In fact, this is among the best portable photo printers that you can carry out in your back pack to capture your travels. It also comes with an optional purchase of a Battery Pack that can allow you to print on the go.

It weighs a mere 2.5 pounds which is just insane keeping in mind that it’s a printer we are talking about. You can carry this little guy anywhere with you and you won’t even know that you are carrying a printer around with you.

This little printer, despite its small footprint, is really great for photo printing; slow and 4-pass printing using dye-sublimation, but great quality.

It is capable of printing 4 by 6 inches photos and it can do so wirelessly. You wouldn’t even have to connect this printer to a computer to print these photos.

Other than Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi direct, this printer connects through a USB port and also supports SD cards and USB Thumb drive, but hold on! Its port is a Type-B mini USB and no cable is included. A big letdown, given that we don’t get these cables so readily anymore.

Other than that, the printer truly stands out within its class of lightweight, small, fully functional, stand-alone, portable color photo printers.

Dimensions and Weight

(2.5 x 7 x 5.4) inches (HxWxD)

2.5 pounds


People Also Ask (FAQs)

What basics do I need to know about SD cards?

This is a very important question. Although USB drives and SD Cards use similar hardware for data storage, SD Cards require a slightly deeper understanding, particularly with regards to use in printers, MFP, AIOs etc.

Slot width and SD Card width

SD card adapter

SD Cards are fully inserted into the devices, so their width must match with the width of the slot.

A smaller card can be placed in an adapter to match the larger slot size.

Using an SD Card in a microSD slot also requires an adapter but here, the microSD side of the adapter will go into the slot while at the other end is a flat cable that connects to the SD card which will hang outside.

SD Card type

SD card have evolved overtime and so are available in various types that may or may not be compatible. We talked about this earlier in the article.

SD Card speeds

Associated with SD Card types is also the speed. The Types of SD cards partially overlap with regards to speed. Again, compatibility must be confirmed.

How are the options of SD Card and USB Thumb drive different?

SD Cards and USB Thumb drives store data using similar hardware, but they do have major differences.

  1. 1
    USB drives work with virtually any USB interface and are backward compatible. SD Cards are not backward compatible. Newer SD Cards may not work on older devices and vice versa.
  2. 2
    SD Cards are used as removable storage in mobile devices. This is a domain that is specific to the SD Cards. So, your cameras, smartphones, tablets etc. will have SD Cards inserted in them for data storage. USB Thumb drives are usually connected to take out or copy in date.
  3. 3
    It is possible to transfer data from USB thumb drive to SD card and vice versa. This can be very helpful in resolving any incompatibility issues to a great extent.

Conclusion

Here we tried to find the best printer with SD card reader for you. Depending on your needs and your budget, you can select among affordable and high performance printers.

Since most devices come with memory slots, it only makes sense to thave the same in the printer as well.

Multimedia devices like cameras, smartphones and tablets generally have the capability of using SD cards for storing the pictures, movies and audios.

In order to print the media or the retrieve scanned files, direct support of SD Cards in AIO printers is a huge benefit and a matter of great convenience.

One word of caution is the determine the compatibility of the SD cards with the printers so that you are not left stranded, with other options only, to avail from.