Mini printers are suddenly very popular and a great way to add cute touches to your journal pages or craft projects, print your favourite photos or make labels for organising. You can print to them direct from your phone and sometimes from your computer too. Here’s a few portable printers to choose from and where to buy them, plus videos to see them in action.
Thermal Printers
The amazing thing about thermal printers is that they don’t use ink so you never have to pay for expensive ink cartridges. However, they only work with special thermal paper so you’ll need to buy supplies recommended by the manufacturer. They usually only print in black and white but you can buy coloured tape and labels to make it more fun.
My personal favourite is the PeriPage Pocket Printer which looks like a bear! It’s available in 3 cute colours with matching colourful labels and paper available too.
$99.99 with free shipping worldwide – PeriPage Shop / Amazon (UK / USA) / Youtube videos
Phomemo have a big range of thermal printers in various sizes including this cute Airmail design and also offer fun cases to make the printers look like cats and bunnies. They have lots of different supplies including pastel, metallic and clear labels and stickers.
$99.99 with free shipping worldwide – Phomemo Shop / Amazon (UK / USA) / Youtube videos
You might remember the King Jim Tepra Lite label printer that we reviewed a couple of years ago. It’s still available but a little hard to find now (try Ebay – link below). Instead there’s a new pocket version with an app instead of all those buttons. It still has all the cute fonts and designs, plus you can get patterned tapes including Rilakkuma designs!
From around $50 + shipping – King Jim website / Amazon (JP) / Ebay / Youtube videos
Mini Photo Printers
If you want to print in colour, there are portable printers for that too. If you don’t have the space for a full size inkjet printer, these are a fun option for photos. Some will use standard photo paper and others will need specific branded supplies.
instax cameras are the modern Polaroids, where you take a photo and get an instant print of it. Their instax Lite printer lets you print any photo from your phone on to the same mini film and you can buy so many different kinds with cute borders and designs, plus albums and display products.
Around $99.95 + shipping – instax website / Amazon (UK / USA) / Youtube videos
The HP Sprocket is more of a mini version of a standard printer and can print on photo paper or glossy stickers. The app lets you add filters, borders, emojis, and drawings for a purikura feel. The printer comes in some really cool colours including glitter and marbled finishes.
Around $129.95 + shipping – HP website / Amazon (UK / USA) / Youtube videos
Do you own any of these printers? I’d love to hear more about them. And if they’re out of your budget just now, look out for big discounts around Black Friday. I’ve seen some of these at 50% off.
Marceline is the co-founder and editor of Super Cute Kawaii and the author of The Super Cute Book of Kawaii. She lives by the seaside in Scotland in a flat full of kawaii, creating cute character goods as Asking For Trouble, working on endless craft projects and playing Nintendo.
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