We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more. Travel Products Tech Essentials The 10 Best Portable Photo Printers for 2024 Print your favorite travel photos on the go. By Lauren Breedlove Lauren Breedlove Lauren Breedlove is a New York-based travel writer, photographer, and content creator who focuses on off-the-beaten-path outdoor adventures. Her work has been featured in Afar, Time magazine, TravelPulse, Popsugar, Travel + Leisure, Elite Daily, and Thrillist. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines Updated on February 26, 2024 Fact checked by Rich Scherr Fact checked by Rich Scherr Rich Scherr is a seasoned journalist and editor who has traveled across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and spent more than a decade reviewing hotel room. Travel + Leisure Fact Checking Process In This Article Expand In This Article Our Top Picks ReviewsTips for Buying Frequently Asked Questions Why Trust T + L Photo: Travel + Leisure / Marcus Millan Portable photo printers allow us the freedom to print our favorite images while traveling, with some models able to even print stickers, notes, or labels as well. Whether you’re on a family vacation, friends’ trip, or a wedding abroad, having a portable photo printer on hand adds the ability to share photos instantly with your whole crew. The images serve as souvenirs you don’t need to buy, and ensure that pictures don’t remain trapped on one person’s smartphone only. Portable printers come in all different forms, so finding a balance of desired price point, quality of photos, and portability will help dictate what kind of model you need. To help out, we’ve researched and rounded up the best options that offer a wide variety of features and while remaining user friendly. Our Top Picks Best Overall: Fujifilm Instax Mini Link 2 Smartphone Printer at Amazon ($89) Jump to Review Best Customizable: Polaroid Hi-Print Pocket Phone Printer at Target ($100) Jump to Review Best for Smartphones: Kodak Wireless Mobile Photo Mini Printer at Amazon ($64) Jump to Review Most Lightweight: Liene Mini Instant Portable Photo Printer at Amazon ($80) Jump to Review Best for Larger Photos: LifePrint Mobile Printer at Amazon ($150) Jump to Review Best for Wallet-size Photos: HP Sprocket Select Photo Printer at Amazon ($76) Jump to Review Best for Wide Photos: Fujifilm Instax Link Wide Printer at Walmart ($120) Jump to Review Best for Stickers: Canon Ivy 2 Mini Photo Printer at Amazon ($79) Jump to Review Best Square Prints: Canon SELPHY Square QX10 Compact Photo Printer at Amazon ($119) Jump to Review Best Budget: HuiJuKeJi Bluetooth Smart Pocket Inkless Thermal Printer at Amazon ($24) Jump to Review Best Overall Fujifilm Instax Mini Link 2 Smartphone Printer PHOTO: Amazon $89 At Amazon $100 At Target $100 At Best Buy Why We Love It It combines all of the best features in one pocket-sized printer. What to Consider The prints are a little pricier per sheet than other models. Compact and lightweight, the Fujifilm Instax Mini Link 2 Smartphone Printer is an all-around best bet portable photo printer for its ease of use, fun features, and travel-friendly size. It connects wirelessly to your phone via Bluetooth and prints 2-by-3-inch photos using thermal technology in approximately 15 seconds. It’s perfect for gifting to friends and family or for decorating your own space with memories. With such an easy set-up, you can get right to printing your photos. Download the free app to print and customize your photos so you can add personalizations with decorative features, stickers, and filters like neon colors, text, spray paint, glitter, bubbles, and more. You can even print a still capture from your favorite video. The new Instaxair feature allows you to add drawings and shapes to your images as well. For printing your smartphone photos on the go, this is our top pick. The Details: 3.6 x 1.2 x 4.8 inches | 7.4 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB Best Customizable Polaroid Hi-Print Pocket Phone Printer PHOTO: Amazon $100 At Target $82 At Walmart $100 At Best Buy Why We Love It You can easily customize photos with stickers, frames, and more via the app. What to Consider The photos don’t stick that well. The Polaroid Hi-print Pocket Photo Printer is our favorite pick for personalizing photos before printing easily via Bluetooth. Add that special creative touch with the multitude of stickers, filters, frames, text, and more that can be applied in the app. This pocket-sized printer is an ideal travel companion for any situation where you want to capture the memories for a physical souvenir. One of the best features of this very portable printer is how easy it is to use. The prints are vivid thanks to the dye-sub cartridge technology used in printing, and each high-quality photo is created in less than a minute. The Details: 7.28 x 5.43 x 3.98 inches | 1 pound | Micro USB Best for Smartphones Kodak Wireless Mobile Photo Mini Printer PHOTO: Amazon $64 At Amazon $70 At Target $70 At Walmart Why We Love It It’s palm-sized and connects easily to your devices for printing. What to Consider The photos print with a warmer, yellow tint. The Kodak Step Wireless Mobile Mini Color Printer connects to any iOS or Android smartphones, as well as tablets using Bluetooth or NFC (Near Field Communication), making it a breeze to print your photos on the go. The small, lightweight device is built to travel and produces high quality photos that are resistant to smudges, rips and tears, and moisture so you can transport them worry-free. With Zink (zero ink technology) you don’t ever need to replace ink cartridges, either. Download the free Kodak app and get your creative juices flowing, adding borders, filters, frames, and more to your photos for a more personal touch on these wallet-sized images. Photos print in under a minute, and the peel-and-stick back makes it easy to attach them to your fridge, notebooks, locker, or anywhere you’d like to display your memories. The Details: 3 x 5 x 1 inches | 8.8 ounces | Bluetooth or NFC | Micro USB The 32 Best Custom Photo Gifts of 2024 Most Lightweight Liene Mini Instant Portable Photo Printer PHOTO: Amazon $80 At Amazon Why We Love It It’s ultra lightweight and portable. What to Consider The app is a bit limited. Clocking in at less than half a pound, the Liene photo printer is our pick for the most lightweight. This will take up minimal space in your bag, making it perfect for traveling. Print your memories from your phone on the 2-by-3-inch Zink paper with the simple-to-use Bluetooth connection. The sticky-backed photo paper allows you to decorate your space or items with your favorite images, and the Liene app makes it fun to add some personality as well. Use the filters, frames, text, and more to customize your photos for yourself or friends and family and color or mono (black and white) photo paper is available for purchase. We also love that you can choose to print your photos with a border, borderless, or polaroid style. Print up to 30 photos before needing to recharge the battery on this printer, too. The Details: 4.92 x 3.35 x 0.98 inches | 6.4 ounces | Bluetooth | USB-C Best for Larger Photos LifePrint Mobile Printer PHOTO: Amazon $150 At Amazon View On Bloomingdales Why We Love It Larger 3 by 4.5 inch photos give your travel images more stunning real estate. What to Consider The battery life isn’t as good as other models. Most portable printers produce small, wallet-sized photos, but if you’re looking for your images to be a bit bigger, the Lifeprint 3 x 4.5 Portable Photo and Video Printer is our top choice. This user-friendly printer is easy to use via Bluetooth or Wi-fi connection and the Lifeprint app. We also love the social feature within the app which allows you to connect with friends and family members to share photos from anywhere. Print a still shot from a video and use the built-in Hyperphoto technology, an Augmented Reality feature that embeds the video in the photo print and can be watched using your smartphone when held over the image. Add effects, filters, text, and more within the app to personalize your photos before printing as well. The Details: 1.9 x 5.3 x 7.5 inches | 12 ounces | Bluetooth and Wi-fi | Micro USB Best for Wallet-size Photos HP Sprocket Select Photo Printer PHOTO: Amazon $76 At Amazon $100 At Target $100 At Best Buy Why We Love It It creates wallet-sized prints that are smudge, water, and tear-resistant. What to Consider Some photos might have a pink or blue tint to them when printed. We love the HP Sprocket Select Portable Instant Photo Printer for creating wallet-sized photos (2.3 x 3.4 inches), and quickly. Set up is very straightforward, making it easy for anyone to use. Vibrant images are printed without ink using the Zink technology and can be customized in the HP Sprocket app with frames, filters, and text. Another fun feature is the ability to turn your drawings into stickers that can be added to your memories for even more of a personalized touch. The printer itself has a slim, sleek design that won’t weigh your bag down or take up too much space, making it a fantastic travel companion. The sticker-backed photo paper means you can put them virtually anywhere from your wall to a scrapbook. The Details: 5.13 x 3.48 x 0.69 inches | 10.8 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB Best for Wide Photos Fujifilm Instax Link Wide Printer PHOTO: Amazon $120 At Walmart Why We Love It It’s great for landscape or group photos. What to Consider It only takes Instax Wide Instant Film. Most portable printers produce small prints and it can be tricky to get everything in frame. Enter the Fujifilm Instax Link Wide Printer, our top choice for printing wide, polaroid-style photos that measure 3 by 5 inches. Easy to use with the free Link Wide app, printing is a breeze directly from your smartphone via Bluetooth. Within the app, you can add a personal touch, resize and crop photos, and add text or filters. Print a still shot from your favorite videos and enjoy adding a QR code to view the full video or a specially recorded message, right from the physical photo. Another excellent feature that makes this wide printer so unique is the ability to choose from two different color output options: “natural mode” or “rich mode” depending on the aesthetic you’re going for. This device is compact and lightweight as well, making it perfect for bringing along to events and on vacations. The Details: 6.1 x 2.8 x 7.6 inches | 12 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB The 20 Best Protective Phone Cases of 2024 Best for Stickers Canon Ivy 2 Mini Photo Printer PHOTO: Amazon $79 At Amazon $100 At Target $111 At Walmart Why We Love It It’s loaded with customization options like stickers, special effects, and collage layouts. What to Consider The battery life is short. We love the user-friendly Canon Ivy 2 Mini Photo Printer for its portability and creative sticker options. This version has upgraded photo quality, with optimized skin tone colors, contrast, and sharpness. With Zink technology, no ink is needed for printing, and images print with a sticky back so you can use the photos to decorate any space you choose. Customize your sticker photos with the collage, circle, or regular rectangle printing shape, and add fun drawings and artsy stickers, text, and more within the Canon Mini Print app. With this travel-sized printer, creativity is the name of the game. The Details: 4.7 x 0.8 x 3.3 inches | 8.8 ounces | Bluetooth | USB-C Best Square Prints Canon SELPHY Square QX10 Compact Photo Printer PHOTO: Amazon $119 At Amazon $150 At Walmart $99 At B&H Photo Video Why We Love It The prints have a coating to protect against moisture and fading. What to Consider It requires an ink cassette and only comes with an included sample size to test print three photos. For the Instagram square print-style aesthetic, the Canon Selphy QX10 Portable Square Photo Printer is our top choice. It’s easy to set up and use, and produces vibrant, high-quality photos perfect for crafting, gifting, or decorating. Its compact size makes it portable for tagging along on your adventures and sharing the memories. Downloading the free Canon Selphy Photo Layout 2.0 app allows your creativity to flow, with stamps, stickers, a variety of borders, text, date, frames, filters, and even a painting tool so you can personalize your images. It takes about 30 seconds to print, and then you’ll have a nice physical souvenir of your favorite photos. The Details: 1.23 x 4.02 x 5.65 inches | 15.52 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB Best Budget HuiJuKeJi Bluetooth Smart Pocket Inkless Thermal Printer PHOTO: Amazon $24 At Amazon Why We Love It The printer comes in a fun selection of pastel colors. What to Consider It only prints in black and white. The HuiJuKeJi Bluetooth Smart Pocket Inkless Thermal Printer is our top choice for a budget-friendly option to print photos on the go. Portable and easy to use, you can connect this device to your smartphone via Bluetooth to produce small black and white prints. The ‘Tiny Print’ app allows you to customize and print a wide variety of items, from photos to labels, shopping lists, and notes to drawings or stickers. Also within the app, features like AI painting, portrait to anime, and line art encourage creativity. The printer comes with 11 rolls of paper for printing. For a portable printer that can create more than just black and white photos, this one gets the job done at a great price point. The Details: 3.2 x 3.2 x 1.77 inches | 15 ounces | Bluetooth | Micro USB The 11 Best Travel Tech Organizers of 2024 Tips for Buying Portable Photo Printers Decide the best printer size for your needs A portable photo printer should be compact in size and lightweight so it’s easy to transport in your bag of choice when traveling, such as a tote, purse, or backpack. You don’t want something bulky to bring with you on the go. Portable printers are designed to produce small prints and photo stickers. If you’re in the market for a photo printer that can create high-quality, full-sized prints, you’ll need to consider something other than a portable printer. Look at ease of connectivity and printer speed No one wants to fumble around with cords and encounter issues with connectivity when trying to print images from a smartphone. Finding a portable model that’s user-friendly and prints at a decent speed should be a priority. Most of the top printers will connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and require a free app on your smartphone to edit and print directly. If you will often be in areas where Wi-Fi is unreliable or nonexistent, consider a portable printer that connects via Bluetooth so that sending documents to print isn’t an issue. Printer speed is also a key feature to research when shopping for your portable printer, as you’ll be printing photos on the go. You don’t want to have to wait around for minutes to print just one photo. Typically, most portable printers have the ability to print one photo in under 30 seconds to one minute. Consider print quality and ink technology With your portable photo printer, you’ll want images that produce sharp, high-quality photos with high-resolution, if possible. Some models offer more of a vintage, polaroid look, while others print clearer and more vibrant photos. One of the aspects to look at when deciding on a portable photo printer is the ink and printing technology. Many models use Zink technology (zero ink) which has embedded crystals within each sheet of paper that prints vibrant photos using evenly distributed heating. Typically, this and dye-sublimation ink are known to offer fade-resistant prints that are also resistant to tearing and smudging. Dye-sublimation technology produces vivid, clear prints and uses ink and heat to create the image. While purchasing a printer that requires ink cassettes or cartridges might be more affordable, it’s an extra item to tote around and they are known to smudge. Thermal printers are another type of inkless printer, but they don’t produce the most high-quality or rich in color prints. Review the paper requirements Each photo printer will require its own type of specific photo paper based on the printing technology used as well as size. This is crucial to your photo printer working correctly (or at all). Some brands like Kodak and Fujifilm Instax sell paper made per printer model, such as if you have the wide photo printer vs. 2 by 3 inch wallet-sized. It’s key to evaluate how expensive refill packs of photo paper are when calculating the overall cost. Some photo printers do come in a bundle deal with a good starter pack of paper as that can be a more economical choice as well. Frequently Asked Questions How do I choose a portable photo printer? Choosing the right portable printer for your specific needs and mobility depends on many factors. While the main issue surrounds the size of the printer you’ll bring along on your travels, there are several other things to consider, too. If you plan to use your printer while out and about all day, you’ll need one with good battery life. Look at ease of use, and think about how creative you want to be with editing or customizing your photos in the app. Certain apps offer more flexibility with built-in tools and features like filters, text, frames, borders, stickers and even painting or drawing. It’s also important to decide if you want to print in color or black and white, or would like the option to do both. Additionally, the size of the prints you prefer will dictate the type of photo printer you’ll want to purchase. Most print wallet-sized or similar sized images, but there are options for wide, or even a bit larger photos (within reason). Some photo printers allow for printing stickers, drawings, labels and more, so it’s important to evaluate the capabilities that you’d like your printer to have. It’s also key to look at the ease of use and whether or not you’ll need to replace ink cartridges, regularly. Do portable printers need Wi-Fi? Many portable photo printers have the option to print via Wi-Fi, however it’s not necessary. Really, you just need a connection between the device you want to print from and the printer itself. Many offer Bluetooth, USB, or their own wireless connection platform within the device. Bluetooth is the most common, and is an easy way to print from your smartphone, laptop, or tablet once connected. This makes a portable photo printer truly mobile for whatever your needs are and wherever your travels take you. Why Trust Travel + Leisure A writer and travel photographer, T+L contributor Lauren Breedlove used her personal experience with finding the right portable photo printers for travel in order to curate this list. She also scoured the internet, researching and selecting the best portable printers to suit a wide array of needs. The 12 Best Travel Cameras of 2024 Love a great deal? Sign up for our T+L Recommends newsletter and we’ll send you our favorite travel products each week. Edited by Jasmine Grant Jasmine Grant Jasmine is a senior commerce editor at Travel + Leisure, specializing in luggage and travel accessories. Jasmine has over a decade of experience as a writer and editor in lifestyle and travel media. In her spare time, she's probably planning her next voyage to a nearby Caribbean island. learn more Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit