Giving a printer? Thinking about buying one for yourself? Deals are abound, but before you head out to make that purchase take a few minutes to read our Holiday Printer Buying Guide. Inkjet or laser? Multi or single function? How much to spend? We’ve got the scoop on the best printers available this holiday season.

Brother, Canon, Epson and HP. They’ve all made our list. If you are out shopping make sure you check out the following.

Epson Workforce 635 Wireless All-in-One

The Epson Workforce 635 is built for office environments, but will work great for anyone. You may not want to spend the money (starting at $140.00) unless you do a lot of printing though. For those looking to save paper, and the environment, it automatically prints on both sides of a piece of paper. Printing photos? This may not be the printer for you. It’s photo print quality is average and its photo print speed is slow. The 635 is a visually appealing printer (shiny black) with a large, and easy to use, control panel. Replacement ink cartridges are reasonably priced. If you are looking for an office type printer (lots of text printing) this may be just what you need.

HP OfficeJet Mobile

Need to print documents, presentations, and handouts while on the road? The OfficeJet Mobile Printer is for you. Business professionals will love  it’s sleek design and print quality. HP has increased the printing speed over previous models and added Bluetooth wireless printing capabilities.  The printer also features a rechargeable battery. The drawback? It’s expensive (starting at $219.00). If you spend a lot of your work time on the road and need the ability print, this is the mobile printer you need.

Canon ImageClass MF3010

Easy to set up. Easy to use. Reasonably priced (starting at $109.95). The Canon ImageClass MF3010 is great for students, office professionals, and you budget minded folks. Here’s the bummer . . . No wireless networking or auto document feeder! If you can get past those two missing features get yourself this printer. You’ll be very happy with the print speed.

HP Photosmart Premium C410a

This printer is great for the home office crowd. Print, copy, scan, and fax all from the same printer. You are going to get quick print speeds and quality print outs. Those who don’t need to put a whole ream of paper in the paper tray every time they replace paper won’t mind the capacity of the paper tray (it holds a max of 125 sheets). The C410a will features wireless printing and offers access to HP’s Web printing technologies. A fair amount of features for its price (starting at $119.90).

Epson WorkForce 840 All-in-One

Another Epson printer! This multifunction inkjet printer quickly produces great prints (text and graphics). It also offers auto duplexing, wired/wireless networking, and support for mobile printing. If photo speed and quality are what you are looking for, you may want to skip this printer. This printer costs quite a bit more than the average All-in-One inkjet printer (starting at $314.99), but may just be worth it depending on your needs.

HP LaserJet Pro M1217nfw

This is HP’s most inexpensive multifunction laser printer (starting at $199.99). Small budget minded offices are going to get the most bang for their buck with this printer. You’ll be printing, copying, scanning, and faxing in just a matter of minutes (set up is very simple). The M1217nfw offers a driver-less set up and both wired and wireless connections. It’s a work horse printer for small offices that do a lot of monochrome printing. Unfortunately, no auto duplex printing here.

Brother HL-2270DW

The only Brother printer on our list! Basic printing functions at a budget price (starting at $89.99). Brother’s reliable and easy to use printer is just right for home users or students. This monochrome laser printer features wireless networking and quick print speeds. Get is for good looking black and white print outs, not for graphics (not good!).

Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901

Lexmark printers don’t typically make these types of lists, so they’ve done something good with the Pro901. The good I am referring to is Lexmark’s decision to make a lower performing printer in favor of a printer that is cost effective. They are jumping on the “printer ink is to expensive” bandwagon, and hoping to sell a lot of printers because of it. With the lowest black ink cost per page available Lexmark is hoping consumers will look past black prints that are not of the same quality as other printers, slow copy speeds, and poorly designed SmartSolutions app in favor of a low printing cost. The printer itself might be slightly overpriced (starting at $147.00) for the features you get.

Here is a list of the top selling printers at Amazon.com during December 2009. I also thought is would be useful to include some ratings from some of the consumer electronic rating web sites. If you are in the market for a printer, these are some of your best choices.

	Canon PIXMA MP560 Wireless Inkjet All-In-One Photo Printer (3747B002) Pros: Very nice photo quality, Fast scanning speeds, Automatic duplexing and roomy paper trays Cons: Mediocre print speeds Bottom Line: For a reasonable price, you get automatic duplexing and dual 150-sheet input trays, but the trade-off is mediocre print speed.
	Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless All-In-One office Printer Pros: Large 2.5-inch LCD; built-in memory card reader; stylish design; robust software suite; fast output. Cons: Output quality can use improvement Bottom Line: The Canon Pixma MX860′s auto-document feeder, large LCD screen, and quick print speeds are sure to increase your productivity, but it also includes plenty of software to nourish your creative interests. At $199, this multifunctional printer earns our recommendation.
	HP DeskJet F4480 Inkjet All-in-One Printer (CB745A#B1H) Bottom Line: With a very simple setup you’ll be printing, scanning and copying in no time Easily make prints, scans and copies with clear, straightforward buttons Have ink ready when you need it thanks to automatic low-ink alerts Print great-looking photos right at home with borderless printing Save money and energy Use paper more efficiently Take a step to a greener way of life Print from the web easily and efficiently Enjoy high-quality, worry-free printing.
	Brother HL-2140 Personal Laser Printer Pros: Low price, fairly compact size, good quality output, drum rated at 12,000 copies, easy to setup Cons: Not recommended for large print jobs or photos, cost of toner cartridges Bottom Line: I have been a brother laser printer fan for about 10 years. I started with the HL-1240, then moved on to the HL-2040 and now I have an HL-2140. Every time I get near the end of the life cycle with the drum unit, I find that it is cheaper to just buy another printer. I’ve never had a problem with a brother and am happy with mine.
	Canon PIXMA MP490 Inkjet Photo All-In-One Printer (3745B002) Pros: Inexpensive; excellent documentation, Simple, intuitive control panel Cons: Garish skin tones; expensive black ink, Poor paper tray design Bottom Line: It’s a surprisingly decent machine for the price, but its high black ink costs are the tradeoff.

If you own one of these printers, please take a minute and give us your review of it. Thanks!

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Looking for a bargain. Check out these ten printers . . . all priced under $100. We can’t offer you the printers, but we can take care of any printer cartridge needs you have.

Brother MFC-3360C – The Brother MFC-3360C does decent quality text and graphics, but anyone printing a large volume of photos won’t be happy with the extremely slow output speed. If you’re set on buying a multifunction printer, put your $90 toward a more capable device, like the Canon Pixma MX330.

Brother DCP 165C – The counterintuitive setup, bland design, deplorable print quality, and crawling output speeds earns this printer a double thumbs down. Spend $30 more and you can get the Canon Pixma MX330, an all-in-one printer that adds a fax machine on top of the copy, scan, and print features.

Epson Stylus NX515 – The Epson Stylus NX515 is a capable machine that will improve the efficiency of any office or work-at-home setup. Not only is it a lightning-fast all-in-one, but it also has a broader range of features than most other $150 AIOs. As long as you don’t need a full creative software suite, the Epson Stylus NX515 will make a dependable sidekick to your computer.

HP Deskjet D2660 Printer – HP’s basic Deskjet D2660 inkjet has a fold-up paper tray and a unique paper corral that make it easy to store away. We noticed several flaws in the output quality, but if you don’t expect too much in terms of photo output, this $50 inkjet will make an excellent at-home printer for intermittent use.

HP Officejet 6000 – We like the simplicity of the HP Officejet 6000 single-function inkjet printer. The print quality meets HP’s high standards, and it outputs full color photos at an impressive rate, but its lack of an LCD screen takes some getting used to. Nevertheless, the HP Officjet 6000 performed well and earns our recommendation as a great single-function printer.

Canon Pixma MX330 – The HP Photosmart C6380 is a good fit for beginning photographers who want more than just a simple printer. Its six-ink cartridge bay, and scanning and copying capabilities extend its versatility, and while the output quality suffers a few missteps, the C6380 remains a worthwhile deal for the money.

HP Officejet J4680 – The HP Officejet J4680 offers more features at a cheaper price than most of its competitors, and small offices and home professionals will appreciate its print quality as well. Unfortunately, its negatives far outweigh the positives: your office productivity will take a major hit because of sluggish output speeds and faulty paper handling. For a better rounded all-in-one printer, we recommend picking up the Lexmark x7675 Pro or investing an extra $90 in the HP Officejet J6480.

Dell All-in-One Wireless Printer V305w – The Dell V305w is cosmetically appealing and inexpensive, but the output quality needs significant improvement, and the cost to maintain the printer is much higher than the industry standard. We recommend checking out the competition for a printer that will give you longer-lasting inks, cheaper replacement cartridges, and more acceptable photo-quality prints.

Canon Selphy CP770 – The Canon Selphy CP770 is a neat, little dye-sublimation printer that includes a bucket for easy travel, but the wireless accessories aren’t included. If you’re shopping for a convenient travel-friendly printer, check out the Canon Selphy CP760 that offers the exact same technology with a similar style for a better price.

Canon Selphy CP760 – The Canon Selphy CP760 takes the pain out of printing photos with its plug-and-play design and straightforward usability, and the $100 price tag makes it an excellent companion printer for quick prints in the home.

*Review summary compliments of CNET.com

Amazon has the popular Brother MFC-7820N on sale for $242 after a $50 mail-in rebate. The MFC-7820N is a network-ready laser multifunction that includes a fax machine which you can use directly from your computer. This machine combines the benefits of having a laser printer with some solid all-in-one features. If you want an all-in-one printer but plan on only using it for business, then a machine like this would be a good choice over the standard inkjet all-in-ones.

The rebate expires 6/20.

You can find Brother MFC-7820N toner cartridges on our site.

Amazon has the highly-rated Brother HL-5250DN laser printer for $180 after a $50 rebate. This machine is network ready, is rated at 30 pages per minute and has duplex capability for double-sided printing. This is a good printer for a home office that includes more than one user or a small business, as it makes printer sharing easy and has the speed to handle large jobs. The HL-5250DN is well-reviewed by users who have owned it and by professional reviews that have tested it out. This machine likely outperforms all other in its class, and at $180, would definitely be a very good value.