Top printers for the holiday season

Printers can make great gifts for all types. And with holiday gatherings afoot, it's important to keep a printer close at hand to output photos, greeting cards, and travel itineraries. Whether you're shopping for a shutterbug or home-office worker on your gift list, or just need to upgrade your own printer, check out CNET's guide to the best printers this season.

If you're shopping for an output device to print mostly text, light graphics, and the occasional snapshot photo, the Canon Pixma MG3220 is a standout option with a generous balance of performance and features.

Armed with a 35-page autodocument feeder (ADF) for multipage scanning and a duplexer on the back that can flip sheets for automatic double-sided printing, this device earns a recommendation for its straightforward design and reliable performance.

With an impressive combination of cloud printing features and a road-tested design, the Brother HL-545DN makes sense for home offices and small- to medium-size businesses that rely on a workhorse printer for daily output and networked connectivity.

For homes and offices looking to get creative with their prints, the $150 HP Photosmart 7510 offers easy-to-use connections, a host of useful apps in the ePrintCenter, and high-resolution yields for an affordable price.

The MX372 will likely satisfy households where cost and features take precedence over output quality, but dedicated shooters and offices should seek out a more capable machine to bring photos and presentations to a professional level.

The Epson WorkForce 645 caters to the office crowd with cloud printing features and the ability to automatically print on both sides of a sheet of paper while still keeping ink replacement costs relatively low. It registers competitive print speeds and the rest of its buffet of features will leave any business shopper satisfied.

HP succeeds again in building a classy, fast, reliable all-in-one imaging device for the business market, but I wouldn't limit my recommendation to office denizens. With its spread of convenient connectivity features and cloud printing that includes ePrint and AirPrint compatibility, the affordable Officejet Pro 8600 will earn its place as a solid performer in any environment that demands high-quality document and image prints.