Advice: Printers for artists

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I need an affordable printer for a book I am working on that is a cross between a fanzine, a graphic novel and old school collage. I need to print out graphic design elements that I can then cut, manipulate, and paste into a collage or canvas.

I've heard of the Epson Ecotank system, but was wondering if there is a better product out here, or if there are still some printers or cartridges that can be easily hacked to take 3rd party ink and will not automatically turn into a brick at an arbitrary date.

Any ideas or advice is greatly appreciated since it's been forever since I owned a printer. Thanks!

I'm subscribing to this post because I too am wondering what printers people suggest. ʕ´•ᴥ•`ʔ

I bought an Epson Envy printer in 2018 ~ and have had the worst time getting it to print a clear image. It prints well, is easy to clean, and has an ink subscription service, but it ALWAYS has little bands that pop up in the print job. Because of this, I haven't really been able to use the printer ʕ； •`ᴥ•´ʔ.

Let me know if you find a good printer! Good luck in the search!

An issue is having the proper print driver for your printer.
I've recall having a Canon printer that didn't work for a while until they finally provided a driver for my semi-old operating system.
Similarly, I have an old Nikon D70 camera. They have RAW software, but only for Win 10 and 11, so I bought a new Win 11 computer to use it!
The print driver on my Chromebox disappeared. I couldn't find it on the install options.
I wrote a note and was able to use the printer again a few weeks later.
No, I didn't hear back from anyone. At least it works again.

To cover the base, I need to ask if you are doing the alignment procedure on these printers? This should be done when you first install the printer and then when you replace the ink cartridge(s). At least at those times. If you are getting banding in your images, perform the alignment again. It is supposed to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, banding.

Btw, I have used Epson printers for many years and have gotten good results.

Just for clarification, for my purposes almost any cheap printer will do (I'm going to be cutting the prints up and pasting them into collages so quality is not a priority). I used to have printers all the time but stopped when the cartridge prices went through the roof. And now, I'm hearing all kinds of horror stories about printers that automatically run an invisible "test" print strip with all colours even if your print is only one color or black, that there is a reservoir inside the machine that shuts it down forever once full after all these test prints, etc...

Status update: after a long search I bought the Brother MFC-J1205W "INKvestment Tank" multifunction printer because it was on sale for $129 down from the original $199 price.

The manufacturer claims it comes with one year's worth of ink (approximately 1200 pages), and the ink cartridges are also supposedly much more affordable and cost efficient than most other printers. We shall see.

For now I am just hoping it gets me through my art projects for the next year without any hassles or additional costs.