Best printers for printing checks

For printing checks, the Brother MFC-L2820DW at $279.99 is the pick: a single-sheet manual feed slot for check stock, a 50-page feeder for scanning what goes with the payment, and about 3.3 cents a page. For a business printing runs of checks, the HL-L5210DW at $329.99 and its 100-sheet multi-purpose tray. For occasional household checks, the HL-L2460DW at $179.99.

How we picked

Check printing asks for three things a general-purpose printer may not have, so the ranking follows them in order: a paper source that takes heavier stock without unloading your plain paper, print that is dry and permanent the moment it leaves the machine, and a cost per page low enough that a monthly run is not an event.

Everything here is published paper handling from each manufacturer’s own specification page plus our own arithmetic on genuine cartridge prices. We have no units in hand and we have not tested check stock through any of them.

Why checks are a laser job

• Toner is fused plastic. It is bonded to the surface with heat rather than absorbed, so a laser-printed check does not smudge under a thumb, run if it gets damp, or lift when it is handled through the banking system.
• It is harder to alter. Liquid ink on plain stock can be lifted with solvent far more easily than fused toner, which is the practical security argument and the reason business check printing has always been laser.
• It is dry on arrival. You can sign and send immediately. An inkjet check needs a moment, and a wet signature over wet ink is a mess.
• Nothing dries out between runs. Checks are printed in bursts. Toner sits happily for months; liquid ink in an idle inkjet does not. Why that matters.

The MICR caveat, stated plainly

The band of stylised numbers along the bottom of a check is the MICR line, and it is designed to be read magnetically as well as optically. Printing it properly requires MICR toner, which contains iron oxide, in a cartridge sold specifically for that purpose — standard toner is not magnetic.

We do not stock, price or recommend MICR cartridges, and none of the supplies in our registry is one. If you are printing checks from blank stock including the MICR line, buy a MICR cartridge made for your exact model and confirm the arrangement with your own bank before you print a run. If you are printing onto pre-printed check stock that already carries the MICR line — which is what most small businesses and households do — standard toner is all you need, because the printer is only adding the payee, amount, date and memo.

Getting check stock through cleanly

1. Feed from the manual slot or multi-purpose tray wherever the machine has one. The main cassette bends the sheet more than heavier stock likes and makes misfeeds more likely.
2. Set the media type to heavy paper or thick in the driver, so the sheet slows through the fuser and the toner fuses properly.
3. Turn duplexing off. There is nothing on the back of a check, and the reversing path is one more place for an awkward sheet to jam.
4. Proof on plain paper first and hold it against a blank check up to a window. Thirty seconds, and it saves a ruined sheet of numbered stock.
5. Store blank checks locked away rather than loaded in a tray. This is the dull advice that makes the manual feed slot the right feature rather than a nicety.

What check printing costs

Very little, which is the point of doing it yourself. At 40 checks a month over three years the toner comes to $47 on the TN830XL machines and $27 on the HL-L5210DW — before the check stock itself, which will cost you more than the toner does. The business machine only wins on supplies once the volume is high enough to work through its much larger cartridge. Our invoice printing costs use the same arithmetic.