What’s The best Brother PJ printer for tattooists? 

It’s the first question I get asked all the time. The answer is actually quite simple – It depends on how you want it to fit in your setup. To help you figure out The best Brother PJ printer for you let’s take a look at each model and compare them. But first let’s get an overview of all the machines.

The Brother PJ printer range – Overview.

For this article I’m going to compare the 3 current PJ models. The 723, 763mfi and the 773. The great news is that all 3 models print at exactly the same resolution, use the same drivers and software and have all the same print feature. The only difference are their connectivity options. USB, Bluetooth or WiFi.

The Brother PJ printer range – PJ723.

The 723 is the simplest printer to connect as it only offers a USB connection. This means that it can easily connect to your Mac or PC laptop or tower but NOT to your iPad or tablet. As long as your computer has a USB connection, just plug it in and away you go.

This is my preferred printer as I work on a laptop these days. I simply found that don’t really ‘get on’ with tablets etc so I switched back to my trusted old mac laptop. Call me old fashioned I guess!

The Brother PJ printer range – PJ763mfi.

In case your wondering the ‘mfi’ part of the 763’s name means ‘made for IOS’. That said it should come as no surprise that the 763 has bluetooth as well as USB connectivity.

You can connect your iPhone or Android Phone, iPad or Tablet to the 763 using bluetooth. And, using the Brother Iprint&Scan app you can print directly to the 763 with many of the most used print settings available in the app to adjust the print.

This is an ideal solution for the solo or travelling tattooist as your setup remains very small and portable. The only drawback to the bluetooth connection is that – at the time of writing – you cant print directly from the most (if not all) common art and drawing apps on your device. You have to output the stencil to your ‘camera roll’ and import it into the Brother app. The brother app allows you to scale and rotate your artwork. As long as you don’t mind that extra step. Which honestly isn’t really a big hassle. Then the 763mfi is the best option for you.

If I’m travelling with just my iPad this is the printer I take with me.

The Brother PJ printer range – PJ773.

The 773 is the WiFi & USB model. A solo artist can connect to it. Out of the box the 773 will create a WiFI hotspot that you can use to connect to it. Because it uses ‘Airprint’ you can print directly to it from your favourite artwork creation software so you don’t need to run any extra software or output ‘stencil files’.

However, in practice this can be a pain because you’ll have to keep switching ‘networks’ back and forth to use the internet etc.

Where the 773 really comes into it’s own is when it’s used in a studio environment and is setup on the studios WiFi. In this setting everyone in the studio can access the printer via the studios WiFi and print directly to it. Users with the Iprint&Scan app can also connect to it via the app and have the ability to change the printer setting on a ‘per print’ basis.

For studio use the 773 offers the most flexibility for multiple artists.

The best Brother PJ printer for tattooists Comparison.

The best Brother PJ printer for tattooists

How to decide.

To help you decide which Pj Printer is best for your needs just answer these 4 simple questions:

1.How do you create artwork? 

• laptop/computer – 723
• Ipad/tablet/phone – go to the question 2

2. Are you a travelling artist or studio based? 

• Travelling  – goto question 3
• Studio – goto question 4
• Both! – goto question 3

 3. Do you mind outputting a stencil file and using a separate app to print?

• yes – 773
• no – 763mfi

4. Do you want others to be able to easily connect to your studio printer?

• yes – 773
• no – go to question 3

Visual Learner?

If you’re more of a visual learner and prefer to watch and follow along,  I’ve made a video to accompany this article. It covers How to install Brother PJ on Mac and it’s available now over on the That Tattoo Show YouTube channel.