Among the best printers, you’ll mostly commonly find inkjet and laser models. Lesser-known are thermal printers, which use different technology to lower costs dramatically, depending on what you print ...
Define what you mean by affordable. A Canon or Epson photo printer (8-12 color, pigment based inks, 2400 DPI print head) that will do 17", like an Canon Image Prograf iPF5100 or an Epson Stylus Pro ...