Hi new to the forum, is the best place to discuss?
Regarding printing, either photography or general, I have had the complete opposite experiences. I use two Epsons, a basic and very old Workforce 630 and a dedicated photo Epson R3000.
Printing is another rabbit hole in the photography world but it is extremely rewarding but frustrating at first. It will help you understand light, tone, shadow, highlights etc and vastly improve your photography more than any other piece of gear.
For Photography based printing.
Printers:
If you are printing for photos for framing or selling, one cannot go wrong with a dedicated photo ink jet printer such as the R3000, the smaller A4 versions or even large format printers. Canon has a few options as well (I have never used Canon photo printers so can’t comment). Normal off the shelf printers won’t provide ‘professional’ results however are fine if you printing small format for albums etc. Cost of dedicate photo printers are not cheap but are cheaper than a quality lens.
Paper:
Oh boy here is a topic that is long and in depth…this is also user preference. Myself, I print mainly B&W and absolutely love Epson’s Traditional paper. Again it isn’t cheap for A3 sheets. There are multitudes of different papers out here made from different materials!
Monitor Calibration:
Essential! Monitors are backlit and don’t give you a real world representation of an image. Printing from a digital source and have it match the what you are seeing on the screen is quite tricky, far too much to go into here. Wendy has discussed calibration in the past, worth listening to again if you are in doubt, great info.
ICC paper profiles
Essential to match the paper and printer you are using. Depending on how meticulous you are this is another area/barrier!
Printing Application
Highly, highly recommend buying Turbo Print for Linux. Yes it is paid but it is cheap compared to ink, printers, cameras, lens etc