After piping 800 logos on cupcakes and being semi-okay with the outcome, I am tempted to invest in a printer or other technology to do pictures and logos on cakes and cupcakes.  Most of the items I do are for businesses with logos, or in this case, a design the customer made up.  I don't do a lot of kids cakes, but if I invested in this, could I potentially print out photos, or do I need copyright?

So, should I buy a printer with edible paper and inks or am I restricted with what I can do with it? Pros and cons?

AIf you are printing a customer's original design you are fine, but for any copyrighted logo, character, or other item created by someone else you would need permission from whoever created it.

As Jason said, unless it is an original design, most images are copyrighted by somebody and you have to get their permission before use or purchase rights to the usage. Once that permission is obtained, you have two ways to go about it.

Edible Image printer and edible image inks:  If you are not going to use an edible image printer on a really regular basis then the ink in it often dries up and it becomes problematic.

Find a company that will print the edible images for you either locally or online. There are plenty of them online who will do this and have sizes for cupcakes all the way up to sheet cakes. You just have to give them time to do the work and ship it to you.

AYou said that most of your business is for companies that want their logo on stuff, I'd say go for it. Just be careful to make sure you have permission whenever you're using something that has a copyright.