Printable solar cells attract academic and industrial interests because solar cells should be cost‐effective systems and have to be fabricated by non‐vacuum methods such as screen printing, doctor blading, spin coating, spray deposition, and electrochemical deposition. In order to be a cost‐effective solar system, the solar cells neither include expensive (indium) and toxic materials (cadmium and mercury) nor expensive processes such as chemical vapor deposition and sputtering. Similar to printed solar cells, many types of solar cells have been investigated in the past two decades: organic, dye‐sensitized solar cells, Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2, Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4, organic thin‐film photovoltaic cells, and so on. Now, the photoenergy conversion efficiencies of printed solar cells have been improved by more than 10% with the efforts of scientists. In this review, prominent progress has been presented for the future of our society. WIREs Energy Environ 2015, 4:51–73. doi: 10.1002/wene.112This article is categorized under: Photovoltaics > Science and Materials Photovoltaics > Economics and Policy