OK I confess I’ve bought at least 10 inkjet printers in the last 5 years and finally found one that I really like. I’m not going to mention the brand here but I will tell you what the must have features are for me.

After years of refilling HP-like inkjet cartridges where the Cyan, Magenta and Yellow tanks were all mixed together in one unit I decided to buy a printer that allowed you to change each color tank individually. Although a minor change this affected how much it cost to print a colored output page in a huge degree. I never liked the concept of having all of the colors in one cartridge to start with. Every time I went to replace an empty cartridge I wondered how much ink was left in the other two colored ink tanks. If you didn’t notice they were always a dark color making it impossible to tell how much was actually in the tank.

My new unit seems to use the Yellow cartridge (black aside) more than any other color which makes me curse the days where I envisioned myself throwing money in the toilet by only using half of the colored ink in a multi color ink jet cartridge. This backs up my initial thought process and confirmed all suspicions.

Since I’m a small business owner and penny pinching is always a must, I continuously test how much mileage that I get out of a cartridge. As you well know the little pop up window tells you when your cartridge is running low and it seems like it’s there to annoy you and serves no other purpose. Being the cheapo that I am I decided to ignore the warnings and bells and whistles that normally go off and run a cartridge to the end of its tank.

It was tense, a sense of childlike mischief came across my mental state. I was actually defying the printing gods by defying their warnings of certain doom, nefariously clicking the cancel on every warning message. Surely something spectacular would happen at the end of the life of this inkjet cartridge! I had gotten about a thousand messages warning me of the peril that was coming my way. I envisioned scenes from nuclear war footage and big things happening like the printer exploding or perhaps the printer cartridge police showing up at my house and arresting me for such gross disrespect for printer law. Whatever happened this would be BIG!

Well after running the cartridge for about a month I got a harmless message that the cartridge was now out. No big light show, no explosion no nothing, what a disappointment! Anyway, I installed a new cartridge, realigned the thing using the printing utility and was up and running in about five minutes.

The point of the whole ordeal was to figure out how many more print jobs that I could do without changing the ink. Thus, saving me some extra cash. Well a month of printing is nothing to scoff at and it ended up saving me around $5.00 by using the cartridge down to the last drop.

Will it work on your printer? I don’t know.. But you should check out the manual for your printer to ensure that you won’t damage it by running the cartridge dry.

But friend I choose to live life on the edge. =)

Alexis Allen is a self-described consumer advocate in the Home Electronics Industry. You can check out her latest articles on the cost of printing at http://www.cheap-toner-cartridges.com

If you are tight on budget, go for Inkjet Printer. Inkjet Printers are more economical compared to Laser Printers. You have wide choice of Inkjet Printers. There are varieties of Inkjet Printers available in the market to select from. You can select your own printer based on the kind of print
quality you require.

If you are graphic designer and have more concern with
quality of images and graphics, you must go for Inkjet
Printer. It gives excellent quality of images
and graphics. If you need better text printouts then
go for Laser Printers. It is essential to confirm your
requirements before buying your Inkjet Printer. Check out these important tips before you buy Inkjet Printer.

Things to check before buying Inkjet Printers

* Speed is the main criteria to be checked before buying
any printer. Always check the speed in normal mode as
speed rated by manufacturer is always tested on
fastest print mode.

* Buffer Memory plays important role while you share
the printer over the network. For networked printer it
is always recommended to go for higher buffer memory.

* Computers nowadays mostly have USB ports therefore
buy a printer with a USB interface to get higher speed
of data transfer.

* Never overlook total cost of ownership. Depending on
pages you print, even a small difference in ownership
cost will save your sizeable amount over the lifetime.

* Ensure to get required quality of photo printouts if
you are buying the printer for photo printouts. If
needed you have to also purchase an extra ink
cartridge, as photo printouts need more ink.

* Check compatibility of printer with software.

* You must check the manufacturer’s Web site for the
type of support offered. Check whether they offer
regular software updates, patches for new operating
systems.

* Check the dimensions of printer so that it will
comfortably fit on your desk.

* You must place the cartridges in the right
packaging. Use factory-supplied containers to store
extra cartridges. If you use both color and black ink
frequently, store the swapped-out cartridge in
zip-lock bag.

* Never use the switch on a surge protector to switch
off your printer instead of that use your printer’s
power switch.

* Paper jam is the common problem with printers. To
avoid it clean the rollers and the internal mechanism
with mild alcohol. Place the paper carefully in the
tray to avoid paper jam.

* Before placing the paper stack in the tray confirm
that you have to loosen the paper stack to separate them
from each other to avoid paper jams.

* Use a mild glass cleaner on a soft cloth to clean
exterior side of the printer.

* The quality of printouts depends upon the quality of
paper you use. The standard A4 size paper is most
ideal for inkjet printers. The poor quality paper
absorb the ink resulting in smudge images. To get the
best possible images refer your printer manufacturer
recommendations. Also while printing photos, use
manufacturer-recommended photo paper for better
results.

* Use nozzle cleaning function to restore the original
print quality. As printer become older it will deliver
faint prints and you will see lines running across the
page. A nozzle cleaning function blows ink through the
nozzle and unclogs it.

* Don’t be a penny-wise and pound-foolish. Always use
an original ink cartridge. Temptation of using cheap
refilled cartridges will prove expensive in long run.

* Avoid shaking the ink cartridge as this can create
bubbles in the cartridge that can shut down the
printer.

* Call an authorized service person if you find ink
leakage. Never open the printer on your own.

Krishna Pai is a webmaster and a writer.

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Years ago computers were huge and their accompanying printers were huge as well. Instead of ink cartridges like those used now, they had toner reservoirs and later toner cartridges. Filling a toner cartridge was not easy and it was messy. The toner cartridges were better. Some printers ran on print wheels and some used ribbons.

Now our computers are more compact and the printers do more than just print in some cases. Printers use cartridges with self-contained reservoirs. Some can be refilled and it isn’t as messy as adding toner was.

There are two types of printer cartridges. Primarily Hewlett-Packard and Epson printers use the first, the Piezo Electric. A small crystal is subjected to an electric current that causes the crystal to expand about every 5 microseconds (20,000 per second. This expansion causes the inkjet ink to be squirted out through the print heads very rapidly and precisely.
Piezo Electric has fewer print heads than bubble jet/thermal printers but can do more precise action and tend to last longer.

Bubble jet print cartridges heat the ink rapidly into a bubble and is squirted through ink nozzles thousands of times per second. Bubble jet printers are quieter than the Piezo based printers. It gives you extremely high resolution color printing.

Ink jet not megapixel method has the ink squirted through nozzles as they move over a variety of media. Liquid ink in various colors is squirted at the paper to create an image. The print head scans the page horizontally using a motor assembly that rolls the paper in vertical steps.

A strip of an image is printed, then the paper moves on ready for the next step. For speed, it doesn’t just print a strip across the page; it prints vertical rows of pixels in each pass.

There are various types of inkjet technology. DOD or drop on demand squirts small drops of in ink onto the paper through tiny nozzles. It is like turning a hosepipe on and off 5,000 times per second. The amount of ink dropped on the page is controlled by the driver software that says which nozzles fire and when. A problem with ink jet technology is the tendency for the ink to smudge right after printing. This is improving with the development of new ink compositions.

Thermal Technology of printing fires the ink onto the paper. There are three stages in this process. In stage 1 the squirt is started when the ink is heated to create a bubble. Initial pressure bursts the bubble and hits the paper. The bubble breaks as the heating element cools. The vacuum that is created draws the ink from the reservoir to replace the ink that was ejected.

Printers’ years ago used to be very expensive and the reason for this was because the print heads that would stamp the image on paper was within the printer. Ink and/or toner were added to a reservoir or the printer used ribbons to stamp the image on paper. Now printers are fairly cheap, the cost comes when you have to purchase the ink cartridges for it. One would think that it would almost be worth it to buy a new printer instead of the cartridges because the price of the cartridges is often more than some of the more basic ink jet printers available.

The current price of cartridges while currently expensive have some technology in them that is complex and actually over the long haul will end up being cheaper than it would be to replace print heads often. Print heads are now contained within the cartridges themselves. The exciting thing about that is you could have your printer for a very long time if you use the correct cartridges for your printer.

Color cartridges work the same as black cartridges by squirting the ink through tiny nozzles onto the paper in horizontal strips as the cartridges move back and forth across the page. The color cartridge however, has three reservoirs with cyan, magenta, and yellow ink, each in a separate reservoir.

The image quality can depend on a number of things. Paper quality can affect the image you get. Brightness and absorption of the ink are the two main things that affect image quality. Brightness is exactly how bright the color or print image is while absorption is how effectively the paper absorbs the ink. For inkjet printers it is best to use paper made specifically for inkjet printers. You will get the best possible image with the proper paper. Also check the settings of your printer and/or your display properties, these things can also affect your printing project.

Depending on the paper you use and your printer, you may want to leave your documents alone for a little while so the ink can dry. Some printers have an ink saver setting that will put out less ink, which will dry faster, and still give you a near perfect image. Get to know your printer and how it works.

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About the Author Martin Smith is a successful freelance writer providing advice for consumers on purchasing a variety of
Printer ink cartridges which includes
Cheap ink cartridge