Modern inkjet printers are truly marvelous devices. For a small cash outlay you can get a fast printout with excellent quality. The main downside to them if you do a lot of printing is the cost of the ink cartridges. The printer manufactures make the purchase price of their printers attractively low, then sell you replacement ink cartridges at high prices. It's the same concept as razors - you can get a razor at a low price, but watch out when you need to buy new blades for it.



In their efforts to thwart consumers from being able to use 3rd party cartridges in their printers, some printer manufactures have gone to great lengths to force consumers to buy their ink. A printer company could probably do very well by building a solid printer and selling replacement cartridges at a more reasonable price. They would likely make up what they lose in profit margin by selling more cartridges, plus they would definitely build up a lot of consumer loyalty.

So what are the alternatives to expensive cartridges? Refill your factory cartridges? Buy 3rd party cartridges? The first option, refilling cartridges, is not a very good one. It can be messy, even if one is careful, and the results are inconsistent. However, some of the national office supply stores have recently started refilling cartridges for customers. This may turn out to be a good way to save on ink. 3rd party cartridges are a good choice, if you have the right printer. Each cartridge is new and is filled and sealed properly. You won't have the mess associated with refills, and the quality will be very good at a much lower price than you would pay for factory cartridges. Printer companies can't void your printer warranty if you use 3rd party cartridges, unless the cartridges actually cause damage to the printer. Having used 3rd party cartridges for years, I have never seen a printer become damaged by using them.

How do you know if your new printer will accept 3rd party cartridges? One way is to search for web sites that sell aftermarket (3rd party) cartridges and see what models are listed on their sites. For instance, some models of Canon printers will accept 3rd party cartridges and some will not. If you need to buy a new printer, it would pay to investigate before you buy so you will know if you can use aftermarket ink cartridges.

Another factor to consider if you're concerned about the cost of inkjet printing is this: what am I going to be printing? If you're going to print a lot of photos, it makes sense to buy a 6-color printer. If you're mainly going to print text and illustrations, as in general business applications or books, a 4-color printer will do just as well and will cost less to operate. Also, is each color contained in its own cartridge, or does the printer use a multicolor cartridge? It doesn't make sense to replace an entire color cartridge when only the yellow has run out.