Epson printers offer some of the best output quality among the various printer brands. The cartridges play a big part in this, and it's important to know when to change them in order to continue getting the quality you're used to from your printer.
Epson makes it easy to know when it is time to replace your cartridge. They put a light on the printer that flashes when the ink is running low.
Second, with any Epson printer made in the last several years, the status monitor software that runs on your computer will also warn you when your ink is getting low.
The only thing is that at times these warnings do not come at exactly the right time. Sometimes the warning is premature and sometimes it comes late.
If you're printing a large number of pages or pictures, the ink level warning may come too late. When you get the warning, the ink cartridges usually have somewhere around 15-20% of the ink left. This may not be enough to finish the job once it starts.
If the warning occurs and you change your cartridge right away you could be wasting ink. Usually when the indicator light flashes or the computer gives you the warning that you are running low on ink your cartridge is still ? full.
It may be a better idea to continue to print until the cartridges is completely out of ink. That way you get the full value from your ink cartridges.
However, if you are going to do a big print job or you need to print photos it may be better to start with a new cartridge. Yes you may still have some ink left in your old cartridge. But it may be better to go ahead and loose that little bit of ink than to mess up your print job.