About this article...

A better title for this article would be "The Perfectionist's Guide to Printing". It contains some useful information about where to buy the best cartridges for those who are printing to a high standard with expensive printers. It must be taken with a grain of salt, because it doesn't consider those who are looking for cheap printing and aren't so bothered about quality.

 by: Ismael D. Tabije

Since computers—PCs, laptops and notebooks--have now pervaded the entire ambit of our lives, maintaining all its attachments has also become very important. A printer is one of the most useful attachments as it is constantly utilized by the computer users. However, buying inkjet cartridges for your printer can be a daunting task. You really have to know how to choose the best inkjet cartridge so that you are not confused by the various choices.

Some people get stressed when the ink in their printer cartridge show signs of getting over but there is no need to fret over such issues. When you go to the market to buy an ink cartridge you should not get lured by low priced products or by any bargain deals which promise a lot of savings. In all probability such low-priced cartridges would be faulty and would harm your printer. You will spend much more in repair costs than what you would save.

The first step in selecting the best inkjet cartridge is to check the existing cartridge in your printer and then try to buy a cartridge of similar specifications. If you are unable to get the same type of cartridge in the market you should take the help of the following tips:

• The ink of generic cartridges can be harmful to your printer’s nozzles. So you should avoid using such cartridges.

• If you need the best quality of printing you should use the ink cartridges made by the same manufacturer as the printer. No doubt, these will be most expensive.

• The warranties of some printer manufacturers are not valid if ink cartridges made by a different manufacturer are used.

• It is advisable to check the page yield of the cartridge that you plan to buy.

The precautions needed to increase the life of the cartridge are: the cartridge should never be allowed to dry up fully as this will damage the printer to the extent that it will not be able to print even with a new cartridge, if one cartridge is out the other one should not be run to avoid damage to the jets and the cartridge should be shaken from side to side to utilize the balance amount of ink.

Now the question is from where can you buy the inkjet cartridges?

Buying online is the best place as it is time saving and less expensive. If you do not have the time to keep running to the store, spending time in buying and then returning back, you can save time by ordering online and the cartridge will be delivered to your home or office.

Moreover, if you buy at a store, the ink cartridge will be much more expensive than if you order online as the online vendors offer substantial discounts. Almost any type of ink cartridge can be bought online and that too at a discount.

If you buy refilled or recycled ink cartridges either from a store or from a website, you might save some money but the damage to your printer will prove costlier to repair. As such you should buy only genuine brands and that, too, from a supplier or website that gives a guarantee.

You might be able to save about sixty percent of the cost of an original ink cartridge if you buy a recycled or refilled cartridge but if you need good quality printing it is best to stick to the same company that made the printer that you are using.

If you follow the above tips, you will be able to choose the best cartridge from among the plethora of cartridges available in the market.

About The Author The writer, Ismael D. Tabije, runs the website, http://www.bestlaptopnotebookdeal.com, where you can get tips for buying top laptop brands at cheap prices from reliable online merchants. idtbusiness@yahoo.com

PiciFix would like to add...

It is true that refilled ink cartridges are not quite at the same standard as those made by the original manufacture. Whether they are as good value for money is a very different and more appropriate question. It is possible to get a printer for £40 ($70) and use it for years and years with refilled cartridges that cost 1/4 of the price. Printing quality will be ok, but that might be all that is necessary for printing emails and letters.

You might have heard that when the printer tells you that your ink cartridges are empty they still have loads of ink left inside them. In general so called empty cartridges are often still 30%-50% full. If you want carry on using the cartridge it's sometimes possible to stick a little black insulation tape on cartridges to fool the printer into thinking the cartridge is full. If this does not work for you, there are many other tricks that you can try according to which printer you have. This is a great tip for those who are really after the most economical printing - in effect you are getting almost half price printing!. Manufactures say that running a cartridge completely flat can damage the printer - but whether this is true is debatable. If you have some experience that you would like to share, you can do so by submitting an article to PiciFix using the link at the top of the home page.

If you go to a recycled cartidge outlet you will notice that some cartidges are as low as £2 each. These cartidges are usually for older machines that are no longer manufactured. If you want to get lots of printing done as cheaply as possible, its a good tactic is buy a second hand printer that can accept the cheapest refilled cartidges. You can normally pick these up on ebay for next to nothing.

If you are trying to produce high definition photographs then there will be less bleed if you use the more expensive cartridges that printer manufacturers recommend. Bleeding is something that makes a photo look fuzzy, so you'll need to avoid that if you want nice sharp, crisp images.

Some makes of printer (e.g. Brother) carry out an automatic cleaning of the ink nozzles a few times every day (it makes a loud whirring sound). This is apparently to maintain a consistent high print quality, but what it also does is gradually drain the cartridges. So if you only print once in a while the vast majority of your ink is actually being wasted. Switching off the printer will stop this wasting of ink and is a good idea in general because lots of electricity is wasted just by being on standby.