Printer Ink
Printer ink is one of the most expensive things that you’ll run into when you set up your home office. Printer ink is more expensive than oil or vintage champagne. Printer Ink is made up of mixture of pigments and condensed surfactants, biocide along with fungicide, buffering agent, humectants & resin, de-ionized stream of water (May vary depending on the type of Ink).
The printer makers have been waging an all-out war against third-party vendors that sell replacement cartridges at a fraction of the price. According to a recent lawsuit, HP allegedly paid Staples $100 million to refrain from selling inexpensive third-party ink cartridges, although the suit doesn’t make it clear how plaintiff Ranjit Bedi arrived at that figure. The companies have also turned to using the ink equivalent of DRM, the use of microchips embedded in ink cartridges that work with a corresponding technical mechanism in the printer that blocks the use of unauthorized third-party ink.
HP is currently the dominant company in the printing market, and a considerable portion of the company’s profits come from ink. The tactics employed by the printer manufacturers to maintain monopoly control over ink distribution for their printing products have become increasingly aggressive. According to Wilhelm Imaging Research and other reviewers, if you are primarily printing photos, select the OEM cartridge. However, printing at the maximum quality more than doubles the cost per print, so make sure to check your printer setting before starting that big print run..
You can save ink by selecting a lower-quality mode for printouts that are for ‘internal’ use only. When determining quality and value you must align your expectations accordingly.
Although third-party and aftermarket printer ink is often less expensive, the overwhelming majority of experts say that if quality and reliability matter most, you should stick with the printer manufacturer’s recommended ink cartridges and ink.
After a 2006study, Henry Wilhelm concludes, If one includes print permanence as an important aspect of overall product quality, then the aftermarket photo inks and media we looked at in this study fall far short indeed. SO once again if printing photos, stick to the OEM cartridges.
Name brand printer ink is much more expensive compared to compatible and remanufactured cartridges (refilling your own cartridges is the most cost efficient). But the manufacturers of original printer ink claim that Inkjet printer ink is very complex in its composition, so third-party Inkjet printer ink does not work with the latest advancements made in the printer technology.
