Ink & Toner Information Website

Today’s printers are heads and shoulders above their predecessors. Inkjet printers can produce stunning, photographic quality prints, while laser printers can spit out paper at a rate of 85 pages per minute or more. In fact, there are so many different kinds of printers on the market that’s it’s sometimes hard to keep track of them all. Here’s a rundown of the major categories:

Color Inkjet Printers: While slower than laser printers, color inkjet printers are also a fraction of the price of a color laser printer. Inkjets can produce exquisite color documents and photos, as well as black and white prints.

Color LaserJet Printers: While more costly than color inkjet printers, laser printers are still a bargain, and often come with several paper trays to give you maximum printing flexibility.

Multifunction Printers: The latest trend is multifunction printers, which allow you to scan, copy, fax, and print with a single piece of equipment. This saves space, money, and time.

Photo Printers: Specialty photo printers give shutterbugs another great reason to snap pictures. These peripherals often allow you to print directly from your computer, digital camera, or mobile device.

Black and White Laser Printers: If you don’t work with color, black and white lasers have never been more affordable. The emphasis is on speed, high print resolution, and multiple paper trays.

Mobile Printers: Mobile printers are gaining popularity among students and business people on the go. While they’re slower than other types of printers, mobile printers have the advantage of printing from numerous sources and often have wireless connectivity capabilities.

What Manufacturers Don’t Tell You

If you haven’t browsed the printer aisle of your local office supply store recently, you’ll be shocked to learn that you can buy high quality, brand name printers for as little as £38. Sound too good to be true? Well, in a sense, it is too good to be true. While the price of the printer is lower than the cost of manufacturing it, ink cartridges can cost as much or more than the purchase price. In other words, the manufacturers don’t make money on the printers; they make money from the ink. It’s as though every time you buy inkjet cartridges or toner cartridges, you’re purchasing your printer all over again.

How do printer manufacturers get away with it? Most often by using scare tactics. They convince consumers that the only reliable printer cartridges are those made by the printer manufacturer. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Alternatives to OEM Ink Cartridges

If you don’t want to buy expensive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) ink cartridges, what are your options? There are two choices: Compatible print cartridges and remanufactured ink cartridges. Compatible cartridges are made from brand new parts and meet or exceed OEM standards, but are a fraction of the price. Buying compatible cartridges is similar to buying a store brand of peaches, rather than a name brand.

Remanufactured cartridges are recycled cartridges that are taken apart, inspected, reassembled, and filled with high quality ink. These are even less expensive than compatible print cartridges.

It the world of printing, you can have your cake and eat it too, simply by taking advantage of low printer prices and pairing them with inexpensive compatible or remanufactured ink cartridges.

People often think that when they have problems with print quality that it is the cause of the ink cartridge. They are particularly prone to think this when they have purchased compatible ink cartridges or refilled ink cartridges.
However this is not always the case and the problem could lie elsewhere. To explore this a little further we can look at some of the problems that occur.

First of all here are some of the problems:

- Half of the page is not printer out.
- Irregular print quality meaning that one page is OK and the next one is smudged.
- The print is faded and or a general low quality.
- The pink or the blue in the colour comes out wrong.
- Broken lines through the print

Where half of the page is not printed out – either the top half , or the print stops half way across the page. This is probably not caused by the ink cartridge at all, but by not having the proper driver installed on your computer.

When you buy a new printer it may be more advanced than your existing computer and may not have the relevant drivers installed. This is easily fixed by downloading the proper driver from the manufactures website. They are generally free.

If you are experiencing problems with a generally low quality or faded print rather than blame the ink cartridge look at the printer setting. Do this by going to the print command – File – Print – Properties – Main – Quality Option.

This last command of Quality Option allows you to set the type of print you want. If it is set at “text” the quality will not be as good as “text and photo”. Therefore by enabling the photo options you will improve the print quality.

It is worth remembering that the “text” facility is a very good way of saving ink. This setting is fine for drafts and other documents where the print quality is not important.

The quality of the paper also impacts on the quality of the print and if you want top quality print then similar quality paper is required.

Where the wrong colour ink comes out this is likely to be caused by either an empty ink cartridge or a poor quality ink cartridge. If the ink cartridge is new then either one of the cylinders has not been filled, has been filled with the wrong colour or it is a faulty ink cartridge. In this case it is advisable to return the ink cartridge to your supplier.

Broken lines in the print probably mean that the ink cartridge is empty, or if you have just replaced it , faulty.

Upon breaking the seal on the shiny foil package, the ink cartridge is revealed. We simply pull the tab, and place the cartridge into the printer. Ever wondered what is really in that plastic cartridge?

Printer ink can be vastly complicated. The substance is made up of many different components, and these components will effect the look of the print job. Printer ink is composed of either dye or pigments of a specific quantity and type for coloration. Added to this is a surfactant to help balance how much the paper is wetted and to provide surface tension.

To make sure that the ink adheres to the paper and to limit the evaporation, resins and humectants are used. Thses cartridges also contain a mixture of de-ionized water, biocides, fungicides and buffering agents.

The print quality is affected by whether ink is dye based or pigment based. Dye based inks usually provide a sharper quality, and the colors are brighter. Due to the dye based ink’s stability, it can be stored for long periods of time without degrading. However, there is a drawback to dye based ink.

This substance has a drying time of ten seconds, which often results in the image being blurred. Because of this drawback, pigment based inks are better suited for color printing.

Since pigment based inks are waterproof and fade resistant with a faster drying time, they prevent the print job from blurring. Also, they are a lighter and faster.

Another benefit of pigment based printer ink is it has a lower toxicity level. Ink manufacturers are striving to produce an ink that incorporates the best qualities of both types of inks, resulting in an ink that is not only vivid and durable, but also fade resistant and waterproof in hopes that the new ink would be capable of printing on any type of media.

Whether you are using dye based or pigment based ink, your actual ink colors are strangely limited. The actual ink colors found in cartridges are black, cyan, yellow, and magenta. In some cartridges that are created with photo printing in mind, you will also find the variations of light cyan, light yellow, and light magenta.

Cyan is a shade of blue, magenta is a shade of red, and yellow is just yellow. This gives the printer good mixing shades of the primary colors so that it can combine to create every color needed. The light variations also provided by photo cartridges help to insure the greater color distinction that is needed for quality photographs.

Now you have the facts about computer ink; make informed decisions about the features you want when you purchase that next printer cartridge. Feel empowered to achieve the results you desire!

Americans today are busier than ever and despite what we would prefer, our home computers and printers have become an extension of the office.

There are always reports to print and review, letters to mail, and documents to proofread. Even those of us who don’t bring work home find ourselves printing emails, pictures, and calendars. In addition to the resource of our time, another resource is heavily exhausted: ink.

Replacement ink cartridges are an expensive resource to keep purchasing, but there is an alterative! In this age of self service and do-it-yourself, there is now the option of refilling our existing ink cartridges. This is, by far, a cheaper alternative, but there are a few things that you need to know before you get started.

The first step is finding a refill kit for the exact type of cartridge that you will be refilling. In order to find the right kit, you will need to know the printer’s manufacturer, and the cartridge’s identification number.

When buying the refill kit, you will need to check the back panel to make sure that the ink and kit tools are compatible with the cartridge type. Cartridge refill kits come in both black and color, and it is not necessary to by a refill kit made by your printer’s manufacturer.

Variety is abounding when it comes to brands of kits, so you can find a price range with which you are comfortable. Prices will vary, the lower end of the range having less refills and the more expensive being compatible with more models and having a greater amount of refills.

When you refill your cartridge for the first time, make sure that you have a little extra time. The first refill is the most complicated because you will have to prep the cartridge. Depending on the cartridge type, the prep will differ, some being easier than others.

Before doing anything to the cartridge itself, read the complete instruction set for your cartridge and make sure you have all the tools out and ready. Then you can prep the cartridge and refill the ink.

You will need to let the cartridge sit upright for at least 15 minutes before returning it to the printer. Every following refill will be easier, because you will not need to prep the cartridge again.

After you have bought your kit and started doing your own refills, you will never go back to buying a brand new cartridge every time. The ease and money saving benefit is more than worth the little extra time it takes to do the refill. Find your kit and start refilling today!

Brother Printer Cartridge

The refilling of this cartridge is messy therefore it is advised that gloves should be worn and the place where refilling is done should be covered with a newspaper or some other absorbent material.

The following steps can guide you to an easy refill of your brother printer cartridges. The different models have little variations in the procedures other remaining the same.

Brother printer cartridge LC01C, LC01Y, LC01M and LC01BK (MFC 7000 series)

1. Place any absorbent material like a towel underneath before refilling the brother ink cartridges.

2. After filling ink in the syringe bottle remove the needle and put the cone shaped adaptor on it.

3. Find the hole in the cartridge through which the ink flows out and turn the exit port down facing your lap.

4. Slowly inject the ink from the syringe bottle into the cartridge until the ink starts coming out of the vent hole and is not foamy.

5. Now turn the cartridge the other way round so that the vent hole faces you and the exit port is towards your lap.

6. Put the needle back into the syringe bottle and inject the needle into the vent hole. Continue injecting till the ink comes out of the exit hole and stops foaming.

7. Leave the cartridge in this position for about ten minutes. Then repeat the 6th step and let it rest for another ten minutes.

8. Install the cartridge in the printer. If it has to be transported then an electrical tape can be used to cover the exit and vent holes but must be removed before printing.

Brother printer cartridge for Brother MFC-7150 and MFC-7160

There is a sponge inside the cartridge which makes the refilling procedure sticky. The first step remains the same.

1. Locate the exit hole at the bottom where there is a large plug.

2. Also locate the vent hole at the bottom which exists on the same side as the large handle on the top of the cartridge.

3. Turning the exit port towards the lap place the vent hole to the right and vice versa. Seal the exit port with a black electrical tape.

4. Take out the handle on the top of the cartridge. Inside you will see two metallic seals, the smaller one round and the larger one rectangular. Either remove the seals or make holes in them.

5. To fill the syringe bottle with ink squeeze the syringe bottle and the needle be inserted into the ink bottle. Relax the grip and let the syringe suck the ink into the bottle.

6. Taking the syringe bottle slowly inject the ink into the sponge deeply through the rectangular hole till the sponge saturates.

7. Also inject ink in the round hole till the outer chamber is full. After injection seal the round hole with black electrical tape carefully. Also seal the rectangular hole with tape.

8. Put the plastic handle back on the top. Take the cartridge to a sink and remove the tape from the bottom. Let the extra ink drops flow out.

9. Printer should be installed now.

Brother printer cartridge LC41C, LC41Y, LC41M, and LC41BK

In this model the ink is retained because of the valve. The first step is the same.

1. Find the label saying LC41 with the letters such as C, M, Y or BK representing colors.

2. Holding the label side up, on the right side find a window towards the top of the cartridge. Make a hole in the window with a smoldering iron or some heated metal thing.

3. Fill the syringe bottle like step 5 mentioned above.

4. Inject the ink slowly with the syringe bottle into the window on top right of the cartridge. Fill the entire cartridge.

5. Seal the window with black electrical tape.

6. Install in the printer.

Brother printer cartridge HJ100 and HJ400

There is very difference in this cartridge. The first step remains the same.

1. Start with a screw in the vent hole which is opposite to the longest side of the cartridge which is opposite to the print head.

2. Draw the plug out with screw. Fill the syringe bottle half with ink and insert in the hole. Inject slowly and deeply into the sponge.

3. Expect some dripping. Tape the cartridge you have to transport it.

Laser Toner Cartridge

The refilling of a laser toner cartridge is very mush similar to adding petrol or gas to your car. The refilling of toner should be done at a place where there is no breeze. It can burn so work where there is no flame. Also do not inhale it as it is irritating.

The three basic types of laser toner cartridges are:

o Canister: a tube for holding toner

o Drum: a cartridge with gears and a drum which has a gelatin coating

o Toner and developer: similar to drum cartridge but using toner and developer both.

Canister Cartridge

1. Spread some absorbent material like a towel or newspaper. Locate a plug at the end of cartridge.

2. Remove the plug if you find it. If you don’t then create a hole which is away from the paper path (smooth plastic surface).

3. If you create a hole then carefully remove the shavings. 4. Shake the bottle of toner and pour the entire bottle into the cartridge with a funnel or paper funnel.

5. Put the plug back and seal it with a black electrical tape.

6. Install in the printer. The refilling of these cartridges can be done a lot of times.