subject: Advantages Of Compatible Ink Cartridges [print this page] If you have an inkjet printer, you will run out of ink one day. If excellent print quality and image life is your preference, then you would more than likely buy a replacement made by the original equipment manufacturer. This means if you have an Epson printer, you would buy an ink cartridge manufactured and sold by Epson.
Buying ink cartridges sold by the original equipment manufacturer definitely ensures that you get good quality printouts and no harm occurs to your printer. However, the costs involved in buying these original cartridges can actually make you broke, especially if you are printing hundreds or thousands of pages every day.
This especially becomes a problem if you are running an office and are looking for ways to cut down on your operational expenses. While you may be using different ways to cut down on your office expenses, you can surely bring down your printing costs by opting for compatible ink cartridges instead of original cartridges.
People usually avoid going for something which is not manufactured by the original equipment manufacturer because they are concerned about the quality of the product. However, it may come as a surprise to many people that the print quality provided by these compatible products is almost as good as the quality of the original products.
Compatible ink cartridges are manufactured by third party companies, who make sure that the product meets the specifications of the original product. It cannot be denied that the quality of printing may be slightly lower with these products than with the original ones. However, the difference in print quality is only noticeable when you print high quality images and photos.
Most of our printing needs revolve around getting simple documents containing letters or figures. This can be in the form of invoices, emails, or reports done using simple text. If you compare the print quality of a document printed using an original cartridge and one using a compatible one, you will be surprised to see that there is almost no difference.
The difference will, however, be quite clear in a high resolution image. So, if you are planning to print photos and high quality images and charts, you may do well by using original cartridges. However, you can save a lot of money by using compatible cartridges if you use your printer mostly for printing simple documents.
As far as the costs are concerned, compatible cartridges cost almost half the price of an original one. In some cases, these third party ink cartridges may also offer a higher yield than the original cartridges. So, you can actually expect to print more pages with these alternative products than with original products. This also adds to your savings in terms of printing costs.
Another way that these can add to your savings is that these third party companies often offer discounts and freebies, especially if you buy things in bulk or buy multi packs of cartridges.
The fact that these compatible cartridges offer almost the same print quality at almost half the cost makes them quite an attractive option, especially for people who are printing documents on a regular basis. It may not be an ideal option for people printing photos and images, but it is definitely the best option for printing simple text.
Some offices actually keep two printers for their varying needs, one for printing their documents and other for printing high quality photos and images. Compatible cartridges can be used for printing documents and original cartridges in the other printer for producing high quality images.
One thing that you should be careful about is that not all third party manufacturers can be trusted. So, choose these alternative products carefully. Check out their reviews and ask your friends and colleagues around to find a reliable third party ink manufacturer. Keep in mind that low quality cartridges can actually harm your machine, so choose a good third party manufacturer.
The bottom line is that compatible ink cartridges may actually turn out to be good value for money. You may actually get good print quality with these and at almost half the cost. However, it all depends on your printing requirements.
Going for an expensive lexmark printer ink cartridge will provide you with excellent image quality. However, if you want to cut down on your costs and you know that you only really require your printer to do simple printouts, you may as well, for example, go for a compatible canon ink cartridge rather than the manufacturers Canon cartridge.
