First a little history lesson..... There was a time, long ago that printers had ribbons and used dot matrix printing to create tiny dots that, when looked at, were readable. Sometimes they were BARELY readable, however. Changing ribbons and printing wheels to change type face was a chore.

Then, in 1984, the first laser printer that used toner cartridges came into being. Quickly, no one wanted a dot matrix printer anymore. The laser printer caused powder from the toner to fuse onto the paper & the output was much clearer and much more professional in appearance. Very soon, dot matrix printers became known as "door stops".

By 1990, ink printers that used drop-in ink became readily available and very reasonable prices. These ink cartridges were very easy to change without any fuss. The cost to the user, compared to the toner , was significantly reduced though overall cost being more a question of cents per page tended to favour the toners.

So this is where it starts getting pretty cool.... Today, ink printers using inks are so affordable that every computer owner can afford to own their own printer that is capable of using photo quality inks or for less expensive printing, inks that are remanufactured or "generic" or non-original manufacture. These can even be refilled in many cases to save even more in printing costs.

The price of the machines themselves has dropped by buckets and what they can do is way cooler than ever before. Not only can you print but also scan, fax (many do PC-Fax), copy, make your morning coffee, take out the garbage (ok not those last 2). Combining this many tasks obviously reduces the number of different machines in your home/office but in addition there's only one manual you have to completely ignore instead of many (for the guys reading this).

When using inks that are photo quality, it is sensible to use photo quality paper for your printing. This ensures the best quality print out resulting from your photo quality cartridge. While these inks will print on regular paper, it is a waste to place the more expensive ink cartridge into your printer and then print on plain non-glossy paper.

For every day printing in black and white or even in color, remanufactured or non-original inks work great and save dollars for you in the long run. As a general rule of thumb, you need to purchase twice as many black inks because there is, on average, more black printing needs for the average person.

Nowadays manufacturers are including more and more technology into their products and trying to convince you that their ink has that extra special something. Epson uses DURABrite ink, HP uses Vivera ink and the list goes on. If you ever get bored and feel the need to work yourself into a frenzy just try surfing some of the major sites to compare exactly what one manufacturers ink does compared to the next. If you come away from this sane you'll definitely know a lot more techie sounds words than you need to know today or in your next lifetime.

Many of the latest inks have cool gizmos in them like small chips designed to monitor the ink levels and tell you when its time to reorder and even little LEDs for those of you who want their printer to light up like a disco. The idea of the chip sounds great but there are cases where the chip is telling the printer to stop working too soon or even to not work at all if the consumables inside are not original (there's been at least one of the major players recently sued over exactly this). To try and counter this a chip resetter' can be purchased which basically tells the chip to do as its told and keep on printing regardless of how much ink it thought was left in the tank. As far as the issue with these chips and non originals are concerned its actually illegal for a chip to stop your machine working on this basis but apparently this hasn't deterred a few of the big boys. Whether a chip resetter will fix this problem is uncertain.

Whether you want to print graphics, brochures, or just letters, there is a printer that uses inks for you. Choose inks that meet your printing needs at affordable prices. Inks have evolved over the years in so many ways that they have in themselves become fairly hi tech let alone the machines that use them. Your average ink printer these days can perform a myriad of functions at prices seemingly getting cheaper by the minute.

Bottom line is yep your inks are getting more high tech and cooler (heck in the old days theres no way your ink or toner cartridge would actually light up with pretty colours for you and tell you when its about to run dry). The future is certainly going to be interesting seeing what comes next.....