As with anything else that a person can own, proper care and maintenance of a printer will ensure its longevity as well as proper functioning. Although most of us are mindful of the maintenance that is required for the mechanical devices that we own, often times we forget about the little things that keep them working for us. Such things as the printer ink are necessary for a printer to be effective in the job we ask it to do. There are a few things that a person can do to ensure that the ink will be ready when we call on it to print out a paper that we need.



Although there are a number of printer ink types, they all have one thing in common. When they dry out they can no longer be used to print even one page of a document. Preventing this from happening takes a few additional steps to achieve, but is well worth the effort when you consider the benefits of saving time and money, as well as less aggravation and frustration due to having to change a cartridge; or worse yet, waiting on a shipment of printer ink to arrive or running out to purchase it at the last minute. Proper storage and care can help prevent this from happening.



One of the best ways to store printer ink is to keep it in its shipping package and in a closed cabinet or closet out of direct light until it is needed for use. This will prevent the drying effects of light and air flow. Regardless of the printer ink types being used, this suggestion will prolong the shelf life of the cartridge and ensure that it is ready to use when needed. Another method of prolonging the useful lifespan of Printer Ink is to use the printer ink paper that is recommended by the manufacturer of the particular brand of printer being used. This will help by controlling the amount of ink distributed on the paper at the time of each printing job.



Another important quick and painless step that can be taken to preserve the longevity of any ink cartridge is to turn off the printer when not in use. This will eliminate the drying effects of the heat produced by a printer that is on standby, ready for use. The main thing to remember when using a printer of any brand is to follow the manufacturer’s suggestions for care of this very useful tool, and that includes the printer ink paper that you use and the way that you store printer ink cartridges as well. Following these simple suggestions will save many future headaches.


It’s not always obvious that you need a new printer. You don’t want to wait for it to go up in smoke before you upgrade. You may have a usable functioning machine, but it could actually be costing you time, effort, and money.



When the printer ink paper starts jamming regularly, it’s a sign that the printer is wearing out. Even top quality printer ink paper will jam in an old machine. Eventually, it will be difficult to find the right printer ink types to suit your machine. The printer ink cartridge may not last as long as recent models do, and you may find ink smearing the paper. This can be frustrating when you are trying to send out professional looking documents. And the cost of spares and repairs these days is so high that it is just not worth it.
If your business has expanded over the years, you could be printing out larger documents and more of them. You may need to use color printer ink for graphics in brochures and pictures. You may start networking. What was once an adequate piece of equipment can become slow and expensive to run, and is not up to the job. You quickly realize that it is consuming too much printer ink to be cost effective. A printer ink cartridge is expensive, and frequent replacements can exceed the cost of a brand new printer. A new printer will often be the more efficient option. It can work at a much higher speed, cost less per page, and produce better print quality.



Having decided that it is time to buy a new printer, it is important to buy the most suitable one for your needs. Modern laser printers can print on both sides of the paper, and are useful for bulk printing work. They are fast, and some can print text and graphics in color, which is useful for business and also useful for students and writers working on large projects. Inkjet printers are slower, but can produce sharper detail. They are perfect for low volume usage. An inkjet photo printer is often the best choice to produce perfect photographic images. There are also multi-functional printers that can print, scan, copy, and fax. Of course, it’s essential to use the right printer ink types for the different printers. And it’s important to use the printer ink paper that will make the best use of the printer’s capabilities in order to give a professional finish. Maybe now is the time to upgrade to a brand new printer. Being without one is a headache. Don’t leave it too long. You may need one sooner than you think.


The world of toner, printer ink and printing technology is a great deal more complicated that it appears at first blush. With a multitude of printer options, from commercial-grade laser to desktop-sized inkjet and everything in between, there are host of factors that go into determining how long a printer ink cartridge will last, how good the images it prints will look, and what kind of wear and tear it will suffer. How often the printer is used, for example, can affect printer ink life. If used every day, printer ink can quickly be used up and can be extremely pricey to replace often. If used infrequently, the ink can dry up, resulting in an unexpected cost. One factor which is often overlooked when considering the life and usefulness of a printer ink cartridge is the type of paper used.



Just like printer ink, paper comes in multiple types, grades and is created by multiple manufacturers. Three important characteristics of printer paper are its weight, brightness, and finish, and each of these can affect how the ink applied to it is used, as well as how much of it will be required to produce a high-quality image. The weight of paper refers to its thickness; the higher the weight, the thicker the paper. Common personal-use paper has a weight of 24lb. Photo paper, meanwhile, is 62lbs on average. The higher the weight of the paper, the more ink it will take to produce an image and the harder used the ink cartridge will be. 



Paper brightness is rated on a scale from 1 to 100; the higher the number, the brighter the paper. Manufacturers will often place the words “bright” or “bold” on their paper, but be sure to look for the number when in need of the brightest paper. Anything above a 95 will be a bright, clear white. Paper brightness has little effect on ink usage, and ink will typically show up more obviously on bright paper than that with a more grey hue. Cheaper paper in this case can be harder on your printer cartridge.



The finish of the paper can be matte, semi-gloss or glossy. Matte paper has no shine, while glossy is often referred to as photo quality. The gloss is achieved by applying a coating to the paper which will result in sharper images and cause colors to display more vibrantly. A higher quality paper will need less ink to create a brilliant and clear picture, and can mean less ink use per page. While the cost of paper can be prohibitive for daily use, a higher brightness, higher gloss option will enable an ink cartridge to perform its best for the maximum amount of time.


Printers can accommodate numerous types and sizes of paper. The most important thing to remember when selecting the right type of paper for your job is that not all combinations of ink and paper produce the same result. In order to better understand your choices, it’s best to take a look at some of the different types of printer ink, and how they wind up making images on your paper.



Most models use printer ink cartridges to store their ink and the print heads that disperse the various ink colors on to your paper in tiny dots. Thermal inkjet printers, like those commonly utilized in homes and offices, use water based “aqueous inks” which have some difficulty binding directly to the surface of normal paper. In these cases, specially coated printer ink paper can be used to improve the image quality and long-term steadfastness, resulting in less blurry picture with better contrast. Because of their water content, aqueous inks work best with thermal printers, which heat the ink until it bubbles, releasing a drop of fluid onto the waiting media below. Some consumer printers like those manufactured by Epson, and a majority of industrial and commercial inkjets, use a piezoelectric material that changes shape under voltage, pushing the ink drops out of a nozzle in this fashion. These printers produce large numbers of pages much faster, and use quick-drying, inexpensive solvent based pigment inks as well as UV-curable inks.



Choosing the correct printer ink types may seem complicated given all this information, but it becomes quite simple if one can match their model of printer with compatible printer ink cartridges. Most cartridges are clearly labeled and readily available in generic and brand name varieties. Although many manufacturers naturally recommend the use of their own ink brands, as long as you match the type of ink and your printer type, you won’t notice much difference in performance. Generally, the only area you may find problematic is that of choosing which paper to print on.



Printer paper varieties often correspond to the use of the final product, with things like wedding invitations and photos requiring different levels of gloss, weight, or density, and thickness. Glossy and semi-gloss papers often achieve their luster through the application of a thin plastic film that will produce the best results when printed on with a photographic quality printer ink. Often these high quality inks are interchangeable, given that they are pigment or solvent based inks. Water soluble inks, which are the most common, will fade as the print is exposed to light over its lifetime and if they become wet, blur or run.