The Canon Pixma MX310 will set you back about $75 initially. The replacement ink though, is another (expensive) story.

You know what’s great?  We live in a throw-away society.  Think about it:  Forty years ago, what did you do if your TV exploded?  You called a repair man.  The same applied to nearly any appliance back then, from blenders to vacuums to lawn mowers.  What about now?  We just throw the old crap away and buy something new.  When you repair your old junk, you’re taking food off the tables of sweatshop workers everywhere.  Be a good citizen and just buy something new.

Nowhere is this fact more apparent than in the home printer market.  Head on over to any Staples, Best Buy, or Wal-Mart, and you’ll find cheap printers for $75 or under.  Cheap is good, right?  Right.  Now, you’re obviously going to need a few replacement ink cartridges.  There’s lots of important printing to be done, and those color cartridges run out fast.  Be prepared though:  Once you make it over to the ink aisle, you’ll be facing the hideous monster of $20-$40 per ounce of ink.  Wait, what?

Let’s review:  A brand new color printer (which comes with ink cartridges) will set you back $75.  New ink cartridges will cost at least half of that, probably more.  How does this make any sense?  It doesn’t.  The only logical explanation is that all of the big printer manufacturers ordered way too many printers from the factories, and now they are retardedly overstocked.  Way to go guys.

So where does that leave you, the consumer?  You’re stuck with the choice of either buying two ink cartridges, or buying a brand new printer.  Admit it, you’d choose the new printer:  Not only is your old one dusty, but the new model has the letter X in it!  It’s obvious that the Printer X5000 is better than that lame old Printer 4950.

Of course, there are…other options.  For starters, you can order refilled or discount cartridges online, which usually cost a fraction of the original price.  You can also refill your own cartridges by ordering a refill kit, but c’mon, that hurts the big businesses.  Those guys need to charge $40 per ounce to feed their families.  You wouldn’t want to take away those executive’s dinners, right?  Not supporting big business means you’re against capitalism, and that makes you a communist.  You don’t want your neighbors to know you’re a communist, right Ivan?  Right.  Now bend over and get out your check book.

Before you know it you have completely emptied the ink cartridges in your new printer. You take a trip to your local electronics store to restock on some new ink cartridges. Your mouth drops to the floor when you see the price of new brand-name cartridges. You are amazed as you see a new printer on sale cheaper than it would cost to buy your new ink cartridges. Disgusted, you leave the store without your new cartridges.

This is a story that happens over and over every day. I have to admit that I have actually bought a new printer cheaper than what it would have cost to buy new cartridges. I threw the barely used printer in the garbage can. One was donated to a local school. Yes, I have done that more than once.
After doing this a few times I finally found a place to buy remanufactured or refilled ink cartridges. I was elated. Finally, I could keep my printer. Remanufactured ink cartridges are very affordable. They also perform just as well as new cartridges.

But I've Heard That Alternative Cartridges Can Void My Printer Warranty?

Not true at all. Consumers are protected from printer warranty voiding by the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. This is merely a scare tactic used by some printer companies.

4Inkjets Provides Affordable Quality Ink

If you get sticker shock when you shop for new printer cartridges, you should go online and check out 4Inkjets, an online ink supplier. At 4Inkjets you will find remanufactured or refilled ink cartridges for your printer at a fraction of the original cost. It is great. Remanufactured ink cartridges perform very well and generally, you can save 30-50% off the cost of a new ink cartridge.

4inkjets is a great online store providing all your remanufactured ink cartridge needs. It can help you keep your sanity (in today's struggling economy) and your new printer.

Extend the life of your ink cartridges by following these fundamental printer tips.

Tweak Printer Settings To Ensure Printing Efficiency
Firstly, pay attention to the settings on your printer – most printers allow you to have various levels of print quality from draft to normal to best. Make sure to print internal documents in draft mode whenever possible. Draft mode produces legible documents that allow you to easily read or view documents without using the same ink level. Further, make sure to take advantage of print preview to save ink on possible re-prints, so that you are able to review the document on-screen and make any necessary changes before printing it out.

Taking this idea a step further, it is often possible to maintain the document in electronic format by creating a PDF, which allows you to distribute an electronic copy without using any ink.

Save Money By Using Third-Party Printing Solutions
Since not all documents are created equal, make sure to be careful when printing high-color images or photos, which require high levels of ink. Instead, you can order from discount digital photo printing labs online at a lower cost than you could print photos yourself. While it may be tempting to produce business materials solely on your printer, you can also often save money at the margin by utilizing business card, envelope and post specialists rather than using your home or office printer.

Save Ink By Adjusting Your Printer's Settings
When you do print on your own machine, you can adjust the print settings to reduce the ink volume setting. This will enable you to increase the life of your cartridge while having a small impact upon print quality. To get the most from your cartridge, you can buy a high capacity refill rather than a standard cartridge, which will provide a more dense ink refill that extends your print cycle. There are a number of ways to get your ink to last longer, and, over time, this can produce quite a bit of printer savings.

Originally found from: Cat Vs. Printer

HP Viviera Brand Ink

As anyone who owns a printer knows well, printer ink is expensive. But exactly how expensive is it compared to other high-priced liquids?

A Gizmodo reader did a graphical comparison of the prices per milliliter for various liquids (HP #45 black ink being one of them). I was personally fairly surprised to see the results.

Is printer ink more expensive than a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne? What about gasoline, or even the price of human blood?

Read this news story to find out!

Your right to buy and use alternative printer ink cartridges is protected by the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

A common fear of consumers thinking about purchasing remanufactured ink cartridges is that their use will render the printer warranty void. Many brands of printers include messages that pop up after insertion of a remanufactured cartridge claiming that your warranty may become void, though these messages are primarily there to encourage loyalty to the original manufacturer’s brand (OEM) cartridges rather than stating the legal implications of using alternative cartridges.

The truth is that the use of remanufactured printer cartridges will NOT void your printer warranty. In fact, it would be illegal for printer companies to revoke warranty based on type of cartridge used. As a consumer you have the right of choice when it comes with refilling the ink for your printer, which means you are not obligated only to use OEM cartridges.

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act Protects Consumers Against Warranty Voiding

Legally, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is a law that states that
“No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer's using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade or corporate name”.

How The Act Protects Consumers' Right To Purchase Alternatives

The only exception to this rule is when the product would not function correctly without the product or service of the manufacturer, which is not the case with printer cartridges, or if a Commission finds that it would be in the public’s interest to include related products or services into the warranty, which is also not the case with printer cartridges.

In fact it is within the public’s interest to provide a range of purchase options. Not only does this leave the consumer with much better value for money (where they can sometimes cost 50% less than the OEM cartridge), but it is a much better option for a wide range of reasons. The environment benefits from the fact that more cartridges are being reused instead of sent to landfill, as well as the fact that fewer cartridges need to be produced from scratch. These reasons reduce the carbon footprint of the consumer choosing such cartridges.

Further Reading On The Act (Warning: Legalese Ahead)

If you are interested in learning more about the Magnuson-Moss Act, check out these references from Wikipedia: Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and Cornell Law School: Magnuson-Moss Act.

In short you should not be put off by any warnings from a printer manufacturer that the use of remanufactured cartridges will void your warranty. When printer manufacturers warn against factors such as inferior ink quality or poor yield of the cartridge they are usually attempting to keep customers loyal to their own product, therefore making more money. In actual fact, it is perfectly legal and possible to find great quality remanufactured cartridges for any printer model.

When it comes to printers, it is of no surprise that the ink costs far more than the actual machine. In fact, it is a common practice to charge $10 or more for a couple of ounces of ink.

With prices like this, are there any ways to save money? Two common methods to save some cash include buying refilled cartridges or looking for deals on new cartridges. A lesser known method involves changing some settings and changing printing habits so that overall, less ink is consumed.

In Windows, to enable the ink-saving feature, follow these steps:

1. Open the control panel
2. Select the printer/fax setting panel
3. Open up the printer/fax setting panel
4. Select and open up your printer
5. Open up the preferences dialog box
6. This step varies for each printer, but look for a setting that enables a lower quality or quick print setting. Both of these settings force the printer to use less ink.

For Apple computers, follow these steps:

1. Go to System Preferences
2. Select the Printer & Fax panel
3. Select your printer
4. Go to the printer’s settings, and look for a lower quality or quick print setting (this step varies depending on the printer).

Other Ink Saving Tips

Another way to save ink when printing is to use the grayscale feature. This feature forces the printer to convert any color images into black & white, thus eliminating any color ink usage.

Another way to save ink when printing is to only select what you want to print. On the internet, for example, this is useful because web pages tend to have a lot of unwanted filler. Removing it can be difficult, since the methods vary by web browser.

In Firefox, the Nuke Anything Enhanced extension allows the user to select and hide various elements of a web page. These elements can range from pictures to blocks of text, etc. Once the elements are hidden, print the selected page, and you’ll get exactly what you want.