Posts Tagged ‘colour ink cartridge’

Understanding Dye Based Ink

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Understanding Dye Based Ink

Dye based ink is mainly used in digital printers because it is easier and cheaper to manufacture than pigment based ink. Dye based ink is water soluble, and produces images which are much more vibrant than what you would get from a pigment based ink.

One of the main drawbacks of dye based ink is fading. An image printed using dye based ink is much more likely to fade in the sun faster than a pigment ink based image. Dye based ink always takes longer to dry, this means if you remove the paper from the printer too quickly, you could end up with inky fingers and a smeared image! Even once dye based ink has fully dried on to the paper, if it comes in contact with water, it can still smear and blur.

If you have a colour inkjet printer, it’s very likely it will use dye based ink cartridges. Pigment based ink is really only used for black and white printing. Your inkjet printer may use pigment based ink in the black cartridge.

To decide which type of ink is most suited to your needs, you will need to access the type you printing you mostly do. If bright, vibrant colours are a priority, you should go for the dye based option. If longevity is most important, go with the pigment based ink cartridges.

How to get Maximum Ink from a cartridge?

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

How to Get Maximum Ink from a Cartridge?

To get the maximum ink from your new ink cartridge, you will need to use it very frugally, clean the print heads regularly, and also use the print quality setting. Here are a few steps that will help you get the maximum ink from your cartridge.

STEP 1: The Draft Mode

Maximizing ink usage means maximizing the amount of printouts. Therefore, it’s important to select the draft mode, whenever you can. This will reduce the ink used for the printing process and print more pages.

STEP 2: Select the Cartridges

If you want to take a black and white printout, do not select the colour ink cartridges for the process of printing. A colour cartridge will mix various colours to create black ink. This wastes large amounts of ink. So, just select the black cartridge from printer settings.

STEP 3: Manage the Colour

Once again the printer settings come in handy. If you are printing rough drafts just change the printer setting to draft. The default setting is ‘best quality’. The final version could then be printed in the best quality mode.

STEP 4 – Current Page

There are times when you want to print just one page on a document that has multiple pages. Some people just give the command to print the whole document. This will waste ink. In order to get the maximum ink from your cartridge you need to select the ‘Print current page’ option.

STEP 5: Cost of Cartridge

Once you realise the expense incurred in buying or refilling a cartridge, you will automatically adopt the steps given above!

Saving Ink whilst using a HP Ink Cartridge

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Saving Ink while using a HP ink cartridge

Trying to save ink whilst using a HP ink cartridge will save you a considerable amount of cash every month, especially if you use your printer frequently. If you do not monitor your printing habits you could end up spending hundreds of pounds unnecessarily every year on HP ink cartridges. This price could triple if you are in charge of purchasing HP ink cartridges for a small office.

Below we have some simple and effective tips that can help you save ink whilst using a HP ink cartridge. The majority of these tips are very simple and mainly use common sense. All you need to do is put them into action and you can start saving the pounds!

1. If you are printing pages from the internet, take the only the information you want to print and copy it into a document that you can then use to print, like Microsoft Word. Never waste your ink by printing entire WebPages when you only need a small section or a piece of the web-page. This is an excellent and easy way to save your ink. This is specifically true of WebPages that include lots of images or advertising, if you do not need or want the images, simply eliminate them by copying and pasting only the details you need.

2. You should always use the ‘print preview’ option where available, so you can see exactly what you are printing before its too late. Many people create a document they like and will never think to use the ‘print preview’ option, therefore they are likely to end up with a document that is not formatted in the manner that they desire. You can save yourself a great deal of time and printer ink by using the ‘print preview’ button so you will know exactly what you are getting.

3. If you don’t use your printer very often, you should try to print at least one small document or image twice a week. This will keep the ink circulating inside the cartridge and prevent any ink from drying onto the print head and clogging it. If you let your ink cartridges sit in the printer for too long without being used, they will slowly begin to dry up and you will start to experience problems. Therefore you need to ensure you use them frequently to keep the ink flowing!

4. Always make sure you switch your printer off properly after use. Don’t simply just unplug it from the wall. Always turn the printer off from the unit first, to ensure the cartridges are left sitting in the correct position in the printer. If you unplug the printer from the wall without turning the unit off first, the ink cartridges will be left exposed to the air and this will lead to any ink left on the print heads drying out. When you next come to use your printer you will find that your documents come out streaky and faded.

5. Avoid printing out colour unless it is absolutely necessary. Try to save your colour ink and only use your black ink wherever possible. Don’t let your black ink cartridge run out, as the printer will begin using your colour cartridge as a substitute. You really don’t want this to happen as the colour cartridge is always a lot more expensive to buy.

Follow the above tips and you will quickly begin saving money and ink when it comes to replacing your HP ink cartridges!!!

Ink cartridge error messages guide

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Ink Cartridge Error Messages Guide

Have you just installed your new ink cartridge and an error message has appeared on the screen? Is there a warning light flashing on the printer? This means that your computer cannot recognise the new ink cartridge; this is a common problem and can happen for a number of reasons.

One of the main reasons is that something is interfering with the information that is being send to the cartridge by the printer. This could be a piece of dirt or some dried ink on one of the copper contact points at the back of the cartridge, or it could be the contacts inside the printer cartridge carriage – where the information transfer takes place.

Before you perform any cleaning procedures you will need to carry out a few important checks.

  • Check you have the correct cartridge for your printer model. Make sure the number written on the outside of the cartridge matches what you have ordered.
  • Check you are putting the cartridge in the correct slot, don’t put black in the colour slot or visa versa.
  • Check you have removed the entire piece of blue cellophane strip which covers the print head and the circuitry. If this is not fully removed you will get an ‘unsupported cartridge’ message on screen.
  • Visually observe the copper contacts at the back of the ink cartridge, check for any tears or obvious damage. Ensure the copper contact is fully attached to the ink cartridge.

If all of the above appear to be in order you will need to carry out a cleaning and reinitialising procedure, see below.

You will need –

  • Lint free cloth or some cotton buds
  • Distilled or filtered water, tap water can be used if others not available
  • Absorbent kitchen towel or tissue

Firstly, remove the ink cartridge from the printer. Take a piece of slightly damp lint free cloth or a cotton bud, and gently wipe the copper contacts on the cartridge over, do this until there appears to be no dirt on debris anywhere on the copper contacts. You can also wipe the print head of the cartridge over with a fresh piece of damp cloth, to ensure there is no dried ink or dirt remaining. Try the cartridge back in the printer, if it is still producing an error message, it is likely there is permanent damage to the contacts and the cartridge will need to be replaced.

If you have installed a new black and colour ink cartridge into your printer at the same time, and you are getting an error message, you will need to identify which cartridge is at fault. It is unlikely that both cartridges would have damaged copper contacts. For this you will need your original empty cartridges at hand, so don’t recycle them just yet! Remove all ink cartridges from the printer; insert your new black ink cartridge together with your original empty colour cartridge. If no error messages appear then the problem lies with the new colour cartridge. If the same error message appears try it the other way around, with your new colour cartridge and old empty black cartridge. If this works the problem lies with the new black cartridge. If both times you get the same error message then both cartridges will need replacing.

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