Gone are the days when only small offices and businesses looked at printers as a necessity. Most of us today depend on our smartphones and laptops to get paper-free work done. Sometimes, there is no escaping the need for printouts for either printing documents or forms, or sometimes just to print some photographs around the house. One needs to spend time and effort taking it to a local printing shop. Home printing solutions have existed in form of desktop printers, portable, even large scaled laser printers. We’ve avoided using printers at home, fearing one thing only – printing expenses. Recent developments have seen traditional printers replacing cartridges with ink tanks. Here are some reasons of why you needn’t worry anymore – the era of smart and affordable printing solutions has dawned. Say hello to ink tank printers.
What are ink tank printers and how are they different?
Traditional inkjet printers use ink cartridges for printing. They print smooth and detailed text and images on all types of printing papers, glossy, matte, fabric and others. Most colour printers come with one larger black cartridge along with three colour cartridges (cyan, magenta and yellow). These cartridges need to be replaced once they run out.
Traditional cartridge printers are not ideal for occasional printing. The ink in the cartridges can dry up rendering the cartridge useless. In such cases, you have to replace the entire cartridge which is an expensive thing to do.
Unlike traditional ink cartridge printers, ink tank printers have individual colour ink tanks. These tanks are capable of holding large capacity (70 ml in most printers) of ink, which is great for printing jobs and never having to worry about running out of ink. One good thing about ink tank printers is that there is little fear of ink drying up or wastage. You can fill the tank with ink based on your printing requirements.
How many prints can they put out?
Traditional printers are engineered to print on an average of 300- 400 pages off a single cartridge, sometimes a lot less if the printing quality demands are high. On the other hand, ink tank printers can churn out in excess of 1000 pages or even more depending on the capacity of ink it can store.
How is the print quality?
Both, traditional and ink tank printers can do decent quality printing. As mentioned earlier, traditional printers have good precision and can print on different types of printing papers and even on some fabrics without any issue. Ink tank printers use liquid ink that may not be ideal for purely photo printing although the results are quite decent. They are better suited for mixed purposes where you might be printing documents, projects as well as photographers and posters.
How economical are ink tank printers?
Typically, the cost of traditional cartridge printers is lower compared to the ink tank printers. The cost of replacing cartridges on the other hand, is a much more expensive affair. The cost of new cartridges for those printers can be more than Rs. 700 per cartridge. You need roughly 4 cartridges a printer. Prices can be higher, depending the printer model and capacity of the cartridge.
Although, ink tank printers are a bit more expensive to purchase, you save big on the cost of printing since the refill ink bottles are inexpensive. Ink tank printers have an inbuilt mechanism of supplying continuous ink, which helps lower the cost of printing. Filling up the tanks with ink is really simple too. Most models have the tanks built outside the printer’s chassis.
What extra features can I expect?
Once you decide on the type of printer, take some time to explore the other features they offer. The most important thing is the resolution and the print speed. If you are going to be using the printer in an office, you will want faster prints. For home use, it is worth considering features such as Wi-Fi, LAN and USB connectivity, touch screen controls, web printing, app support and more for your convenience. These features will let everybody at home print directly from their phones or PCs. Touchscreens make operating printers simpler and some models can even print remotely over the web.
Most models these days come with a built-in scanner. These models are called as all-in-one printers so look for an ink jet variant. Memory card readers and support for connecting a camera directly to the printer are other enhanced features on more premium models.
The battle of considering traditional cartridge printers or ink tank printers, depends on your usage and priorities. Traditional printers, specifically high-end photo printers are still great for purely photo-perfect quality. If it’s a mix of printing needs, from decorating your home with posters, or having your children print their school and college projects or if it’s for you printing forms and an occasional article, you will find an ink tank printer adds a lot of value. For most of us, the lack of fear over printing costs means we’re likely to print freely rather than as an expensive novelty.
