Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Buy new printer ink cartridges that match the original manufacturer's parts

New OEM printer ink cartridges ensure the highest quality printing and smooth printer operation. New cartridges snap into the printer easily for quick replacement. Page yield is an important specification when choosing printer ink as many lower cost cartridges hold less ink and need replacement sooner.

I recommend: Atlantic Inkjet Cartridges carry replacement cartridges for many popular brands at discount prices. Buy directly from the manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard, Epson America and Dell.

Ensure professional printing and quality printer ink with refilled cartridges

Printer ink cartridges are capable of being reused multiple times without loss of print quality or damaging the printer. Printer ink refills cost less and keep waste out of the landfills. Look for high quality printer ink refills to maintain the best print quality for all your business printing projects.

I recommend: Planet Green specializes in remanufacturing printer ink cartridges as well as buying and selling empty units. Find a local Cartridge World USA store near your business when you need printer ink in a hurry.

Save money and refill your own inkjet printer ink cartridge

Refilling your own ink cartridges has the highest cost savings and saves on storage space. Refilling a printer ink cartridge is fast and easy with a quality refill kit and additional savings are available with bulk printer ink purchases.

I recommend: Mr. Ink Jet gets your business started with new refill kits, large quantity orders and support. Inkjetrefillkit.net has refill kits for most popular printer makes and models.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Color printer ink is more expensive and often unnecessary. Change the computer print default setting to black and white to avoid wasteful color copies.

To avoid paying too much, understand that the business of selling ink and toner has gotten more competitive recently. Printer makers are taking small steps to help you figure out how much ink a printer will use. And a variety of retailers, both online and off, are selling off-brand and recycled cartridges.

Just finding the right replacement cartridges when you need them can be a challenge as well, so you need to know where to look and the best ways to order what you need quickly. These steps will help:

1. Don’t let your cartridges empty completely. Dry cartridges can cause print heads to overheat and damage your printer.
2. Be careful about recycled cartridges. They’ll save you money, but low-quality cartridges can ruin your machine.
3. Exercise caution with refillable cartridges because they can and do leak.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Establish an account with a dealer you can trust

Buy your cartridges from reputable dealers who guarantee the quality of their products. Large office-supply chains are a good option, but a variety of good specialty Web sites sell ink and toner as well.

I recommend: Staples, Office Depot and Office Max are the big three. Also consider sites such as AAA Toner and Toner World. Office Depot offers a helpful guide to ink and toner shopping.

Save money with third-party brands

Just because your printer is an HP or Epson doesn't mean your ink cartridges must carry the manufacturer's name. You can cut costs by 10 to 40 percent or more with store brands. Also, the shelf life of cartridges varies based upon storage conditions and the manufacturer.

I recommend: Find third-party brands and overstocked items at TigerDirect.

Consider recycled goods

Reused cartridges can save even more money — just make sure they're from a reputable seller.

I recommend: Try recycled cartridges from Atlantic Inkjet.

Get wise about printer yield

The printer manufacturer's specs will tell how many pages you can expect to print from a cartridge. This yield can help you gauge ink costs.

I recommend: Learn more about yield at About.com.

Recycle or sell your empties

Most toner cartridges come with pre-paid shipping labels you can use to send back the empties. But if you have a large volume, you can also get a little money for sending them back.

I recommend: Empty Solution pays for empties and will send you prepaid UPS labels to recycle cartridges.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Use black ink. If you're not printing a marketing brochure, you'll save money.
• •  Be stingy. Don't print pages you don't need.
• •  Look for a draft mode on your printer. It'll use less ink on documents that don't need to be perfectly polished.
• •  Toner costs more than ink, but long-lasting toner cartridges can give you more bang for your buck.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Download and use a screen capture program to conserve and make the most of your printer ink

Screen capture programs are popular with all types of businesses. These programs enable users to take a picture of anything that is open and visible on their computer screens. The picture can then be stored on the computer hard drive or another storage source. Users can then email or fax this picture online to any source in the world, thus saving a great deal on cartridges and printing expenses.

I recommend: Adobe offers a free trial of its popular screen capture program, Captivate 3. It’s one of the most advanced screen capture programs available. For a fully free program, check out ScreenHunter from MouseRunner. This effective tool includes options, such as, size and color adjustment.

Find wholesale printer ink in bulk sizes for your business

Bulk printer ink is an important cost saver for businesses of all sizes. Not only does buying in bulk save you a few extra trips to the office supply store, it also saves you time and money. Plus, there are printer ink suppliers that offer bulk ink for every printer on the market today.

I recommend: RE-INKS USA offers inkjet printer ink for Lexmark, Epson, Canon, HP, Pitney Bowes, Brother, Apollo, Kodak and Samsung printers. For all-brand ink, check out Fillserv. With its large selection, it’s sure to have an ink that fits your needs.

Use a remanufactured ink cartridge to save money and environmental waste

Remanufactured ink cartridges are the newest trend in the ink cartridge industry. These are recycled and refilled cartridges that companies remanufacture for re-use. Remanufactured printer ink suppliers offer compatible ink cartridges for almost every brand of printer, which allows you to truly make the most of the printer ink you consume.

I recommend: Castle Ink offers remanufactured printer cartridges that rival brand new printer ink cartridges. For refill kits so you can refill your printer ink yourself, try the Printer Ink Warehouse.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Use print preview to check your document. Print preview allows a user to see a document before printing and avoid re-printing work and over using computer printer ink.
• •  To conserve printer ink, don't use the highest quality print settings for every document.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Refill kits

Refill kits allow you to add new ink to your existing cartridges as a way to save money. A color refill kit requires one bottle of each of the basic colors: cyan, magenta and yellow.

I recommend: Get detailed information about refill kits from Mr. Ink Jet.

Recycled or remanufactured cartridges

Recycled or remanufactured cartridges are old cartridges that have been filled and reused instead of newly manufactured. Recycled cartridges are an alternative to do-it-yourself refill kits for the 'green' consumer.

I recommend: Atlantic Inkjet Cartridges sells recycled cartridges and provides more information on their site. Ink Solutions discusses the advantages of buying recycled cartridges over using refill kits.

Imaging Supplies Coalition (ISC)

The Imaging Supplies Coalition (ISC) is a non-profit organization that seeks to manage the growing number of counterfeit ink cartridge suppliers.

I recommend: Get more information from the Imaging Supplies Coalition, including their mission and success. The PriceLess Inkjet Cartridges blog provides more details on the rising trend of counterfeit ink cartridges, including information provided by the ISC.

Continuous ink system (CIS)

A continuous ink system is a set of ink tanks or bottles that are connected by tubes to the nozzles in an inkjet printer. The tanks and bottles are refilled outside the printer.

I recommend: Get more details from Continuous-Ink-Systems.net.

Redundant nozzles

Some printer ink cartridges come with redundant nozzles, which means there are backup nozzles in case one in use becomes clogged.

I recommend: Read about redundant nozzles in cartridge features at Lexmark.

Page yield

Page yield refers to how many pages you can print from a certain ink cartridge. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) sets the standards for how to measure page yield, so that customers can effectively compare different printer ink cartridges.

I recommend: Get more details on printer ink page yield from Hewlett-Packard.