Inkjets are a bit of a ripoff shocker
Will Head writes…
Another day, anther convenient survey, this time from Epson and TÜV Rheinland showing that ink isn’t just expensive – your printer could be eating half of it instead of spreading it on the page.
Somewhat conveniently, Espon’s printers came out as the most efficient in the study using more than 80 per cent of the ink in their individual inkjet cartridges. Kodak, on the other hand, was made to go and stand in the corner and think about what it had done with its EasyShare 5300 wasting a staggering 64 percent of ink you paid good money for.
Apparently part of the problem is the printers claiming the cartridges are done when there’s actually a load more ink left in them. Though it does seem a rather foolish tactic to con the unsuspecting punter out of their hard earned cash. Did they not think someone would work this one out?
Combo ink cartridges also don’t make for great usage unless you make sure you live your life in exactly equal measures of red, green and blue. Print too many snaps of oceans or forest fires and you could be draining one of the tanks dry while the others have still got plenty of life left in them. If you want to wring every last drop – or at least every least drop that the printer tells you is left – out of your cartridges, then single cartridges for each colour are the way to go.
Surely the best approach is to forget about printing your own photos in the first place and use an online service like Photobox or even just pop them down to your local supermarket. The prices are cheap enough now that by the time you’ve factored in buying a printer, paper and ink you could have hundreds of prints done for the same price.
