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If there is one thing that printing supply consumers are always hunting for it is cheap toner and ink for their printers. No matter who they are, or what type of printer they use, everyone is looking around for the best discounts available or the cheapest products on the market in order to offset the traditionally expensive toner and ink prices. However, actually finding cheap ink or toner is another matter entirely, leaving people to go to some fairly significant lengths to get whatever discount that they can find. Whether it is buying shady products from countries they can barely pronounce, or actually giving in and shelling out a good chunk of their paycheck for dependable cartridges produced by the original equipment manufacturers, it just seems like consumers cannot win any more, no matter what they do.

Well, fortunately this is not entirely true but, no matter which option that consumer, takes there will be advantages and drawbacks that must be considered before actually committing to a given action. People searching to find more affordable ink and toner have only a few options available to them: first, they can buy the OEM cartridges at the highest price on the market; second, they can be remanufactured cartridges for a little less money; third, they can buy generic compatible cartridges from third party companies; fourth, they can put the effort in to refill the cartridges on their own. The drawbacks for the first option, buying OEM cartridges, are fairly obvious: they cost a LOT of money! But the advantage is quite simply quality, nobody is going to make a better or more reliable cartridge than the company that manufactured your printer, too.

The second and third options are growing popular these days, as it becomes easier than ever to buy remanufactured or compatible toner at ink technologies or other discount ink websites. However many of the OEM companies have gone to great lengths to either prevent or at least stem the tide of third party products being sold for their printers; after all, their entire business model depends on having a near monopoly over printer supplies in order to function (how they have avoided Congressional action remains a mystery to everyone but Capitol Hill lobbyists). As a result a number of innovative security features are introduced in each new model of a printer or series of printers manufactured today, with each security feature patented by the parent company in order to prevent anyone else from making their own copies.

In other words, if you want to buy generic HP CP1215 toner for your printer you may be forced to buy the OEM cartridges instead due to the number of security features they added to the cartridge. Features like oddly shaped cartridges, microchips, viewfinder windows and measurement systems help defend their control over the market and encourage consumers to buy their products. In fact HP in particular has developed a reputation for manufacturing particularly effective refill chips that prevent anyone from either utilizing a compatible cartridge in their printers or taking the fourth option and refilling an old cartridge for use. This is possible by having the chip literally count the number of pages printed in order to cut off the cartridge after a certain amount, which unfortunately tends to leave ink left in th cartridge after it has been disabled (thus encouraging you, the consumer, to buy more ink faster). In older ink and toner cartridges this problem can be solved with a piece of tape or black marker to cover the viewfinder window, but thanks to microchips counting page numbers that bypass has gotten much more complex.

It is still possible to refill your ink or toner cartridges for most companies, however. Some generic companies have begun specializing in refill kits for specific product models (such as the HP CP1215) that come complete with their own replacement microchip to bypass the printer. Unfortunately it can be easy to damage these chips if you are not careful, and even if the operation is pulled off perfectly sometimes the printer just does not recognize the new chip anyway. This makes it important for the consumer to keep an extra OEM cartridge or two on hand just in case the refill process fails.

This article only begins to delve past the surface of the difficulties facing consumers who want to find a much less expensive way to continue operating their personal printers. As long as the OEMs maintain a major share of the printing supply market their prices will remain sky high and the proprietary security features will continue to be included with every cartridge you buy. The only thing you can do is look for the best discounts you can find online by purchasing in bulk, finding various sales, or following the steps outlined above. No matter what option you choose there is no perfect solution to the situation, you simply have to grit your teeth and make the best out of what you have.