Should I buy an Inkjet or Laser Printer?

 

Remanufactured Ink Cartridges for Printers

As inkjet technology has evolved, and demand has increased for professional looking prints, inkjet printer cartridges from the original manufacturer have become in some cases rather expensive and for a small number of accurate prints. At the same time consumers overall have been satisfied with the value of their printer, but less so their printer in cartridges. Many manufacturers have emerged to provide remanufactured ink jet cartridges for popular brands of inkjet prints, such as Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Canon, Brother, and others.

Remanufactured inkjet printer cartridges began as small companies selling replacement ink and leaving the consumer to refill the cartridge but today is a much more common business, and the consumer doesn’t need to buy strange systems that refill the cartridge. Many large companies, and also public programs provide for ways for consumers to dispose of original inkjet printer cartridges in such a way that they can be refilled and recycled. This results not only in being friendly to the environment but also in savings for consumers who can then buy remanufactured inkjet printer cartridges at a reduced price. Similarly for laser printers there exists remanufactured toner cartridges.

While once branded as being lower quality, the remanufactured inkjet cartridges for printers of today in most cases offer same, or similar quality to those provided by original inkjet cartridges. A savvy consumer can save a lot of money with an affordable price that offers quality, even at cheap prices, for those on a budget. 

Many consumers often prefer ink, and cartridges from original manufacturers, but for many, remanufactured inkjet printer cartridges from clickinks serve day-to-day printing needs. Also ordering online can save consumers money because, even though there is sometimes a cost for delivery, buying inkjet printer cartridges in bulk can result in substantial savings. 

Even when buying a modest supply, it is worth investigating whether remanufactured inkjet cartridges compatible with one’s printer, at a low price, can outweigh the perceived benefit of inkjet printer cartridges purchased from the original manufacturer. For consumers looking for deals, whether it be low volume or high volumes, remanufactured inkjet printer cartridges are a seriously compelling option, which consumers can consider when replacing the inkjet printer cartridges which were supplied with their printer, or those purchased from the original manufacturer of their printer.

MICR toner, What is it and Do you need it

Have you seen or wondered what MICR toner means? What are the benefits of a MICR laser system? Should you be using MICR toner for your business or accounting needs? And what MICR toner cartridges are available?

 MICR is a Magnetic Ink Character Recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of checks.  MICR characters are printed in special fonts with a magnetic toner containing iron oxide. As a machine decodes the MICR text, it first magnetizes the characters, and then the characters are passed over a MICR head, a device similar to the playback head of a tape recorder.  As each character passes over the head it produces a unique form that can be easily identified by the system.  Banks and Institutions rely on this MICR technology to read the account numbers and other codes in the bank line on checks and other negotiable documents with electronic bank processing equipment.

Most users cite the following benefits as a reason for converting to MICR printing:

• MICR Laser check processing provides a much higher level of security.
• Cost reductions by eliminating pre-printed checks
• Creating a MICR Laser check is a single step process that adds payee data, signatures, logos, bank identification, and the MICR line to the check.
• Increased flexibility to add, change or delete new bank accounts on demand, without ordering new checks.
• Decreased exposure to check fraud.

So if you are in banking, accounting, payroll or accounts payable or are printing checks, you should use nothing less than MICR toner.  Clickinks MICR remanufactured laser toner cartridges guarantee that all checks are printed properly and will clear the financial institutions check clearing systems, adhering to ANSI readability standards.

Clickinks.com offers the best value, quality and price on MICR toner cartridges for all your check printing needs. We offer MICR toner for Canon, Dell, HP, Lexmark, IBM, Samsung, Toshiba, Xerox and even Source Tech printers, with more brands to come.  

How to save on printing

We are all trying to save money these days, so here are some of our best tips on how to cut your printing costs in half by taking simple steps like shopping around for the best price, emailing your documents instead of printing them out and using duplex printing.

Don’t spend too much on ink

You can shop around and compare prices on printer ink. You will usually find the best prices, discounts and widest selection on-line. Remanufactured ink and toner cartridges are the best price at the highest quality, you will find remanufactured cartridges less than half the price of OEM while performing better than refilled or compatible cartridges.  Clickinks.com is known for low priced remanufactured ink and toner cartridges.

Print in economy mode

Next thing is changing your printing preference; how is this going help me save on my printing cost? By changing your printing preferences to print fit to page, change your current resolution to 300 DPI, change you toner saver on, set to economy mode and change your printing settings to text or even draft instead of photo. Once you have changed your printer preferences then go to print preview to make sure you are printing only what you need instead of printing headers, footers and anything else unnecessary.

Duplex Printing

If your printer has a duplex option, you can print on both the front and back of paper.  Many office printers even have the option of automatic duplexing.  This will cut your paper costs in half. 

Consider your Font

Switching to Calibri, Times New Roman or another narrow font and not using bold effects also means that you use less ink with each letter you print.  For more information on Ink Saving Fonts, see our earlier blog.

Email your documents

Are you sharing documents with other co workers? Everything doesn’t need to be printed, many times you can send them by email instead of printing them out, saving time, money, ink and the trees. Only print out what you need, for example let’s say that you have a memo or announcement you can just print the document once and then post it up somewhere everyone can see.

When you aim to save money, you end up spending less on ink or toner, putting less strain on your printer so it lasts longer, saving trees and keeping empty ink cartridges out of the environment.

What is Toner

What is Toner?

Toner is an electrically-charged powder used in laser printers and photocopiers.  It is used to form text or images.  In its early form it was simply carbon powder.  Later the manufactures added polymers to improve the quality of printing.  The two main ingredients of toner powder are now pigment and polymer. The role of the pigment is fairly obvious, it provides the coloring (black, in a monochrome printer) that fills in the text and images. The use of polymer varies by manufacturers and even by printer model.  Some of the most common polymers are styrene acrylate copolymer, polyester resin and styrene butadiene copolymer. 

The formulation of toners can also vary in granule size and melting point. The particle size of toners has reduced from a 14–16 micrometers to 8–10 micrometers (600 dots per inch resolution) to improve resolution.  The smaller the particle, the more accurate the color reproduction and efficiency. Uniform shapes are also a great factor when talking about improving the quality of the printout.  Further reductions in particle size producing further improvements in resolution are being developed through the application of new technologies.

In earlier machines, this low-cost carbon toner was poured by the user from a bottle into a reservoir in the machine. Current machines feed directly from a sealed cartridge. To save money and keep cartridges from piling up in landfills, empty cartridges can be refilled or even better, remanufactured.  Remanufactured cartridges refill the empty toner cartridges and the quality remanufactured cartridges like found at Clickinks.com also replace all used or worn parts. 

What is Toner?

In earlier designs, the carbon toner was poured by the user from a bottle into a reservoir in the machine. Usually a sizable amount of the toner was wasted, as it was virtually impossible to not spill some of it during the refilling process. Current machines feed directly from a sealed cartridge, which is usually a proprietary design. The specific polymer used today varies by manufacturer but can be a styrene acrylate copolymer, a polyester resin, a styrene butadiene copolymer, or a few other special polymers. Toner formulations vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from machine to machine. Typically formulation, granule size and melting point vary the most.

Originally, the granule size of toner averaged 14–16 micrometers. To improve image resolution, granule size was reduced, eventually reaching the current 8–10 micrometers for 600 dots per inch resolution. Further reductions in granule size producing further improvements in resolution are being developed through the application of new technologies. Toner has traditionally been made by compounding the ingredients and creating a slab which was broken or pelletized, then turned into a fine powder with a controlled granule size range by air jet milling. This process results in toner granules with varying sizes and aspherical shapes. To get a finer print, some companies are using a chemical process to grow toner granules from molecular reagents. This results in more uniform size and shapes of toner granules. The smaller, uniform shapes permit more accurate reproduction and more efficient toner use. Toner manufacturers maintain a quality control standard for granule size distribution in order to produce a powder suitable for use in their printers.

Now that you know what goes into that toner cartridge, and understand why they cost what they do, go ahead and order your next toner cartridge. Keep in mind the price is much less at ClickInks.com; with the purchase of Clickinks remanufactured toner cartridges, you help reduce the amount of cartridges that are disposed of into landfills and save yourself money at the same time!