Any printer manufacturer will tell you that you should only use their ink – and many give dire warnings about the evils of generic ink or recycled cartridges. But is this just a way for them to convince you to buy their cartridges, or does it really make a difference?
The truth is, it’s a little bit of both. Inkjet printers work by spraying very small drops of ink onto the paper. These dots combine to make the prints and pictures that you end up with.
Because these drops of ink are so small and they must be very precise, the quality of the ink is important to the final results.
Modern printers are actually very high-tech pieces of equipment, and they’re designed to work together as a whole. The printer is designed to work properly with a certain formula of ink, and the paper made by the printer companies is made to give the best results with their ink.
Mixing different parts of the process – such as using HP paper with Epson printers – will end up in poor quality printing. For this reason, you need to be sure you’re using ink that is compatible with your particular model and brand of printer.
That’s...