Sometimes, though, three colors of our inkjet inks won’t mix properly for them no matter how much or little our printers put in dpi blocks. That’s why our pictures frequently don’t print in colors we expected. Here is a simple (but rough) explanation. Our computer monitors display color in exact reverse to how we see it on paper. Light from our monitors goes through colors. Adversely, when we look at color on paper, light from paper is reflected back to our eyes.

Here’s something you can do that will help you get right colors. Print a color palette. Some programs will allow you to print different palettes but if you can’t, here’s a link to a 216-color palette.

http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/ualberta/Services/color.html Print it out using same media you will use for your print project and compare difference in how color displays on your monitor vs. how computer colors look in print. Using same media ensures that your display will be as printed. Notice, in palette you printed that color white (upper left hand corner) is blank. That’s because inkjet printers don’t print white no matter what color of paper is. On palette you printed, look at green, which is six colors from bottom of last column (00ff00). Green on computer screen looks like a neon sign, but printed it looks like green you see on a color crayon. Using printed color palette, you can better choose colors for your print projects.

Compatible cartridge— Either a brand new inkjet cartridge or a remanufactured cartridge, which contains ink that is specially formulated to work with a particular model of printer.

Ink Refill Kit— Inks, tools, and instructions to refill your empty ink cartridge. Refill kits are generally less expensive than either new or remanufactured inkjet cartridges and are sold separately to refill black inkjet cartridges. Color refill kits typically come with one or more sets of CMY ink.

Remanufactured cartridge— Remanufactured cartridges are recycled cartridges that have been cleaned, factory inspected, and refilled with new compatible inkjet ink.

Universal ink— Several vendors advertise ink that is compatible with ANY printer. If that were true, then any ink would work in any printer. The truth is, they won’t. Different ink viscosities (see below) and different sized print heads vary between both printer brands and printer models. If you don’t have option of choosing ink that is formulated especially for your printer, don’t buy it.

Viscosity— Viscosity is how sticky ink is. The higher viscosity, stickier ink. Viscosity is a word that you will rarely see mentioned on ink cartridge sites, still it is a very important word when it comes to purchasing appropriate ink for your inkjet printer.