Computers: Which Printer Is The Best?

Which Printer Is The Best?

Written by Barry Shultz

I wish I had a dollar for every time I was asked that question. I know, I know, I'm repparttar

printer guru and I know all there is to know about printers. Truth is I keep my ear to repparttar 107210

ground but I don't run out and test every new printer on repparttar 107211

market. That's what CNET is for.

So don't ask me to recommend your next printer. I won't do it because if you get something you're not happy with, I become repparttar 107212 bad guy. I'll be happy to steer you in repparttar 107213 right direction but I will never recommend any specific printer.

Most of repparttar 107214 time repparttar 107215 question is, "Which printer is repparttar 107216 easiest to refill?". I can answer that one really fast, Canon, hands down. Any Canon. See, I won't get specific. But repparttar 107217 fact is, if you are refilling and want to eliminate 90% of your headaches, buy a Canon.

The order of complexity, from easiest to hardest, for refilling cartridges is as follows:

Canon Epson Lexmark (Dell, Compaq) Hewlett Packard

I don't recommend buying any of repparttar 107218 others like Xerox, Brother, Sharp or any off brand printer if you want to save money on supplies. The people that make repparttar 107219 ink and repparttar 107220 generic cartridges are ONLY going to concentrate on very popular printers. Same with remanufactured cartridges.

Ink Level Monitors Exposed

Written by Barry Shultz

When you print a page on your inkjet printer, if you have your drivers properly installed, you will see a small screen pop up telling you how full your cartridges are. How does your printer know this?

Most printers count ink drops. Every line of print is produced by tiny droplets of ink and your very smart printer keeps track of every one of them. It's pretty impressive because it's nothing for todays inkjet printers to lay down 12,000,000 drops per second.

Canon also uses an optical method. The ink sensor monitors repparttar ink levels through optical detection and dot counting and alerts users when repparttar 107209 supply of any color ink is low.

Canon's ink level system is probably repparttar 107210 most accurate although you can still trick repparttar 107211 printer into printing more from an "empty" ink tank. Just tell repparttar 107212 software that you have installed a new cartridge and you can get more pages out of it.

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