On the market of printers and printer inks everyone wants to buy supplies and equipment cheap. How cheap is the best ink? Cheaper. While this is good for competition, it makes manufacturers stand on the tip of their toes, it’s not always good for us, the customers. A low quality inexpensive ink is not always the cheapest solution out there.

You might be aware of the fact that you don’t have to buy branded inks. Canon ink for a canon printer, hp ink for a hp printer. That is an option but you don’t have to go for it when there is discount ink to be bought. These inks are not always as good a deal as they may seem. The cheapest ink probably lacks something the most expensive has.

First of all, when Canon releases a cartridge for their printers you can be sure that it’s of a good quality. They have to make it the best possible to make sure it won’t break your printer before the warranty fades. It’s in their best interest to provide ink of a good consistency and for a reasonable price.

They’re competing with the discount inks and all they have is the superior quality. When you buy a branded ink you buy two decades of experience and development put into it. Canon has been one of the leaders on the printer market, they have the know-how and they make their inks accordingly. This ink will most probably print well for the first page, and it will print well before it runs out completely, but you can have the same quality thorough the whole cartridge.

When you buy a Canon ink instead of remanufactured ink, you pay for the proper consistency. The ink won’t smear, it wont clog the pistons and you can make sure the warranty is not void. The manufacturer can terminate warranty if their printers are used with junk ink. If they can prove that your printer went south because of the low quality ink you’re in for a nice bill for the repair.

Discount inks are not always bad quality though, there are good manufacturers. They’re competing with the king of the category, the printer manufacturer itself. If they sell bad ink that kill printers all over the world, they go out of business sooner than later. It’s in their best interest to keep the quality acceptable and the price way under the official solution.

Whatever you choose, always make sure you read forum threads about a given ink producer to see if anyone has had any issues with it. If you go for the branded version, make sure to choose a retailer that has the best prices and the best ratings. Basically, take a look around on the net before parting with money, because a few minutes of research can save you considerable amount of money.