If you are faced with the situation of your computer’s printer running out of ink for the first time, then it is time for you to get scared! All the branded printer ink cartridges that are compatible with your HP printer (or is it Canon or Lexmark or Epson or…) will cost you a bomb! Yes this fact is rued by many (including yours truly) that the so called ‘compatible ink cartridges’ are just too costly and the cumulative price of couple of these might actually fetch you a nice low cost printer!

Most of these inkjet printers use thermal ink jet cartridges that rely on the principle of heat swelling up the volume of the ink causing it to flow on the sheet of the paper. But these have the tendency to dry when the volume of the ink in the cartridge is less. This prompts the consumer of thinking about buying an ink cartridge for the ‘ink-thirsty’ printer but if you are looking for HP printer cartridges or printer cartridges of canon or for that matter any top brand then you should be ready to shell out a cool £10 bill or more!

But if you do a little market research you will find that cheaper options are also available. Few locally based companies do provide you cheaper options but they do compromise on quality. The quality of the ink would be inferior and in worst cases might also damage the printer! But such extreme cases are rare and for day to day non commercial usage these ‘low cost’ cartridges do serve the purpose.

The amount of money one saves on each cartridge purchase is sizeable so by the time your printer bids adieu to you, you would have saved enough to buy a new one! But moving away from this extreme optimistic look one can easily say that the amount one saves by buying a cheap printer ink cartridge is quite handsome and if the consumer is ready to compromise a bit on the quality, this option is the best.