Choosing the Right Ink Cartridges can be Complicated

The factors that need to be considered when selecting the right ink cartridge to use for your printer are many. First you need to think about what sort of ink the cartridge contains and if that kind of ink is what you are really looking for. Then you will have to decide on the ink cartridge design that is just right for the type of printing that you do and the results that you want to get.

The two basic types of printer inks
Inks come in two basic types. There are inks which are dye-based and inks which are pigment-based. Dye inks.

Dye-based inks soak the paper through and through, are soluble in water and have a brighter color. Because this ink mixes with water, they tend to fade faster because of the moisture in the air. Printouts made with dye-based inks will also smear if soaked with water.

Dye-based inks is more practical for monochrome printouts and most cartridges for black and white printers are using them.

Pigment-based inks, on the other hand, do not penetrate into the paper and are held fixed on its surface. These do not dissolve in water and is the type of ink that is difficult to wash out of your hands. Just as it sticks to your hands, this type of ink also lasts for a long time on the paper.

Most colour ink cartridges use a variety of pigment-based ink. Obviously if people are willing to spend on color for their printouts, those printouts must be meant to last. Among the three or four leading brands of ink cartridges, genuine canon ink cartridges have earned the reputation for producing the longest-lasting colored printouts.

The texture of the ink
Because different ink manufacturers have their own secret techniques for making their brand of ink there is bound to a difference in the texture of their products. The coarse inks which contain considerable chunks of residue can work havoc on printers by jamming them. Additionally, printouts using coarse ink tend to be rough in texture.

Genuine canon ink once more holds the best reputation for fine texture and smoothness. That is the very reason why Canon printers tend to have less issues than other brands.

Heated or not
Ink cartridges themselves use two distinct methods of spreading the ink on paper. The thermal technique is used by brands which include Canon. This manner of inking the paper, to be brief, uses heated ink bubbles to push ink out of the nozzles of the cartridge. The other method, known as piezoelectric uses the periodic movement of a crystal to exude the ink.

While both methods work satisfactorily, the ink that is used in the piezoelectric method has not been heated and is coarser. As a result it typically produces smaller drops of ink, the rest of the drop rubbing of on the walls of the nozzle. Eventually such cartridges begin to malfunction to the point of clogging up.

Conclusion
 For most quality printing purposes, genuine Canon ink cartridges give the best immediate results as well as the longest lasting fastness in colored printouts.