For the recent PC Magazine review of personal printers, we asked Contributing Editor Alfred Poor to investigate how much those ink cartridges really cost. His findings will surprise you.
Manufacturers typically have a higher profit margin on consumables than on the printers themselves.
And at up to 4 cents per page, simple text documents are twice the cost of laser-printed output. There are alternatives to the branded inks and papers, and third-party suppliers are hungry to carve out a piece of the profit pie. Some offer refilled or remanufactured cartridges at considerable savings. Printer vendors don t sanction these substitutions. They note that their printheads, ink formulations and paper are designed to work together for the best output and the longest printhead life.