Ask what the cartridge costs before the printer

Three roads, and people argue about the second. The laser: many people say a laser printer costs less over time and fails less for text-heavy or general printing, because toner is a powder that does not dry in the cartridge and lasts far more pages than an ink cartridge; some people say the same about toner’s life and add that refilling it yourself is messy; one person says black-and-white only, because a colour laser runs four cartridges and costs several times more to feed, and one person calls black-and-white ‘printing tranquility’. One person warns cheap lasers have low duty cycles and suffer if you print heavily, and one person says lasers have their own quirks and resets — they misbehave too and need factory resets. One point some people make, carried because it keeps the rest honest: toner does not dry out, but it can clump in humid air and can leave lines on the drum if the cartridge sits in one position for months; shaking the cartridge helps. One person finds good lasers second-hand for very little or free. The tank inkjet: some people say a refillable-tank inkjet, filled from bottles rather than cartridges, can beat a laser on running cost if you need colour, and one person has printed thousands of pages on half a bottle of black; some people prefer the laser for text durability against the tank machine’s colour, and people argue colour laser at home against black-and-white at home plus a shop for colour. One person warns tank machines cost more up front and one says they take fiddling before the colour is right. The library: many people say that for occasional printing it is cheaper and less trouble to use a library or a print shop than to own a machine at all, some say the same for occasional colour, and one person says a local print shop knows more than a big store’s counter. People’s own decider is your monthly page count and whether you need colour at home. Which current model to buy, at what price, is not covered here, and this page names no product.

Some people say the cheap inkjet is a loss leader: the maker gives up margin on the machine to sell you cartridges for years, and the cartridges are priced accordingly. Some people say the cartridges carry chips and the printers carry software locks so that a refilled or third-party cartridge is refused, or an empty one cannot be topped up, which people call wasteful; one person points out newer chips carry a set lifetime that stops reuse even when the cartridge is refilled. Others describe the rest of the pattern without this page naming who does it: firmware updates that start rejecting third-party ink, apps that require an account and location permissions to scan, subscription ink that stops the cartridges working the day you cancel, and bundled software with adverts; one person says the practice is not one company’s but the trade’s, and people argue whether lawsuits change it. One person objects that a new printer’s starter cartridge prints only a few dozen pages, so buying cheap printers for the cartridge inside — one person’s trick — rarely pays. Conversations here also say inkjet prints smudge when wet, fade in sun and cockle the paper, and the ink dries in the head if you do not print regularly; an inkjet wants daily use, one person points out. Some people say third-party ink and toner cut the cost a great deal where the machine accepts them, and one person warns not to buy a machine that blocks them if that is your plan. Cost-per-page figures for particular machines are not covered here, and this page carries none.

This is the one argument here with real numbers behind it, and it is the fork above, argued across the discussions. Those for it say setting the text to a very dark grey or dark blue makes the printer mix the colour inks instead of reaching for the empty black, and the page prints; those against say many modern printers refuse to print anything at all while any cartridge reads empty, or quietly convert the grey back to black ink. People narrow it, one person each. One says the colour trick can use more ink, not less: a document set up in screen colours is converted by the printer into its four inks, and unless you choose black-and-white in the print settings it may use all four to make your grey; one says black-and-white printing is not automatic — you must select it, on almost every machine, or colour is mixed into your black to make it deeper; and one says that mixing is deliberate, because the three colours alone make a muddy brown rather than a true black, which is why a black cartridge exists at all. One person answers the reader whose scanner stopped when the yellow ran out: scanning uses no ink, and a machine that locks scanning on a low cartridge is doing so by choice. So the honest version of the trick is narrower than the tip: set the print job to black-and-white first, and if the machine still refuses, the grey may or may not get past it depending on the model — one person says the hack is dead on newer machines. Which models still allow it, and what other colours pass the check, are not covered here.

Five things, all theirs. First, some people say the low-ink warning is a warning, not an end: keep printing until the machine physically stops, and some describe override settings buried in service menus that let it continue — the steps are model-specific and a gap people name several times, so this page gives none. Second, for toner, some people say take the cartridge out and shake it to redistribute the powder when it reads low, and some cover the optical window with tape so the machine stops counting; one person warns a newer machine may count pages instead and ignore the tape, and one person spent an hour getting round a counter. Third, for ink, one person tapes over the level sensor on the cartridge — and do not do that if the cartridge is actually dry, because the head pulls air and is damaged; one person warns the same. Fourth, some people say third-party cartridges and refills cut the bill where the machine accepts them; one person refills cartridges at a warehouse club’s photo counter for a few dollars, and some people object that a refill service may not exist in a very rural place. Fifth, one person says modern machines commonly print double-sided if you turn it on, which halves the paper, and one person warns a software update can turn it back off. Two housekeeping lines from individual people: a wireless printer is the one that vanishes from the network after a reset, and a wired one is not; and a wireless printer left on default settings can be reached from next door. And one line people mark as safety: some people say never vacuum spilled toner, because the powder passes through the filter and into the air — a dry cloth, then a damp one.