In this report
Overview
CR Quick Recommendations
Ratings
Do-it-yourself refills
Off-brand inks
FORUMS
ELECTRONICS FORUMS
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July 2006
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CR Quick Recommendations
In addition to inkjet cartridges from Office Depot, Staples, Carrot Ink, and PrintPal, we tested Office Max’s brand; refilled cartridges from several Cartridge World, Island Ink-Jet, and Rapid Refill franchise locations; and Nu-Kote and Rhinotek branded products. We also tested Canon, Epson, and HP inks. All the cartridges fit a number of printer models in each line; check your printer manual.Some inks from the franchise stores did well, but none are Quick Picks because print quality and cost per print varied by store. It may be worth seeing how ink from your local store performs.Most printer warranties don’t cover damage caused by off-brand cartridges, but our years of testing these products indicate that such damage isn’t likely to be a problem.



    Quick Picks
   

For Canon printers (BCI-3e/6 cartridges):

Use the Canon-brand cartridges for the best performance with all types of output. Staples was the only off-brand tested that consistently matched Canon ink for photo quality, with a 5-cent savings on 8x10s. Text was also cheaper, but print quality wasn’t as good as Canon’s for text or color graphics.




For Epson printers (T048 cartridges):

The Epson-brand cartridges produced excellent photos with no visible fading and very good quality for both text and graphics. But Carrot Ink and PrintPal cartridges did just as well with all types of output and would save you 5 and 10 cents, respectively, on 8x10 photos. Text with both of those brands was also cheaper than with the Epson ink.



For HP printers (96/97/99 cartridges):
If you want very good photos, excellent text, and decent graphics, you can’t go wrong with HP ink. But Office Depot’s four-color cartridges (96 plus 97) matched HP’s six-color set (96 and 97 plus the 99 photo-ink cartridge) for photo quality and saved 20 cents on an 8x10-inch photo and 5 cents on a 4x6-inch print. Text was cheaper, but quality was not as good as the HP’s. Graphics were as good as the HP’s.