And you thought what you printed was cool…

More:
Printing Organs on Demand [Wired]
Organ Printing [University of Missouri]

Digging through the archives at CNET, we found this story from last year about basically using it or losing it when it comes to your ink cartridges. Some people don’t know, but as soon as you peel the tape off an ink cartridge it can quickly begin to dry out. This is why it is important to not open the cartridge and take the tape off until you are actually ready to put it in your printer. If you follow the normal instructions and install the cartridge right after you open it, and then you use that cartridge somewhat regularly, then you won’t have a problem. But if you are someone who uses an inkjet printer and only prints once every few months, then your cartridges might get dried out. It sounds silly to just use your printer when you don’t even need to print, but it might save you some trouble in the long run if you just print something once a month or so. You can also run the cleaning cycles on your printer, but remember that those cleanings use a fair amount of ink, so it is better to run them only when necessary.

If your cartridge does get dried out, you can try soaking it.

Use your inkjet printer or else [CNET]

This is the first official new products announcement - the first in the series of many. Let the rejoicing begin:

HP Q5949A, Q5949X, Q5949 MICR new drum compatible toner cartridges for the LaserJet 1160 and LaserJet 1320 Series. 30% off the HP brand.

T0601, T0602, T0603, T0604 new compatible cartridges for the Epson Stylus CX3800. Up to 70% off the Epson brand.

T0591, T0592, T0593, T0594, T0595, T0596, T0597, T0598, T0599 new compatible cartridges for the Epson Stylus Photo R2400. 50% off the Epson brand.

Click here for a full list of printers compatible with these products.

Another article, this one in the The New York Times, mentions ink refilling stations. It covers most of the same things that were in the WSJ article, but this time you can actually read it for yourself.

This article is neat for us because it mentions our archrivals HP and their San Diego labs, which house their “print head architects.” Ironically the location of those labs is mere minutes from the Pacific Ink headquarters. Typically we spend our days glaring out the windows at each other. Anyways, this article is a little more interesting than the WSJ one because it focuses more on the ink itself and also what refilling can mean to an average consumer. Additionally, it focuses on HP, their lawsuits, and their profits on ink. They write:

What it may boil down to is how offended you are that Hewlett-Packard sells a $30 cartridge that cost it an estimated $3.50 to make (not including the hundreds of millions of dollars it spent on research and development of the technology).

An interesting point that HP does deserve something in return for their years of development up until this point, but I doubt that too many consumers will shed any tears for all that money HP has poured into R&D when it actually comes time to buy ink. The company that innovates doesn’t always win (see: Apple vs. Bill Gates) and just because they have developed a product in the past doesn’t necessarily mean they can keep overcharging for it as long as they want.

New Printer Cartridge or a Refill? Either Way, Ink Is Getting Cheaper [NY Times]

From a recent CNET story:

Lexmark International Group on Tuesday said quarterly profit fell by almost half, hurt by tough price competition and a slump in computer printer sales

We think that stories like this will become more common as more people grow tired of the high cost of ink. The home printing market has exploded recently, but may be starting to cool down just slightly. Ironically, the slowdown in sales resulted in Lexmark beating profit expectations for the quarter:

The higher-than-expected profit came as a result of lower operating expenses and weak printer sales, Lexmark said. Printer makers typically sell hardware at a loss in hopes of reaping long-term recurring sales of ink and toner, which are highly profitable.

Does anyone find it a little strange that they actually saw some benefit from selling fewer printers, supposedly their chief product? This shows the curious and now tenuous business model that the printer companies employ these days: lose money making the hardware, make it back with the ink. Only if people stop buying more and more printers that require more and more ink while at the same time using alternative ink products, printer manufacturers like Lexmark aren’t left with much to fall back on.

Lexmark profit falls; job cuts planned [CNET]

Recently there was an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “A Cheaper Way to Refill Your Printer”, which was about Walgreens and other stores introducing ink refill services. Customers will bring their empty cartridges into the stores, and for around an average of $15, the stores will use special machines to refill them. Right about now is when we would link you to the article, but the WSJ isn’t too big on sharing and they charge $4.95 to view their articles. So we will try to sum things up for you while we offer our opinion on the matter.

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