Anyone who has purchased an Epson or Canon printer over the last few years has learned about individual ink cartridges (tanks). Brother has been doing this a little longer than the other two, but it was Epson and Canon who really made the practice popular.

What is an individual ink cartridge? Well, in most cases your printer (see HP, Lexmark, Dell) your printer requires two cartridges. A black cartridge and a color cartridge. The color cartridge has three chambers inside of it that each contain a different color ink (cyan, magenta, yellow). Once you run out of one of the colors you must replace the entire cartridge. You could still have plenty of the other two colors, but with a single color cartridge it is essentially an all or nothing deal. This type of cartridge is the reason refill kits became as popular as they are. Individuals could now simply refill the color that was empty and put the cartridge back in their printer and continue printing. They provided a way for one to maximize their ink.

Now when you purchase a printer made by Canon, Epson, or Brother you receive at least 4 cartridges (tanks) with your printer. Each cartridge holds a specific color (black, cyan, magenta, yellow). Once of of the tanks runs out of ink you simply replace the specific tank, and nothing else. Now instead of refilling a cartridge you simply purchase a new one. Again, a way to maximize your printer ink.

With the advent of photo quality printers came more individual ink tanks. Some printers now can take up to 8 different cartridges. The standard black, cyan, magenta, yellow, and then 2-4 different photo grade ink cartridges (photo cyan, photo magenta, light cyan, light magenta). Amazingly enough we have yet to see a photo yellow cartridge (wonder why?).

We thought we would honor the individual ink tank idea using this commercial we found. It was made by Epson and perfectly captures the spirit of the individual ink tank. From the looks of it, those in the farming community might enjoy it as well. Replaceable utters, anyone? —- Check out the video!