HP and Kodak have introduced plans to save you some money on printer cartridges, but the immediate savings they offer might just cost you more in the long run — Cheaper ink cartridges aren’t really that much cheaper.

How is this possible you ask? The cartridge you were paying $30 for now only costs $15. What a bargain!

Not really, make sure to check just how much ink is inside that $15 cartridge.

Less ink in your cartridge means a lower cartridge price, but it also means a higher, or at least the same, cost per page when you actually get down to printing. In some cases you can also expect to pay more for the printer that uses these cartridges. Now you are left with a higher price tag on your printer and going through printer cartridges a lot quicker than you used to. All this from an idea that initially sounded as thought it would save you some money. Sorry.

Late last month HP unveiled their new black and color ink cartridges (we had something to say about that) priced at $14.99 and $17.99. These prices were lower than their previous $19.99 and $24.99 price points. In February 2007 both Kodak and Canon unveiled their less expensive printer cartridges. Kodak, new to the printer cartridge market, priced their cartridges at $9.99 and $14.99. Canon priced theirs at $15.99 and $19.99 (down from $19.99 and $24.99).

Some analysis of these new cartridges showed they contained less ink than those purchased at the old, higher price. Our friends at LYRA Research did some comparisons. One comparison showed that the older, higher priced HP cartridge contained 11ml of ink. The new, lower priced cartridge contained just 4.5ml of ink. As a result, the price per printed page goes up to 7.5 cents from 4.4 cents.

The same was true for Canon. Their new black cartridge contains 11ml of ink while their old cartridge contained 16ml of ink. Price per page goes up to 6.7 cents from 5.6 cents. The new color cartridges contain 9ml of ink (versus 12ml in the old). You’ll now spend an additional 1.7 cents per page.

And, what about Kodak? At this point all we know is that their printers cost more. About $50 more than the comparable printers made by HP and Canon. They have yet to release the amount of ink within their cartridges.

Just make sure you watch what you are buying. The price may look good, but check the amount of ink in the cartridge. Here’s a shameless Pacific Ink plug: Our remanufactured cartridges are filled to capacity and are priced to save you money. Give them a try!