Question concerning a Hewlitt Packard Deskjet 540 printer.

I own one of the HP DeskJet printers, which is a single sheet feed and uses an inkjet cartridge and it prints very well in black and white, but the color cartridge sucks big time. (Red, yellow and Blue DON’T make primary colors very well.) I use the B&W, mainly printing out masses of letters and scripts. The damn cartridge is $24.95 at the local Walmart, and that is the cheapest in town.

When I used a ribbon printer for an Epson 24 pin, continuous sheet feet, I seemed to get MUCH more ink out of the $6.00 ribbon.

Now, a few questions here. I’ve seen the inkjet cartridge refill system on TV – where you get a syringe and needle and 3 bottle of ink and instructions on how to refill your cartridge. Could I do the same thing with artists ink and a syringe? Or is printer ink something very special?

Also, what other form of inkjet printer could I get that I don’t have to guess to see the level of the ink in the cartridge or spend so much damn money on cartridges and still get the quality of print that I get now? (I’m not all that interested in color stuff.)

FWIW, My friend has an Epson printer and it has a gauge that tells you how much ink is left each time you print. I don’t think the ink comes any cheaper, though.

I haven’t tried the refills. Since your printer is older and not under warentee, I would probobly give it a shot.
Zette


Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.
Not enough and you’re gonna die…
Zettecity

Do not use regular ink and a syringe. While I suspect there is not a lot of difference, there is in all likelyhood some. The main issue is that the ink must be dispursed in very small droplets, and IIRC, regular ink does not have the proper consistency.

As far as the replacement ink system on TV, my only reaction was “why do that when many retailers sell a perfectly good system in stores?” At least Best Buy & CompUSA did several years ago when your printer was state of the art. I used several of them with 500 series printers, and they work pretty well. You have to change cartridges every 3-5 fillings though, there is a point where the print head wears out. Also, be aware that you will need to occasionally clean the heads with alcohol. (Qtip & rubbing alcohol work just fine).

That said, it sounds like you might be looking for an excuse to upgrade. If so, consider the Canon 6000. It has 1) see through ink cartridges that you can tell EXACTLY how much is left, 2) Uses CMYK cartridges so better color resolution, 3) pretty cheap refills, & 4) the color cartridges are seperate, so you don’t have to toss the whole thing if you run out of just yellow. I have had one for a couple of months & am pretty happy.

One final point about color inkjet printing: The paper is relevelent. If you are looking for near photo quality, can be had but the paper costs $$. OTOH, regular copy paper works fine for most every day uses.

my 2 cents…

I second Deathawk on both points. Inkjet ink, no matter what manufacturer, is formulated differently than standard artist’s ink. I think HP ink is alcohol-based, which contributes to it’s faster drying time. I think Canon’s is alcohol-based, too.

I also recommend the Canon 6000. I’ve owned one now for about three months and am very pleased with it’s speed, print quality, and relatively cheap supplies. Matter of fact, I just picked up some cartridge refills for mine this afternoon. Individual color tank refills go for about $11 a pop with the slightly larger black tank going for about 1 more (U.S. ). The printer itself sells for about $129 right now after rebates.

I used to use the ink refill kits for my dearly departed Canon 4000 with no problems. Watch out for ink spills though.


“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”

Yeah, true. Get a drop of water on a printed sheet & the ink runs down it like crazy. Get some of that ink on your hands & you can’t get it off. [But try some bleach & scrub].

OfficeDepot sold me Canon 4200 black for $3.99 each.

Search the net for ink refil comp’s there are a lot that are better & cheaper than those in stores.


“I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the
thread that binds them is mine own.”

We use an Epson Stylus 1500 at the office and have found that laser paper gives a lot better quality than copier paper.