Most people just drive to their local office supply store and pick up ink and toner on a recurring basis, shelling out hundreds of dollars annually, without giving it a second thought. Most people cringe at the rising price of ink and toner, but feel there is no alternative.

Actually, there is! Read this post and you’ll see how buying ink and toner online is not only convenient but comes with considerable cost savings.

Here are three good reasons to shop for printer ink and toner online:

1. Shop from anywhere, anytime. Heading out to your office supply store takes times and energy. With fuel prices rising and the traffic getting worse, it can be a headache. Once you get there browsing the endless aisles and waiting for an attendant or standing in the checkout line can be frustrating. Buying ink and toner online means you aren’t restricted to shop within certain hours. At our 24/7 online ink and toner store all you have to do is simply choose your printer model or cartridge number and all your various options with their descriptions are shown to you. You can compare prices, select colour, and review the page yield and more all in the convenience of your home or office and with a few clicks.

2. Save money. Buying retail means any products you purchase you’re paying towards overhead costs. A physical store has electricity bills to pay and a lot more staff to hire. An online store has reduced costs in terms of tangible overheads so they can keep prices low and pass on the savings to you. Retail stores are also limited by display space, so you only have that many choices. Buying ink and toner online gives you the chance to shop around from various stores and find the best price for the quality you want.

3. Compare your options. Shopping online for ink and toner allows you to compare various options like OEM (branded) ink and toner, compatible ink or toner and remanufactured, aftermarket cartridges. Many reliable third-party suppliers carry a wide selection of branded cartridges at competitive prices and also offer their own brand of aftermarket inkjet and toner cartridges. Check and make sure you’ve found a trusted supplier who offers warranties, positive client reviews and good customer support so you know that you can trust their products. Once you place your first order and are happy with your purchase (and have put money back in your pocket) you know that you made a good decision to buy your ink and toner online.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Although refilled ink cartridges can be a great option if you get your cartridges refilled at a reliable ink refiller, for the purpose of this post we’ll focus solely on aftermarket or third-party inkjet cartridges.

What are third-party inkjet cartridges?

Let’s start by identifying what third party ink is. Cartridges made by the same brand as your printer are referred to as Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) cartridges. For example, a HP ink cartridge manufactured specifically for your HP OfficeJet Printer.

Third-party ink cartridges, or non-branded non-OEM cartridges, are not made by your original printer brand manufacturer but by another company that promises that their cartridges are compatible with your printer.

Why not all third-party inkjet cartridges are created equal.

There’s been a lot of debate and argument over if third-party inks are worth the savings. After all, you don’t want to sacrifice and damage a good printer at the cost of a cheap ink cartridge. There are excellent third-party printer manufacturers out there that promise to meet and exceed OEM quality and even offer warranties, customer reviews and support and then there are the cheap knock-off ink cartridges that give all third-party ink a bad name. And in the middle of it all you’ve got a whole plethora of aftermarket ink cartridge options that are just so-so in print quality and page yield. As a result buying third-party ink can get quite daunting causing many people to steer clear and just buy branded.

Why choose a trusted third-party inkjet cartridge supplier.

Poor quality ink has a tendency to leak and ooze out of the print head, causing streaks and ink blotches on your prints. This kind of ink might even damage your print head altogether, especially if the ink is too thick and jams or clogs up your printer head. This is just one reason to make sure you choose a reliable supplier for your printing needs. Many reputable third-party suppliers sell a wide range of branded cartridges at competitive choices and also offer their own line of aftermarket inkjet cartridge options. Once you check and make sure you’ve found a reliable supplier who offers warranties, positive client reviews and good customer support you know you can trust their products even if you haven’t bought from them before. Once you buy from them once and are happy with your purchase it becomes increasingly simple to keep re-ordering your inkjet cartridges.

We at Island Ink-Jet and Laser Toners would like to remind our readers that just as easily as you would think of recycling paper or plastic, you can recycle your ink and toner cartridges.

Why recycle ink and toner cartridges?

Here are a few reasons why you should take ink and toner cartridge recycling seriously as published in The Wall Street Journal:

The following statistics shed light on the impact of printer cartridges on the environment:

– Alone, HP ships more than 52 million printers per year. Most consumers buy three to four ink cartridges three times per year for their printer at home, which produces 600 million empty cartridges.

– Almost eight printer cartridges are thrown away per second in the United States.

– It takes about a gallon of oil to make a new laser cartridge.

– Seventy percent of used printer cartridges throughout the world are currently discarded.
– A laser cartridge thrown into landfill can take up to 450 years to decompose. Some components made of industrial grade plastics will take over 1,000 years to decompose.

If you want to contribute in your own special way we’ve got some great ideas where you’ll not only be recycling and reusing ink and toner but you’ll also be putting money back in your wallet.

Buy Remanufactured Toner Cartridges. Did you know that each toner cartridge needs 3.7 liters (1 gallon) of oil to make? The impact on the environment to create remanufactured toner cartridges from old parts is much lesser than the impact of producing a new cartridge. An environmentally friendly process is employed in creating remanufactured toner which includes recycling old parts and components to create thoroughly tested refurbished toner cartridges that not only meet or exceed OEM specifications but are also priced at a fraction of the cost of branded toner.

Buy Refilled Ink Cartridges. Did you know that 8 out of 10 people chuck their empty printer cartridge in the garbage? Millions of empty ink and toner cartridges end up in the landfill each and every year. This number increases by 12% every year with a home and office printer being a necessity these days. If everyone from individuals to large corporations to complete nations refilled and bought refurbished cartridges imagine the difference it could make!

Take action this Earth Day by walking into any one of our ink and toner stores and getting your ink cartridges refilled at a fraction of the price of OEM cartridges or visit us online and purchase remanufactured or brand new compatibles at almost 30% less the price of OEM cartridges!

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As stated on our website, “The HL-2270DW is a monochrome laser printer that offers an automatic duplex capability for printing two-sided documents with ease, fast printing at up to 27 pages per minute, and built-in wired and wireless networking for sharing with others. It features a stylish, space-saving design that complements virtually any environment. In addition, it offers convenient paper handling via an adjustable, 250-sheet capacity tray. To help lower your operating costs, a high-yield replacement toner cartridge is available.”

As a compact printer, measuring in at 7.2″ H x 14.5″ W x 14.2″ D, the Brother HL-2270DW requires comparatively less space when compared to other printers in the industry.

Speed is definitely a key factor at 27ppm for text documents, and around 12 pages per minute for documents with photos and graphics. Other HP printer models do compare when it comes to similar speeds like the HL-2240, but these don’t offer other features like wireless capabilities and only offer a USB port. The LaserJet Pro P1102w from HP also compares in speed to the HL-2240, but again it does not offer an Ethernet connection feature. The HL-2270DW, is not only a fast printer but also offers Ethernet and wireless printing capabilities at a comparable price.

Print quality is just what you would need when it comes to printing black and white documents for your home or business. Text quality is crisp and clear and photo quality is at the top range of what can be expected from a printer at this price range.

Another great feature is the duplex printing option that enables you to automatically print on both sides of the paper. You can feed in 250 sheets at a time so your paper lasts for quite a while before the paper tray needs to be refilled.

Conclusion: The Brother HL-2270DW is a smart option for home office and personal users. It offers many features that high-end printer models that range from $300-$400 offer like wireless capability and duplex printing. For the prince you pay you get speed, crisp printing quality, decent paper tray capacity as well as the ability to connect through a wired Ethernet connection or a WiFi network.

All these features make the printer a real gem amongst equally priced competitors. At Island Ink-Jet and Laser Toners you can find OEM toner and compatible Brother toner cartridges including high-yield replacement Brother toner cartridges at a great price to help you reduce your printing costs.

Get the Brother HL-2270DW laser printer today!

Here are three Online Calculators You Can Use to Calculate Your Printing Costs:

Printer Comparison Calculator. Offered by PCWorld this nifty calculator lets you compare two printers and see which one is going to be the most cost-effective choice for you based on your printing needs. Some of the information you need to enter includes, your estimated printing volume, the printers you are currently considering to buy, and the approximate page yield of the cartridges you plan to use.

Go to the Printer Comparison Calculator.

Printer Running Cost Calculator. This handy tool by Consumer.org allows you to estimate your printer running costs based on some popular inkjet printer models. It helps you to decide whether a cheap printer is sufficient for your needs or if perhaps you should invest in a more expensive printer with low running costs. All you need is your estimated printing usage per week and your chosen printer model.

Go to the Running Cost Calculator.

Cost Saving Calculator. Kyocera offers a tool to help you calculate the cost of consumables your printer would use over time. This tool features all the major brands with a wide variety of all the top printer models each brand offers and gives you a breakdown of all the potential costs you could face to run your printer.

Go to the Cost Saving Calculator.

Finding out what your printer costs to run is important to help you become a more informed consumer. One major part of reducing printer consumables costs is to consider buying compatible or remanufactured ink and toner cartridges from a trusted supplier.

Here are a few factors to consider right off the bat as published in an article titled Ink-onomics: Can You Save Money By Spending More on Your Printer? by PCWorld:

The cheaper the printer, the more expensive its inks. We’ve tracked the prices of 56 inkjet MFPs over the past two years, and the average cost per page for inks destined for a cheap printer (which we define as one costing less than $200) has consistently been higher than that for an expensive printer (one costing $200 or more).

A good example is the comparison between a cheap printer and an expensive printer: The $70 Canon Pixma MG2120 VS a pricier $300 HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-In-One Printer.

How did each printer fair?

The $70 Canon Pixma MG2120: High ink costs averaging at 6.3 cents per page for plain black and white text documents and a whopping 14 cents per page for coloured documents.

The $300 HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One Printer: Economical ink costs averaging at 1.6 cents per page black and white print outs and 7.2 cents for coloured print outs.

For the amount of money invested, over time you can expect to spend a lot less and also avail better quality printouts and get better features with the more expensive HP printer if you print a lot.

However, if you don’t print all that much you might get away with buying a low-cost cheap printer like the Canon Pixma and still save. Here’s why:

For our hypothetical user with light printing needs, the cheap Canon printer makes economic sense, even after three years. The Pixma MG2120 costs so little initially that, despite its pricier inks, its first-year costs of $199 are significantly less than even the purchase price alone of the more-expensive HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus. Three years after the initial purchase, the cheap printer’s higher ink costs have ballooned to a total of $387–roughly 5.5 times the original price of the printer–but its total cost ($457) is still a little less than the expensive printer’s total cost after three years ($478.83).

If you print more frequently however, you are much better off buying the more expensive HP and here’s why:

At a medium volume of 250 pages of simple documents per month (175 plain-black text pages and 75 four-color pages) plus 25 4-by-6-inch color photos each month, the cheaper printer’s ink costs mount quickly. By the end of the first year of use, the total cost of buying the cheaper printer and its costlier inks is $392.50, as against a total cost of $449.03 for the first year of the expensive printer and its cheaper inks. And three years after the initial purchase, the cheap Canon printer’s total cost dwarfs that of the more expensive HP printer: $1037.50 to $747.08.

Analyzing what you will be printing and how much you will be printing is critical to assessing what printer you need to buy.

Irrespective of the printer you buy you can save on ink and toner costs by buying compatible, remanufactured or refilled ink and toner.

Visit an Island Ink-Jet store to start saving today!

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you’re a parent looking for affordable printing at home, consider compatible ink or toner cartridges.

Here are some simple printable activities you can do with your kids that won’t suck up too much ink or toner and are budget-friendly and kid-friendly at the same time!

1. Printable Colouring Pages: Available for free online, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of colouring pages offered for download. You can pick from your child’s favourite cartoon characters, or print activities with a more educational spin like colouring alphabets, numbers, shapes and animals. Depending on your child’s age make sure your child is happy about the activities you choose to print, and involve them in the process. The last thing you want is all those print outs going to waste, if your child is uninterested in them.

2. Paper Dolls for Your Little Princess: This is a great activity for your little girl! Mostly all young girls love dolls, and now you can print out little doll shapes to cut out with paper clothes that they can mix and match. Although you can print in colour, a good idea to save on ink and toner would be to print in black and white and let your child colour the clothes herself. If you are going to print in colour, use “draft” mode to use considerably less toner or ink.

3. Create a Scrapbook: Joining in the activity is always a good idea when it comes to bonding with your kids. Maybe you just got back from an exciting March Break vacation – what better way to create a scrapbook full of fun memories on the weekend? Allow your kids to take the lead by choosing photos and suggesting the design of the book. With compatible ink and toner cartridges you can save quite a bit over using branded cartridges, if you print your photos at home.

Compatible cartridges can save you at least 30% OFF over the cost of buying branded ink and toner. This means you don’t have to worry about conserving ink and toner all the time, and can let your kids explore new activities and encourage their creative juices to flow.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Simple personal and home office printers – believe or not – are actually more secure than the newer multi-function printers you see in the market today. Why? Simply because they lack all the features like their own personal hard drive, their own OS (operating system) and a secure network connection like WIFI that most all-in-one printers are equipped with today.

If you own a Xerox MFP you can follow a few simple steps offered by UBC.ca to ensure the documents you print are secure. The screenshots below will help you configure a security PIN to be setup before you print. How this works is that before you send a document to print, set up a PIN on your computer, walk over to your printer, enter the PIN and begin printing your document. Here’s how to do it:

1. On your Windows PC go to “Start” – Settings – Printers and Faxes

2. Right click the Xerox printer you wish to print from and click on “Properties”

3. Click on “Printing Preferences under the “General” tab

4. Under the “Paper/Output” tab, choose “Secure Print” as your drop down option

5. Click the “Setup” button under the Job Type drop down menu. A new window will open. Choose a 4-10 digit PIN number and enter it twice. Click “OK”

With these settings in place, send the job to print. It will be held in queue until you visit the printer and enter your secure PIN. On the Xerox printer:

Press the Job Status button on the printer.
Select your document by pressing its line on the copier screen.
Press the Release button on the copier screen.
Enter your Secure Print passcode using the copier keypad and press Enter on the screen.
The document should begin printing.

Apart from Xerox printer security, finding reliable replacement Xerox cartridges for your Xerox printer are essential to make sure you get the best print results.

Note: Although this article is geared towards HP printer users, the guidelines can be followed by users of other printer brands as well, and are applicable for both laser and inkjet printer users.

Before we begin let’s do a quick overview of some of the major threats most companies face when it comes to printer document security:  actual printer documents getting stolen from the printer itself, the stealing of a printer hard disk, unprotected printers run the risk of having passwords stolen and print jobs re-routed, unsecured networks can be hacked and any potential hacker can send fax and e-mail via your printer to anyone globally and the threat of a “network sniffer” stealing your information when it is transmitting from your PC to your printer.

To protect the print environment, a company’s strategy must contain methods that will include printing and imaging products, the network, and data passing across the network. The steps to take are within four broad categories of the printing architecture:

1. Protect your Printer
Use a lock that requires a key to remove the lock and the printer
Disable physical ports to prevent unauthorized use
Control access to the device by requiring authentication and authorization for access to device settings and functions. Use pin codes, LDAP, smart cards, and biometric solutions
Remove data disks from retired devices

2. Protect your Information
Authenticate users and protect data before the data prints by using pin codes, LDAP authentication, smart cards, and biometric solutions
Encrypt print jobs to protect data. Use the device’s embedded security (IPSec) to protect information traveling to or from devices
Use encrypted storage if built-in to your device
Remove data by using the device’s built-in capability to overwrite stored data

3. Protect your documents
Use push or pull printing where users can print, authenticate and get their documents when and where they want them
Lock paper trays with sensitive media such as prescriptions or bank checks

4. Monitor and manage your printing environment
MPS* solutions can give visibility to the entire printing system
End-user usage, misaligned printers, and document costs are easily revealed
Automated alerts for repairs and supplies
Control access for groups and individuals

*(MPS – Managed Print Services)

It is important to know what sensitive information your company houses, and what might be attractive information for hackers to steal, this way you know what you need to be vigilant about and protect.

Secure your HP printer and invest in top-quality replacement cartridges from HP from Island Ink-Jet and Laser Toners.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to securely print a document using an HP printer:

1. Go to file menu and click “Print”
2. Navigate to “Properties” tab and then click on the “Destination” tab
3. Under “Destination” features, click on “Job Retention” and then go to “Options”
4. Under “Job Retention Mode”, go to “Private Job”
5. Enter your name, give a name to your print job, and then enter your unique 4 digit pin.
6. Go to your printer, select job and enter your unique pin code.

HP and Microsoft have also identified a set of major threats that most people face when it comes to having their documents exposed and stolen.

HP has identified the below points as principle threats to a company:

• Hard copy theft–Nearly 30% of all printed documents are left at the printer for anyone to take
• Hardware theft–Documents sent to printers and MFPs can be stored for later printing. A stolen hard disk can expose these documents
• Unauthorized changes to settings–If a device’s settings and controls are unprotected, anyone can reroute print jobs and even access vital passwords and network information
• Unauthorized MFP use–MFPs can send fax and e-mail. Anyone with access to your MFP can also send confidential information to any fax number or e-mail address in the world
• Network sniffing–A “network sniffer” can read data traveling between a PC and a printer, exposing the print job, routing addresses and more

There is also theft of a printer or theft of its hard drive that contains all the information printed on that machine. So where devices are sent after its life’s usage is vitally important. The hard drives must be erased or destroyed before sending the printer to some place outside the business’s control.

Stay tuned for Part 2 on how to keep your printer secure and stop security threats in their tracks. Apart from HP printer security, finding reliable supplies for your HP printer like high quality HP toner and HP inkjet cartridges are essential to make sure you get the best printing results for your dollar.

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono/FreeDigitalPhotos.net