Our purpose is to help show you some facts and maybe some little known information on why HP inkjet cartridges are the best on the market.

A Little Hewlett Packard History

Hewlett Packard has been a leading manufacturer of HP Inkjet Cartridges, HP Inkjet Printers, and HP Paper for many years. The combination of these three things has made them one of the best printer and printer supply companies on the market today.

While HP has been in business for over 70 years, they really only entered the desktop printing market about ten years ago, and boy have they advanced the technology in this market tremendously during that time. One can’t possibly count the number of HP printers and HP inkjet cartridges they have developed and made in these ten plus years.

Excellence, Bar None!!

One thing we can count on, though, is the excellent qualities and performance of the inkjet printers and cartridges.

On can rest assured that any of the hundreds of types of HP inkjet cartridges will produce printed pages which are durable, permanent and of exceptional quality. One knows that the ink won’t easily smudge, will dry quickly and will last for eons.

What One Might Not Know, for instance, Is ....

How do they determine how long an HP printer ink cartridge will last?

Where all does the ink get used in an HP printer ink cartridge. (Believe it or not, it goes to more than just printing on a page.)

What are the requirements in making an HP ink so good?

These and other questions will be answered on this site while we try and give you some little known information on HP inkjet cartridges.

Check Out These Great Deals on Amazon for HP Printer Ink Cartridges

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	HP 920 Ink Cartridge Combo Pack (CN066FN#140) Sale Price: $18.50
	Description HP 920 Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging - Combo Pack (CN066FN140) weighing 3.7 ounces and it contains one each Cyan Yellow and Magenta HP 920 Ink Cartridges. Features Get more for your money: original HP cartridges ensure that your printing is right the first time and every time Contains one each Cyan Yellow and Magenta HP 920 Ink Cartridges

	HP 901 Officejet Ink Cartridge (CC653AN) List Price: $19.99 Sale Price: $7.00 You save: $12.99 (65%)
	Description Original HP 901 Black Officejet Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging - Get more worth for your money with original HP cartridges ensure that your printing is right the first time and every time. Features Get more for your money: original HP cartridges ensure that your printing is right the first time and every time Rely on HP for consistent, high-quality results

	HP 60 Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging, Combo Pack (CD947FN#140) Sale Price: $20.48
	Description HP 60 Retail Combo Pack US Features Individually factory sealed Sold exclusively by OCinkjet It's a Genuine OEM Product One year factory warranty against product defect Recycling is made easy with HP Planet Partners Recycling Program

For more information on HP Inket Cartridges visit HP

Hewlett Packard has been selling their HP printer ink cartridges for many years now, but in 2005 they started publishing yields on how long their HP printer ink cartridges would last.  So how are these printer ink cartridge yields (or life-times) determined?

Follow the Standard

Well, there is an international standard, ISO 24711, which completely defines a method to test printer ink cartridges, manufactured by HP and others, and determine how long they will last.

Basically this standard defines five different types of pages that are to be printed until the ink in a HP printer ink cartridge is used up. These pages will include combinations of both black and white (plain text) and color (in the form of charts or drawings).

HP runs these tests, per the standard, and then publishes these results on their marketing literature and/or boxes of all their HP printer ink cartridges.

Now what does this mean to you – the consumer?

The only thing that this information is good for is comparing the brand “HP printer ink cartridges” with other brands of printer ink cartridges, like Epson, for example.

Why is this? Because a true comparison can only be made when you are comparing “like things”. If the printer ink cartridges are all tested to the same standard, then the only thing different will be the manufacturer – assuming the printer cartridges are equivalent to each other.

This means that if the results of the HP printer ink cartridges test find that 900 pages, for example, can be printed and the Epson printer ink cartridge test show that only 800 pages, for example, can be printed, then the HP printer ink cartridges will probably last longer than their competition.

What do these results mean for the user?

If the results say that an ink cartridge will last 900 pages, does that mean when you buy it, it will print 900 pages? The answer is - it depends.

Remember, the ISO standard requires very specific types of pages to be printed. Your printing will be different. You may only print black text and only have a little text on the page. If that is the case, you would get much more than 900 printed pages. On the other hand if you print pages with lots of text (like a newspaper) or have lots of black and white photos, you will probably get much less than 900 pages.

So the bottom line is the yields published on boxes of HP printer ink cartridges are there for guidelines to let you know about how long they will last. Your actual usage may be more or less for the reasons listed above.

Check Out These Great Deals on Amazon for HP Printer Ink Cartridges

	HP 920 Ink Cartridge Combo Pack (CN066FN#140) Sale Price: $18.50
	Description HP 920 Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging - Combo Pack (CN066FN140) weighing 3.7 ounces and it contains one each Cyan Yellow and Magenta HP 920 Ink Cartridges. Features Get more for your money: original HP cartridges ensure that your printing is right the first time and every time Contains one each Cyan Yellow and Magenta HP 920 Ink Cartridges

	HP 901 Officejet Ink Cartridge (CC653AN) List Price: $19.99 Sale Price: $7.00 You save: $12.99 (65%)
	Description Original HP 901 Black Officejet Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging - Get more worth for your money with original HP cartridges ensure that your printing is right the first time and every time. Features Get more for your money: original HP cartridges ensure that your printing is right the first time and every time Rely on HP for consistent, high-quality results

	HP 60 Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging, Combo Pack (CD947FN#140) Sale Price: $20.48
	Description HP 60 Retail Combo Pack US Features Individually factory sealed Sold exclusively by OCinkjet It's a Genuine OEM Product One year factory warranty against product defect Recycling is made easy with HP Planet Partners Recycling Program

For more information on HP Printer Ink Cartridges, visit HP

Their study showed that HP printer cartridges print more total pages per cartridge than both the name brand competitors and the refill suppliers.

The HP printer cartridges printed, on the average, just under 50% more pages than other brand inks and 85% more pages than refill service providers.

They also tested reliability of cartridges that failed A little more than 27% of the brand name cartridges failed as compared to just over 40% for refill services providers.

The Bottom Line is ...

Contrary to what many people believe, HP printer cartridges are significantly better than other name brands or the refilled cartridges.

Another Important Point

One thing this study did not compare was price. Granted, you don’t get as many pages printed with the other brands or refill cartridges – but you always pay less for these other non-HP cartridges – so maybe the cost per page is better for these other inkjet cartridges.

While this is not overly in-depth analysis, using the figures quoted above and the prices found at Amazon and the other inkjet cartridges web sites, you get the following:

Hewlett Packard

A 95 Tri color HP printer cartridge prints 330 pages and can be purchased for $22.50, giving it a cost per page of  6.8 cents

Office Depot

A 95 Tri Color print cartridge prints 224 pages and can be purchased for $19.00, giving it a cost per page of 8.5 cents

Cartridge World

95 Tri Color print cartridge prints178 pages and can be purchased for $17.00 giving it a cost per page of 9.5 cents

If this were to hold true on a larger survey of inkjet cartridges, HP inkjet would be the best both in quality and cost.

Check Out These Great Deals on Amazon for HP Printer  Cartridges

	HP 920 Ink Cartridge Combo Pack (CN066FN#140) Sale Price: $18.50
	Description HP 920 Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging - Combo Pack (CN066FN140) weighing 3.7 ounces and it contains one each Cyan Yellow and Magenta HP 920 Ink Cartridges. Features Get more for your money: original HP cartridges ensure that your printing is right the first time and every time Contains one each Cyan Yellow and Magenta HP 920 Ink Cartridges

	HP 901 Officejet Ink Cartridge (CC653AN) List Price: $19.99 Sale Price: $7.00 You save: $12.99 (65%)
	Description Original HP 901 Black Officejet Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging - Get more worth for your money with original HP cartridges ensure that your printing is right the first time and every time. Features Get more for your money: original HP cartridges ensure that your printing is right the first time and every time Rely on HP for consistent, high-quality results

	HP 60 Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging, Combo Pack (CD947FN#140) Sale Price: $20.48
	Description HP 60 Retail Combo Pack US Features Individually factory sealed Sold exclusively by OCinkjet It's a Genuine OEM Product One year factory warranty against product defect Recycling is made easy with HP Planet Partners Recycling Program

For more information on HP print cartridges visit HP

Hewlett Packard has been manufacturing their line of HP print cartridges now for many years, and during this time, have also been developing and improving the technology of their print cartridges so they last longer.

You may say what is there to develop in an HP ink cartridge?

The ink just sits in a reservoir until it is used. Right? The only place that the ink can go in the HP print cartridge is on the page in the form of a letter or part of a picture – not?

Well no!  The ink in an HP print cartridge (and other manufacturers, too) actually is used in a number of ways. Most of the ink obviously goes on the page in the form of text or photo, but some ink evaporates and some ink is used to maintain the print head so it prints continuously and perfectly. Other ink is used in the start up of a new cartridge.

It is for these reasons that yields on the HP ink cartridge differ from other manufacturers. This means that just because one print cartridge can print 900 pages and another only 700 pages, the 900 page cartridge holds more ink. No, this is not necessarily the case.

All these factors and more contribute to the usage of ink and to the subsequent total life of an HP ink cartridge. Hewlett Packard has researched this extensively and tweaked their designs and manufacturing to insure that there is minimal loss, and usage, of the ink in all their HP ink cartridges that they make.

Lastly, if you read the article How Are the Yields of HP Printer Ink Cartridges Determined?, you will know that these tests are performed to an international standard. This standard does not take into account any of these factors discussed above

So the bottom line is this --

The technology (or design) in an HP print cartridge is far more complicated than one would ever think. These designs are optimized so that the majority of ink is used in printing and not lost in any of these other ways.

Over the years the hp print cartridge process has been refined and tweaked to yield the best possible results for the consumer.

For more information on any HP Print Cartridge visit HP

What most people don’t know is that the ink in an HP printer ink cartridge is used in many ways. It does not simply go from cartridge to paper. No there are 7 ways the ink is consumed in an HP printer ink cartridges. Here is a short summary of them.

1. Some ink is consumed in the preparation for printing.

An HP printer ink cartridge is highly designed and uses ink in the start up and calibration of a new ink cartridge. This may include the purging of a storage fluid out of the print head or simply pumping ink to the print head. These are just two places that ink may be used when starting out with a new ink cartridge.

2. Some ink is consumed in keeping the print head working correctly and preventing it from clogging

Just as with other print cartridges, the HP printer ink cartridge also may get clogged at times. To keep this to a minimum, special design features are incorporated to keep it clog free. The average consumer would never know or understand the complexities that are involved in the process. Just trust HP to have designed things to keep the ink cartridge working. These are all “behind the scene” things, but they all consume a little ink in getting them accomplished and keeping the HP printer ink cartridge working trouble free.

3. The usage of the printer affects the ink used.

If you use your printer regularly, your ink usage will be less than if you use your printer only occasionally. The reason this is is because the longer your printer sits idle, the more time and effort the internals of the print head will have to work to get the clogs out, the bubbles out or remove the dried ink.

4. There will always be some ink left behind.

The HP printer ink cartridge is just like a tube of toothpaste. No matter how hard you squeeze that toothpaste some will always remain behind in the tube.

This is the same as with the ink print cartridge. Some of just will never be used.

5. Believe it or not, printer ink evaporates

Although the HP printer ink cartridge is highly designed, it is not completely sealed. These cartridges are designed to be used anywhere in the world from the highest mountain to the lowest pit and from the hottest to the coldest spots. Because of these extremes the cartridges cannot be completely sealed and must work reliably even after sitting on a shelf waiting to be sold or sitting in a printer for months.

As some of the solvents evaporate, the chemistry and viscosity of the remaining ink changes a little causing some more loss in usable ink.

6. Ink is Sometimes Used When You Least Expect It

The HP printer ink cartridge is designed to print the perfect color. This means that black may not be just black. Often times, a black and white picture or even a solid black will have a little color mixed in to give a blacker, or better looking, black or gray.

So  in these instances, you think you are only using black but in reality you are also using colored ink also.

7. The User Defines How Much Ink is Used

Many times users will just print and accept the default settings. However, if one does not need a top quality print, the page could be printed in “draft” mode which uses a lot less ink.

The bottom line is the HP printer ink cartridge is highly designed to give consistent and perfect printing over time. But to do this requires that ink be used in situations that one would never think of. While these amounts of ink are maybe minuscule, they are all places that consume ink and reduce the amount available for the actual printing.

For more information on HP printer inkP Printer P cartridges visit HP

So after all this time, how is the lifetime usage of an Hewlett Packard Printer Cartridge determined for photo printing?

As you may read on How Are the Yields of HP Printer Ink Cartridges Determined? International standards exist for determining the yield of black and white or color print cartridges but, unfortunately, these standards do not exist for determining the life time of Hewlett Packard Printer Cartridges used in photo printing.

So, Hewlett Packard has come up with their own standards for determining yields on photo printing, but, as you would guess, these are different than other manufacturers. (The International standards are still being developed, while Hewlett Packard simply prints a specific set of ten 4x6 inch continuously until the cartridge is empty.)

Since there is no standard, this means one can compare yields between different Hewlett Packard Printer Cartridges, but can not accurately compare yields between HP and other manufacturers.

Nevertheless, the results published by HP for their ink cartridges may differ than what you get. There are reasons for this, namely:

The Photo Content – if your photos are heavy with one color, the ink that makes that color up will deplete much sooner than your other inks. So, although you may have lots of some of the inks, the one will be gone and cause terrible photos.

The Frequency of Printing – the more frequent you print, the less ink you will use. As you may have read in 7 Ways Ink Is Used in an HP Printer Ink Cartridge, the longer a printer sets idle, the more ink that will be used in prepping it for printing

The Amount of Ink Used in the Printer Setup -  Again as mentioned in 7 Ways Ink Is Used in an HP Printer Ink Cartridge, different Hewlett Packard Printer Cartridges are designed differently and thus work differently and ultimately use different amounts of ink in the normal routines.

The Print Mode Being Used -  You can print photos or text in different modes from fast draft to best/ Obviously best uses more ink than fast draft, so the more printing you do in best mode the more ink you will use.

The Type of Paper Being Used. HP has developed different qualities of paper which can be used for a sundry number of things, but each type of paper may use a different amount of ink to print a photo.

The bottom line is that there really is no way to accurately determine how long a Hewlett Packard Printer Cartridge will last in printing photos. It really depends on the user and what (and how) he/she is printing.

Check Out These Great Deals on Amazon for Hewlett Packard Printer Cartridges

HP 61 Black Ink Cartridge (CH561WN#140) List Price: $17.15 Sale Price: $7.14 You save: $10.01 (58%)

Description HP 61 Black Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging (CH561WN#140) print laser quality documents easily and at a great value. Ideal for printing everyday, fade resistant documents, images, reports and web prints, HP 61 Black Ink Cartridges deliver optimum print quality and speed... Features Print documents with laser-quality black text. Make printing easy and get a great value. Count on HP for a superior printing experience.

	HEWLETT-PACKARD 51629A HP 29 Black Ink Cartridge List Price: $35.99 Sale Price: $0.01 You save: $35.98 (100%)
	Description Original HP 29 Black Ink Cartridge in Retail Packaging Features Black ink cartridge for all Hewlett Packard 600 Series DeskJet/DeskWriter, except for DesignJet 650C (see HP 51640A for black cartridge) Averages 650 pages per cartridge 720-page yield, 40 ml ink volume Water-resistant, pigment based ink Ideal for HP specialty papers, transparencies, and plain papers

HP 78 Tri-Color Printer Cartridge (C6578DC) List Price: $45.39 Sale Price: $17.00 You save: $28.39 (63%)

Description Compatible Printers: Color Copier 180, Color Copier 190, Color Copier 280, Color Copier 290, Deskjet 1220C Series, Deskjet 3820, Deskjet 6122, Deskjet 6127, Deskjet 920C, Deskjet 9300, Deskjet 930C, Deskjet 932C, Deskjet 935C, Deskjet 940C Series, Deskjet 950C, Deskjet 952C, Deskjet 960C Series, Deskjet 970C Series, Deskjet 990C Series, Deskjet 995C Series, Digital Copier 310, Fax 1220 Series, Fax 1230 Series, Officejet 5110 Series, Officejet G Series, Officejet K Series, Officejet V Series, Photosmart 1115, Photosmart 1215 Series, Photosmart 1218 Series, Photosmart 1315, Photosmart P1000 Series, Photosmart P1100 Series, PSC 750 Series, PSC 950 Series Features Enjoy low maintenance, trouble-free printing Designed with your printer, the HP 78 Tri-Color Inkjet Print Cartridge is simple to install and easy to replace. You have a choice of two sizes of inkjet print cartridges to match your usage needs. Low cost, low yield, 450 pages at 15% coverage Compatible with many popular HP models Produces smooth color transitions and realistic flesh tones Precise, micro-fine drops for high-quality prints Built-in printhead

For more information on Hewlett Packard print cartridges visit HP

You may ask why is this? Well we can only assume that HP thinks that it is a detriment to their printers and ultimately their sales and reputations.

If you understand the technology and design that goes into these print cartridges, you would understand that any messing around with them could ultimately cause problems.

For instance, each HP cartridge has a micro-chip that controls the printing so any problem with this chip and you’ll have printing problems. While this may rarely happen, Hewlett Packard probably believes it is safer to not deal in HP ink refill kits and avoid the potential backlash with the little problems that can go wrong when refilling cartridges.

Now this is not to say that others will not sell HP ink refill kits, because they in fact do. The Internet has many, many sites that sell HP ink refill kits as well as other manufacturers.

HP ink refill kits vary – depending on who is selling them and what cartridges they are for. Most ink refill kits are not universal – meaning one kit cannot fill any HP cartridge. While some cartridges many be quite similar there are differences.

That is also the reason we just can’t list the steps necessary to re-fill an ink cartridge. All ink cartridges have their own uniqueness making each one a little different. Granted - after you get some experience you can probably deal with any ink refill kit, but starting out there are things you need to know.

The bottom line is that HP ink refill kits can be bought from many places and are probably cheaper than buying a new print cartridge, but, there are inherent problems that could arise and cause you headaches.

While this is probably not the case in most instances, it is still something you should be aware of before buying that HP ink refill kit.

For more information on an HP Ink Refill visit Printer Filling Station

HP inkjet ink  has been designed to be used in any type of printing, last for decades and be resistant to many things. Three things the average user takes for granted - but three things which are hard to optimize for.

Let’s look at the needs of an HP inkjet ink

Any important paper that is printed has to last, like our precious photos and important papers. We know the papers will last but will the super duper HP inkjet ink last?

So the first requirement is that a printed image or text will have to last for long periods of time. This is referred to as permanence and includes things like resisting the exposure to the sun and humidity.

Secondly, the printed pages have to be durable and withstand every day handling and potential accidents, all the while not getting any smudges, for instance.

To meet these two requirements, means that both the HP inkjet ink and HP paper have to be well developed.

Thirdly, HP inkjet ink needs to be able to print any kind of document on a daily basis and each one has to look great.

Fourthly, and this ties in with the durability requirement above, the printed document needs to dry fast. It doesn’t matter if it is a photo or simple text. The ink needs to dry quickly so by the time the person gets to the printer it is dry and ready to be handled with out any smearing.

Fifthly, business documents have to be printed which are of a high quality and professional looking. No more ‘dot matrix’ prints.

All in all, the HP inkjet inks need to meet the strictest of standards. HP accomplishes this by continually testing, both internally and externally, and if need be developing new tests, materials and techniques to keep HP inkjet ink one of the top inks on the market today.

For more information on an HP Ink Toner visit HP, of course!

Cartridges for the HP 970CXI printer can be refilled in two very distinct methods. Refill the bladder of the black cartridge and the sponge of the colored cartridge in the HP 970CXI printer withhelp from an employee of an ink-filling station in this free video on HP printer cartridges. Expert: Taylor Bio: Taylor has five years experience re-filling ink cartridges at an ink filling station. The filling station offers refurbished ink cartridges as well as re-fills at a discounted price. Filmmaker: Michael Burton

Tired of always running out of ink? Here's a secret the ink companies don't want you to know!