This post is a little different to the norm in that it is not about a specific ink type or cartridge but about what to do if you get printer ink on your clothes.

You know that when you are refilling a toner or ink jet cartridge then chances are it’s going to be a messy job, and you are bound to get toner or ink on your hands, clothes and probably on the desk as well. Cleaning an ink stain can be a bit of a challenge if the ink gets a chance to set.  So we thought it might be a good idea to give you a few tips for removing printer ink stains from skin and clothing.

If you have an ink spill the first thing you’ll want to do is wash your hands. You don’t want to inadvertently touch other things or wipe your hands on your clothes. Try using just regular soap and water at first to get the majority of the wet ink off your hands. Once the bulk is removed you can use a more abrasive cleaner, like what mechanics use, to scrub off the rest of the stain.

The next thing you need to do is get that ink off your clothing. If the ink is still wet try to blot as much of it up as you can with a paper towel. This will keep the stain from wicking further into the fabric and making an even larger stain.

Once the paper towel can’t lift any more ink it’s time to try cleaning the garment.  Pour some isopropyl alcohol onto the ink spot and then dab at it with a fresh paper towel. This should lift away most of the stain.

If there is still some discoloration then you can try moving up to nail polish remover, acetone. Be careful though as acetone can damage synthetic fabrics like nylon.

Your final option is to use a commercial stain remover such as Shout and then launder the clothes if they’re machine washable. For dry clean only items simply take the piece in to the dry cleaners and tell them exactly what type of stain it is. They should be able to help you out.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at some of the most common reasons why people want printers and the best one to go for, in each case.

General ‘home’ user

This sounds like it would be an easy category but in fact, it is one of the most complicated. Home users need a printer that is extremely versatile. It should be able to print everything from the kids’ homework to photographs and most probably needs to fit into a reasonable budget. The best choice would be color inkjet that is designed to be a ‘jack of all trades’. These are often called ‘small office’ or ‘home office’ printers. Their only downside is that in order to fit into the low budget category, they tend to be a little on the slow side.

OR

Get two printers. You could go for a basic, low end laser printer for text documents and a color inkjet for photos and graphics.

Aspiring novelist?

If you’ve been slaving away on your masterpiece and now need to print it out to send to prospective publishers, you’ll need a fast printer that will give you beautifully crisp, easily readable text. Your best buy would be a laser printer. They can sometimes be more expensive than inkjets but are cheaper to run and maintain.

OR

You could go for an inkjet so that you also have the option to have colour. If you choose this option, be aware that the cheaper ones can be slow, so go for the best you can afford to gain that extra speed.

Enthusiastic photographer

Any inkjet printer can print color photographs but for really professional results, you’ll want one that specializes in doing so. Check out what kinds of paper it will print with. See which tools it has for color management. If you’re only going to buy one printer, your best choice may be an inkjet because it can also handle text well.

If you want truly dynamic photos, read up on the printers and find one that uses thermal dye-transfer. This advanced technology is also called dye sublimation. The printer uses heat to change the physical state of solid ink so that it infuses paper which has a special coating. The inks then return to solid as they get cooler.

If you’re into digital photography, you could choose to buy a snapshot printer which is compatible with your camera. Or, you could go for a multi-functional printer. These have recently improved and many now have integral scanners, memory cards and LCD’s that you can use to preview pictures before printing.

Budding Entrepreneur

If you run your own small business or often work from home, a multifunction printer would be a good buy for you. These are also called AIO’s, which stands for ‘all in ones’. This printer may be inkjet or laser but will also have a scanner, copier and fax machine. These are great because they save both money and space – both of which are often in short supply if you are working from home.

The inkjet models are generally slightly cheaper but if your budget stretches to it, go for one that allows ‘stand alone’ faxing and also has an automatic document feeder. This allows you to put a stack of documents into the feeder tray and go off to do other things while the machine faxes or copies the lot!

OR

If you already have a fax, scanner or copier, a color laser printer should suffice, unless you need to print a lot of graphics in which case, go for an inkjet.

Team worker

If your business is expanding and you are going from a sole trader to a small team – or if you work as part of a team in a big organization, then you need a workgroup printer. These laser printers are especially designed to tackle multiple printing jobs. They have faster internal processors, a larger amount of memory and can print out more than twenty pages every minute. These printers are at the higher end of the market and their network capabilities, large volume toner cartridges, higher paper input and output trays are all reflected in their price.

OR

If your team doesn’t need to do much printing, you may be able to manage with a business inkjet but do check out if it is able to support network printing.

High Flier

If you are a jet-setter in the truest sense of the word and really do have to carry your office around with you, you’ll be happy to know that portable printers are now available. They may be either battery operated or charged up in your car. Most weigh between two and five pounds so are easy to carry whilst travelling and easy to pack. Some newer models have support so that you can print from a mobile phone by using a wireless connection.

OR

The least expensive alternative is not to have a printer. If you’re constantly on the go, it’s not difficult to find a printer in any office. Most hotels and airports often have areas to use a wired or wireless network so you use their printer or can send text and graphic files to another user to print.

Review and compare

Spend some time on sites that carry reviews or comparisons to see what consumers have to say. You may love the sound of a model but what do people who now own one think of it? You may also find yourself looking again at ones that you had discarded on the back of five star reviews. This is time well spent and will help you to find the printer that perfectly meets your needs.

There are so many printers available now, that choosing one can feel very overwhelming. They vary in their level of technology, size and of course, price.

So how do you decide which one to go for? It’s easier if you choose the printer that’s right for you. First decide what you want it for and what your budget is. Those two factors alone will start to narrow down the enormous choices.

Inkjet or laser?

As a general rule, inkjet printers are great for photographs and high resolution printing – which simply means they are better when a high level of detail is required in the finished print out.

Laser printers are better at producing text only documents but even then, their speed varies so don’t forget to check it out if it’s important to you. If you have high volumes of text to print, you don’t want to be feeding each sheet in by hand and tied to the printer all morning.

Top Selling Laser Printers

1.  Brother HL-4040cdn Color Laser Printer with Duplex and Networking

• Up to 21ppm color and monochrome printing
• Built-in duplex printing
• Up to 2400 x 600 dpi resolution
• Print directly from a USB flash memory drive or PictBridge-enabled camera
• High capacity replacement toner cartridges

2. HP LaserJet 4050 Printer

• 1,200-dpi resolution
• NEC 4310 133-MHz RISC microprocessor
• Prints 17 pages per minute
• On-printer help system
• 8 MB memory

3. Brother MFC-8420 Laser Multifunction

• Faxes, prints, copies, and scans
• 2,400 x 600 dpi resolution for printing, copying, and scanning
• Copy and print speeds up to 17 pages per minute
• 33.6 Kbps fax modem; 2 seconds per page transmit time
• Parallel and USB 2.0 interfaces, PC and Mac compatible

Top Selling Ink Jet Printers

1. HP Officejet J6480 All-in-One Printer

• Includes: HP Officejet J6480 AIO, CD with software, Fax and wireless starting guide, Set-up poster, Power cord, HP 74 Black Cartridge (210 page yield), HP 75 Tri-Color Cartridge (155 page yield), 1-Year limited warranty
• Black printing speed – Up to 31 ppm
• Color printing speed – Up to 25 ppm
• Black print resolution – Up to 1200 rendered dpi black (when printing from a computer)
• Color print resolution – Up to 4800 x 1200 optimized dpi color (when printing from a computer and 1200 input dpi)

2. Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless All-In-One Photo Printer

• Fully-Integrated 35-sheet Auto Document Feeder for rapid built-in two-sided document copying and scanning
• Built in auto duplex copying
• Dual color Gamut Technology optimizes the original so that copies remain true
• Various security features including password protected PDFs
• 5 ink tanks only replace the tank that runs out

3. HP Officejet 6310 All-in-One Printer

• Robust and affordable all-in-one printer, fax, scanner, and copier
• Crisp and clear 1,200 dpi black and white print quality; 4,800×1,200 dpi full-color print quality
• Prints or copies up to 30 pages per minute
• Windows and Mac compatible
• 1-year limited manufacturer’s warranty

Ink tanks

Something to be aware of when choosing a printer is the cost of the inks that will be used. Some printers use one tank for all colors. Others use separate tanks for separate colors – which is useful, but do be prepared to stock up on the black tanks if you print a lot of text.

There are now shops and online companies who offer to fill empty ink tanks for you, so if you have one near you, this may be a viable option – but do check if the printer that you have fallen in love with has refillable tanks.

It’s really worth taking a little time over this and the cost of inks is considerable, will add to your outgoing expenses and may need to be factored into the cost of anything you are producing to sell.

Epson is a company that recognises the importance of the environment, and so encourages their customers to return used Epson printer ink cartridges, toner ink cartridges and other Epson products for recycling.

You can help save the environment by sending back your used Epson printer ink cartridges including inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges.

Used Epson printer ink cartridges are recycled through a licensed recycling facility which evaluates the components and then shreds the products. After the shredding process, the materials are separated into ferrous, non-ferrous and plastic components and sent to other mills for further processing.

There is a fee for this service which includes shipping and recycling costs. Customers taking advantage of this service will receive a voucher for each item returned. This coupon may be redeemed on your next purchase at the Epson store. Ensure you check the Epson site for any updated details.

Wanting to buy your Epson printer cartridges online? Don’t know where to start? Well you’ve come to the right place. This little guide will have you finding quality merchants with the best bargains in no time. Once you have bought your Epson printer cartridges online you will never go back to wasting time shopping offline.

There are a number of things you need to look at before you decide to buy your Epson ink jet cartridges online:

Look for a quality merchant

If you want to buy your Epson printer cartridges online you need to know that you are dealing with a merchant who has a reputation for providing quality products and service. A business that has been around on the net for a long time is usually one indicator that you are dealing with a quality merchant. You might also look for a site that provides a money-back guarantee.

 Check out the sort of Epson printer cartridges the merchant is selling

Are they selling OEM cartridges, compatible cartridges or remanufactured cartridges? Each of these is quite acceptable assuming you buy from a quality merchant who provides quality products.

The big difference is in the price. You don’t want to find yourself paying the same price for a compatible cartridge as you would for an OEM cartridge for instance.

Look for shipping options

Many merchants will provide free shipping on your Epson printer cartridges if you purchase more than one product. Some will provide free shipping if you spend over a certain amount but the best merchants are those that provide free shipping on every order regardless of how much you spend.

Most importantly, check out the prices!

You want the very best deal on your Epson printer cartridges but be careful – make sure you always add your shipping costs onto the purchase before making the decision as to which merchant to buy from.

Look out for those special offers

Do they give you a discount if you buy more than one Epson printer cartridge? Do they provide a discount if you spend over a certain amount? Sometimes it is worth stocking up on your Epson printer cartridges if you know you are going to get a good deal.

Where’s the best place to buy Epson ink cartridges online?

We scoured the net looking for the best printer ink retailers online and came up with the best of the best. CLICK HERE to start shopping with these stores.

Printer ink cartridges can be expensive – in some cases more expensive than the printer. You may even know someone who has thrown out a perfectly working printer because it was actually cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy the replacement ink.

Well there is no need for anyone to do that when they can buy discount ink cartridges online. When looking for printer ink ensure that you find a company that has a good reputation for providing quality products.

Scan their webpage – does it look professional? Do they have a secure ordering system? Do they give you details of who they are and how long they have been in the business? These all help to provide confidence that you are dealing with a professional business that is willing to provide quality products and service to their customers.

Ensure that when you are buying discount ink cartridges that you are not buying an inferior product. There’s no point getting a bargain if the ink clogs your printer or creates smudges on your paper.

Next, check out the discounts they are offering. You can get up to 80% off discounted ink cartridges just by shopping online. Do they provide a further discount if you buy more than one item? This is the best way of stocking up.

Finally, check their delivery costs. Some companies offer free delivery on your discount ink cartridges if you order more than one item. Some companies offer free delivery no matter how many you buy, whether it be one or twenty!

We’ve put together a list of the top online retailers for printer ink. CLICK HERE to view.