Ink costs the most of any of your printer supplies. Those supplies are actually the bulk of the cost of ownership, even more than the initial price tag on the printer. Saving on ink is crucial to making your printer cost-effective. This article covers the information you'll need to buy a printer that fits your needs and saves you money.

How to Save on Ink and Cartridge Costs

Most people opt for inkjet printers; these are the standard for people who need to print occasionally in small batches. (A laser printer is the opposite; if you need to print a book, then it's the obvious choice.)Among inkjets, some printers consistently use less ink, and some others have low-cost cartridge replacements. Some printers both use less ink and have low-cost replacement cartridges.

Printer Model	Price	Printer + Copier	Fax	Photo Quality	+ Pros - Cons	Cost / 100 Pgs. (3rd Party)
Brother DCP-J152W	$228.76	Yes	-	Low	+ Ink Saver	$1.22
Brother MFC-J470DW	$71.30	Yes		Low	+Ink Saver - Noisy - No Camera Printing	$1.00
Canon MX922	$99.99	Yes		Medium	+ Prints Quickly - Uses Up Ink Quickly	$1.05
Canon Pixma MG7120	$89.90	Yes	-	High	+ 6-Color Process for Superior Photos - Higher Cost to Replace	$1.05
Epson XP-800	$104.99	Yes		Medium	+ Good Compromise Of Cost and Quality	$0.72
Epson WF-2630	$79.99	Yes		Medium	+ Space-saving Design - Slower Print Speed -No 3rd Party Cartridges	(OEM) $10.30
HP Envy 4500	$63.79	Yes	-	Medium	+ Fewer Cartridges to Replace	$3.99
HP Officejet Pro 251DW	$195.00	Printer Only	-	High	+ Large Cartridges	$0.69

Pages per cartridge, like cents per ounce in groceries, is the measurement you'll want to compare among printers. This gives you an apples-to-apples comparison of what to expect for your typical print job. But that's only half the equation, as Consumer Reports writes, ink is routinely wasted when printers run maintenance cycles to clean the print heads. These maintenance cycles occur after the print is powered up, so keeping your printer on is one of the best ways to avoid ink waste. Brother's printers, despite not being great for photos, save you most; however, those cartridges also hold less ink overall.

Likewise, it's important to remember that smaller cartridges, like the HP Envy 4500's no. 61 black cartridge, will need to be replaced more frequently. In contrast, HP's cartridge no. 951XL (used in the Officejet Pro 251DW), prints many more times of pages.

One way to avoid expensive OEM cartridges is to buy 3rd party cartridges, often every bit as good as the original for a fraction of the cost.

The HP OfficeJet Pro 251DW is the best printer we found, both in terms of efficient use of ink and low cost of replacements. If you look at the table above, you can see the cost-effectiveness of this printer compares favorably to all others. In addition, it prints slightly faster than the competition. However, it lacks a scanner and the convenience of printing directly from devices (cameras, et cetera), so this device is a good fit for users who will be printing primarily documents.

A close second is the Epson Xpression Home 800, which has a comparable cost per hundred pages, and also includes a built-in memory card reader, scanner/copier/fax, dedicated photo output tray, and a smaller profile than most printers which have the same capabilities. Consider it when those features matter more than speed and savings in printing.

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