Knowledgebase
Printer Cartridge Information
What is a photo cartridge?
Most modern inkjet printers which have cartridges which include the printhead take black and either one multi-colour or several single-colour ink cartridges.
Some HP, Dell, Lexmark and Canon printers can also operate with a “photo” cartridge. The most popular models are the HP58, HP348, Canon CL51, Lexmark 31 and Lexmark 90.
The use of photo cartridges is very widely misunderstood. If your printer takes one of the above cartridges it will fit into the BLACK port, and work alongside the usual colour cartridge. Photo cartridges contain three colours: black, light cyan and light magenta. They are designed to offer the very best colour definition possible when you are printing photographs � by giving the printer a total palette of six colours.
If you print mainly black and colour docuements then using a photo cartridge doesn`t make much sense. Photo cartridges contain only a very small amount of black ink (about one third of the black only cartridge) and if you use it printing all manner of stuff, you’ll end up throwing away the light cyan and light magenta remaining inside when the black is spent. You’ll effectively be tripling your black ink costs.
If you occasionally print photos then we would recommend buying a photo cartridge then using it occasionally and keeping it in the protective cartridge clip when it`s out of the machine.
Some HP, Dell, Lexmark and Canon printers can also operate with a “photo” cartridge. The most popular models are the HP58, HP348, Canon CL51, Lexmark 31 and Lexmark 90.
The use of photo cartridges is very widely misunderstood. If your printer takes one of the above cartridges it will fit into the BLACK port, and work alongside the usual colour cartridge. Photo cartridges contain three colours: black, light cyan and light magenta. They are designed to offer the very best colour definition possible when you are printing photographs � by giving the printer a total palette of six colours.
If you print mainly black and colour docuements then using a photo cartridge doesn`t make much sense. Photo cartridges contain only a very small amount of black ink (about one third of the black only cartridge) and if you use it printing all manner of stuff, you’ll end up throwing away the light cyan and light magenta remaining inside when the black is spent. You’ll effectively be tripling your black ink costs.
If you occasionally print photos then we would recommend buying a photo cartridge then using it occasionally and keeping it in the protective cartridge clip when it`s out of the machine.
