Continuous ink systems have become a serious alternative to branded printer ink cartridges. Their use has grown immensely in popularity in the last few years, especially with people who produce a lot of digital photo prints that require the use of a lot of ink. Continuous ink systems are highly sought after simply because they are economical and convenient. It is somewhat ironic that the cost of printer ink cartridges is preventing people from indulging in their printing jobs, at a time when developments in printing technology are making it easier and more encouraging for people to do a lot of printing. Digital cameras have become much simpler to use, and cellphones with built-in cameras have made it convenient to take photos anywhere. The printers themselves have improved a lot in their design, and now they produce digital colour prints that look like they were done by a professional, rather than just printed at home.

And yet, digital printing at home is not really as commonplace as it should be, despite the existence of the technology supporting it. The simple reason behind this fact is that printer ink cartridges are expensive. Of course, the printer machines themselves are very cheap, but the manufacturers of these printers seem to be getting their profits from the products these printers consume, namely printer ink cartridges. It is actually more cost-effective to buy a new printer these days than replace printer ink cartridges.

It is incredibly wasteful to throw away a printer every time one runs out of ink. It is also not friendly to the environment to do so, unless the old printer is brought to a recycling centre. Thus, the alternative is to buy generic ink cartridges or OEM ink cartridges. The best alternative for heavy ink consumers, however, is none other than the continuous ink system.

Continuous ink systems are very effective means of saving money when it comes to printer inks. One unit of such a printer ink system costs at about the same range as the price that regular branded printer ink cartridges are tagged at. The main difference is that the cartridges in a continuous ink system have ten times more usable ink than the regular cartridges. Thus, in effect, it is like buying ten regular printer ink cartridges when one is buying one unit of a continuous ink system.

Another good thing about a continuous ink system is that one can never run out of ink at an inconvenient time. The ink containers in these systems are made of transparent bottles and are placed outside the printer itself, so one can easily tell when one is running out of a particular colour of ink.

The one main concern that many users have with the continuous ink system is the quality of the output. Is there a big difference between the quality of a photo printed with a regular branded ink cartridge and of one produced with a continuous ink system? The answer to that is no. There is no difference between the two, and if there are, they are too subtle to notice.