Tips and Solutions from our Members

Economical and dependable source of printer ink jet and laser printer catriges.

I've had good relationship with Ink4Art:
They have good product and they stand behind what they sell. Prices are competitive if you can buy three or more cartridges of a color. They pay shipping on orders of $50+, and they email coupons almost monthly that give 20% and 30% off.

Ink has a shelf life of 2+ years, so I keep an inventory that allows me to order at least a minimum of 3+ each color needed. My printer uses 8 colors and by maintaining some reserve cartriges, I am able to purchase +$50 each time.

Ink4Art assisted me in working through ink/printer problems, their tech support are real people here in the USA, responsive and open-minded. I had a Canon printer problem had it repaired (out of warranty) at Canon's local repair company "Canyon Ribbon" on Washington (you old timers will remember that Canyon Ribbon used to support our Arizona Apple User Group Newsletter).

After the repair the printer developed a problem caused by using the function of head-cleaning a number of times. I had use the head-cleaning procedure to attempt to clear a problem, but then I got an ALERT! stating "The INK TRAY IS FULL! See your Canon Service for service..." and the printer set up a series of flashing a defined set of colored LEDs, blinking a certain number of times and refused to work. Uhm... there is no such thing as an "Ink Tray". I called Canyon Ribbon and asked them to give me the code to dismiss the message. Their message was, bring the printer in, you can pick it up the next day, the charge will be $60.

BUT! they had just worked on it for another problem, why did they not reset it while they were working on it? Actually, they were flexing their muscles because they insisted the problem occurred because I use third party inks. ARGh!

Tech support goes both ways:
I called Ink4Art tech and talked to Steve Manke, with whom I had developed a relationship over the years, and he confirmed my suspicion; the alert was simply on a counter that counted the number of times the "head cleaning" process was invoked, and that I needed a reset procedure. Steve did not have the procedure for a Canon PIXMA IP8500. We both agreed we would search the Internet to source the procedure. I found and downloaded a manual that had the procedure, but the file was locked and could not be read without paying for the manual, which was more than I needed and pricey. I found a way to get the just the text I needed, and although the text I got was sparse, I was able to fill in the missing steps by experimenting. After proving the procedure, I rewrote it and sent it to Steve so they would have it for their library.

The point is, they are interested and helpful. In this case, just being able to talk to about defining the problem was a guide to what I should look for.

Also, but not directly related:
I buy Professional Glossy Photo Inkjet paper at CostCo, 8.5x11 and 4x6, and select the Canon paper from the printer selector. I like the results.