My new printer, the HP Envy 5660

Monday I needed to replace the black cartridge in my HP Deskjet 3520, and the paper came out white!  Two people worked on it, we followed all the trouble shooting suggestions, including a user's suggestion of mixing ammonia and water and drop it into the print head, then followed by prayer (I think that was in jest).  No. It didn't work. My daughter and I checked all the deals on the internet.  So I took all the cartridges (3 used, 1 unused) back to Staples which had a record of my purchase, got a $61 refund, bought a new $150 printer reduced to $95 with all sorts of discounts and coupons, bought a 3 year warranty (I usually don't but these only last about that long), and the whole thing with my $5 coupon from recycled older cartridges came to $54 for a new wireless printer/scanner/copier, an HP Envy (less than a package of ink cartridges if I'd replaced them). Yes, it's a racket to sell ink. Checked all the customer reviews, they were excellent. Now my daughter needs to come by and connect everything. I also signed up for the Instant Ink. HP tracks my paper usage and send me cartridges for $5 a month.

What costs $8,000 a gallon that we all buy?

The ink for our printers. That's why printers are so cheap--the profit is in the ink. However, you can save a lot just by changing your font, according to Diane Blohowiak, director of computing at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The fonts most ink-stingy, are Century Gothic, Garamond, Courier, Brush Script, and Times New Roman. I use Times New Roman almost exclusively, with some Courier thrown in at my Premiere Issue blog. I was surprised that Arial was so slurpy with ink. It looks so innocent with all those straight, sleek lines. Hmmm. Looks can be deceiving. Also, Times New Roman is the easier font to read because of its dainty little feet.

Of course, once everyone switches fonts, the price of ink will go up again. It's like gasoline costs and more miles per gallon.

Story here.

My first printer, a Laser-Jet 4-L, was very efficient. The toner only had to be replaced about every 3 years, but cost about $70 a cartridge. Still much cheaper than what I pay to replace my micro cartridges in my HP PhotoSmart C3180. I only stopped using the better one because I couldn't find the cartridge locally.