Ink for your printer is literally more expensive than blood.

YES! It is... and it's pretty vile that cartridges are now being manufactued that cannot be refilled at home. When I bought my new printer, I specifically chose a brand/model [HP] that 1. has the largest ink tanks in it's cartridges, and 2. that can be refilled without problems.

Next, I sought out the largest bottles of refill ink on Amazon I could find [4oz bottles with 1 ea of colors and THREE bottles of black + 3 filling syringes for about $13]. So far, I've refilled the SAME cartidges on my new printer seven times. This 4-pc cartridge set sells for a total of about $35 at Wal-Mart... so you can imagine how much I've already saved.... and, my ink bottles? Still 2/3 full. Do the math.

BTW: I've tried refilling carts on other printers before this and invariably, the cartridges would crap out after only two refills. The carts themselves would also require drilling a little hole in top of the tank just to insert the needle and then if you didn't reseal it with a sticker, the ink would evaporate. NOT SO on the above mentioned brand! You refill from the bottom of the cart using the dispersing aperture so the ink doesn't evaporate at all. No muss, no fuss.

Cannon, laser, black ink only is the way to go. My starter cartridge lasted 2.5 years. I still think someone screwed up and installed a full toner cartridge at the factory.

I should mention that my printer DOES recognise that I've refilled the cartridges! Periodically, it'll pop up with a "refilled or counterfeit cartridge inserted" warning and it won't display actual ink levels. BUT: I simply run a status report, then run the clean/align print heads program and everything is fine, once again!

Machines may be SMART... but people are STILL smarter!

I remember reading about some " smart " cartridges a few years ago that would initiate a disabling of the printer if somebody tried refilling them, can't remember if it was Motorola or Cannon, but either way, no good.