I’ve got a HP inkjet printer and my daughter is doing A level photography. It’s costing me a bloody fortune in ink!

So what’s the best value option for ink? I’ve been buying original HP 364 cartridges up until now from the local PC world as I’ve been disorganised and buying last minute. I’ve seen cheaper online by a few quid, but there seems to be umpteen sellers out there – are there some well known cheap places to look at?

I’ve tried non manufacturer cartridges in a few printers before and they all died shortly afterwards! Coincidence? Are refilled cartridges a good option or is it even possible to do this yourself?

Last question – why did my printer come with 5 individual cartridges in it, but I can only buy a replacement pack of 4?!!

Try 7dayshop – https://www.7dayshop.com/hp-ink-cartridges/filter/compatible-remanufactured/hp-364

Buy her a cheap but branded printer, they’re all good these days and fill it with an unbranded ink that gets good reviews. Should last the life of her course, Hp printers tend to come with a decent amount of ink in so you’re not actually laying out that much for a printer and you won’t knacker yours with knock off ink if it’s a decent one.

Get an endless ink system. Easily fitted and work brilliantly.

I have one on a Canon (Pixma MP497) and there’s been no difference in quality of printing up to A4 photographs in best quality.

I now print off textbooks when I want a soft copy instead of reading on a computer screen without thinking twice. I need 3 colours + black. I’ve got through 5 reams of paper, including some picture books like Banksy’s with lots of full page colour images. I’ve got through about 1/3 of the three colours and 3/4 of the black with each one of the four costing £1.50 to refill.

It’s a no-brainer for me. If your printer is a fancy one you’re afraid of losing the warranty on, buy the cheapest printer you can find and the ink system too. It’ll cost the same as a couple of cartridges!

From the Daily Fail “The cost of ink is truly astronomical. A typical HP cartridge costing £13 contains a measly 4ml of ink — the equivalent of more than £3,000 a litre. In contrast, you can buy a bottle of very decent 1995 Dom Perignon champagne for £150”

My local Staples does a part exchange for the old cartridges.

They don’t always advertise it so it’s worth asking. I use the same HP as the op and I think a 4 pack cost me about a £10 after trade in.

I use a Canon printer with inks from first call inks on amazon, they are very very good.

good reminder, I need some more.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?me=AITTWMR9XGO73

If she is colour photo printing – as in making accurate and nuanced prints of photographs that she has taken, and wants control over the output- then after market inks can be pretty hit a miss in terms of their ability to actually reproduce the image you want to print accurately – I’ve had instances where reds in particular just vanish in a dark background (someone illuminated in the dark with a red light – the red just came out a murky brown – not just a matter of not being as good as it could be, but completely unusable images). So cheap inks are potentially a complete waste of money for your application rather than a saving.

I’d be more tempted to look for non-branded savings on photo paper than on ink

Its certainly worth looking at a change of printer rather than cheaper inks for the one you’ve got, I’ve found HP to be pretty expensive for ink compared to other brands anyway and tend to bundle their colour inks together on one cartridge so if one runs colour runs low you have to junk the whole lot. Better to put the horse before the cart – look for inks available as separate colours, easily available near you, at a decent price for the original brand cartridges, then buy a printer that uses those cartridges.

I did that then bought a big batch of aftermarket cartridges anyway that I use 90% and swap for original cartridges for jobs image quality matters

Also worth considering if you are doing that is try to favour a printer that feeds the paper from the back, rather than some printers that feed the paper from the front and take it round a tight bend before bringing it back out the front again. The less of a bend the paper goes through the more opportunities to use thicker papers and perhaps print onto interesting textures etc