Ink Cartridge Information Page.

Quick links to sections on this page

General Info | Compatible Cartridges | Remanufactured Cartridges | Printer Maintenance | Head Cleaning | Printer Utilities | Running out of ink | Printer Functions | Printer Drivers & Software | Extra info | Refill & Refilling | Delivery | Ordering | Sending Empties | Which Cartridge | Ink Cartridge & Printer Codes | Changing Ink Cartridges | Clogged Heads / Air Locks | European Countries

Information for inkjet printer ink cartridges, laser toner cartridges & dot matrix ribbons on all popular makes of printer.

For printer resetting information click here

General Information
The following printer brands are catered for on this website: Epson HP (Hewlett Packard) Canon Lexmark Xerox Oki Apple Brother Calcomp Compaq Fujitsu IBM Olivetti Panasonic Samsung Sharp.

Use our printer cartridges page to search for the compatible cartridges for your printer e.g. Epson.
When you have selected your printer make, you can select the correct model by using the drop down menus, which will take you directly to the correct ink cartridges for your model. If you know your cartridge number / reference you can select your cartridge from the cartridge list. There are also compatibility charts for each major brand of printer with links to the correct cartridge, offers and prices.

All our inkjet, toner and ribbon cartridges carry a 100% no quibble guarantee. If you are not happy with your printer cartridge, then we will replace it or your money back.

Compatible Inkjet Cartridges
Our ink cartridge suppliers assure us that all compatible inkjet cartridges, laser toners and dot matrix ribbons are ISO approved and use high quality inks etc., which have been compared to original OEM ink products with excellent results. To obtain the best quality from your printer ink cartridge, it is advised that you use high quality paper. The performance of printer ink cartridges is only as good as the paper it is being printed on. We recommend our all purpose A4 double sided & single sided Matt (Matte) high resolution paper (1440 dpi) for high quality print outs or for even higher quality professional presentations, our Gloss / Matt (Matte) instant dry (A4 double sided, gloss on one side & matt on the other) high resolution (1440 dpi), only sold at our store.
For continuous, un-interrupted printing with minimum maintenance, never leave your computer without ink for any length of time apart from to take an empty cartridge out and place a new compatible cartridge in. Don't leave empty cartridges in your printer for any length of time, always replace as soon as they are empty.

Remanufactured inkjet cartridges
These are cartridges that have a built in print head. They are remanufactured using high quality ink and have to be tested prior to remanufacture and before packaging and dispatch. Inevitably, these remanufactured ink cartridges are prone to some breakdown as is the case for all electronic products. Our 100% guarantee ensures that should this happen you will receive a replacement or your money back.

We are always improving our service and will soon have the success rate of remanufactured cartridges as high as 99%. Yes that's right, we will only expect a failure of 1 in 100. This is a ratio that no other ink cartridge retail company can offer, even though they will have you believe they can, they actually have an 85% success rate at best with an average of 15 out of 100 failing.

Refilling
There are some companies including The INK Store, that offer to refill your cartridge for you. This is a good option for certain types of cartridge, such as HP & Lexmark which only use cartridges with print heads attached and cannot be manufactured by other companies due to copyrighting and patents. Cartridges which can be manufactured by other companies such as Epson, Xerox & some Canon & Brother cartridges, are not cost effective to refill. Some companies will charge you as much for a refilled cartridge as a replacement cartridge and refilling uses your empty cartridge with no parts replaced. The INK Store will refill your cartridge at a very competitive and affordable price to suit all types of user. This is why refilling is only cost effective for cartridges with built in print heads such as HP & Lexmark.

Lifespan of cartridges:
The lifespan of a cartridge circuit is not a set period. The resistors in the electronic circuit can continue to operate correctly for many refills, but have no guarantee for when they will fail after the cartridge has been used once. The condition and durability of the cartridge mainly depends on the usage and age of the cartridge.
When you buy a remanufactured ink cartridge, you are buying a guarantee that the ink cartridge works correctly and if not, it will be replaced for an ink cartridge that does or your money back. When paying for a refill, you are purely paying for the labour, expertise and high quality ink. The cartridge is your property and its condition and functionality is dependent on how well maintained the cartridge is and was before refilling.

Prices:

UK Prices

Cartridge Type / Service	Price each	Postage UK
Black Cartridge Refill	£ 5.00	£ 1 per cartridge
Cartridge Type / Service	Price each	Postage UK
Colour / Photo Colour Cartridge Refill	£ 7.00	£ 1 per cartridge
Cartridge Type / Service	Price each	Postage UK
Colour Decontamination and Refill	£ 9.00	£ 1 per cartridge
Cartridge Type / Service	Price each	Postage UK
4 Colour Cartridge Refill One cartridge that contains four colours: Black, Cyan, Magenta & Yellow	£ 9.00	£ 1 per cartridge

Europe Prices

Cartridge Type / Service	Price each	Airmail / Par Avion
Black Cartridge Refill	£ 5.00	£ 1.50 per cartridge
Cartridge Type / Service	Price each	Airmail / Par Avion
Colour / Photo Colour Cartridge Refill	£ 7.00	£ 1.50 per cartridge
Cartridge Type / Service	Price each	Airmail / Par Avion
Colour Decontamination and Refill	£ 9.00	£ 1.50 per cartridge
Cartridge Type / Service	Price each	Airmail / Par Avion
4 Colour Cartridge Refill One cartridge that contains four colours: Black, Cyan, Magenta & Yellow	£ 9.00	£ 1.50 per cartridge

How to send cartridges:

To make our refill service simpler to use, we have added a printable order form for you to fill in and include with your empty cartridges. Click here to print the Order Form. It also has all the general details you need to know about using the refill service for the UK. Complete all relevant areas of the form.

Send your empty cartridge / cartridges to: The INK Store, 101 Clase Road, Morriston, Swansea. SA6 8DY and enclose a cheque / postal-order for the type and amount of cartridges you are enclosing (see above for prices) plus £1.00 P&P for each cartridge enclosed.
Prices are VAT inclusive, so there's no VAT to add to the above prices and VAT invoices are supplied with your returned refilled cartridges.

Cheques to be made  payable to: The INK Store

Place your cartridges in a paper envelope and then inside a protective packet such as a jiffy bag.
*Do not place tape or plastic on colour cartridges, this will cause colour contamination.*

*Please remember to enclose a return address.*
*Please also provide a telephone number for ease of contact*
No telephone numbers or customer details are given to any other party outside our company and are only used to contact you.

For Europe orders, please add to your bank cheque £1.50 for each cartridge included ((£) Pounds Sterling only) and we will return it by air mail to arrive with you within 48 hours from despatch.

If you are local, bring your empty cartridges to our store for same day refill service, ( address above ).
Most cartridges refilled while you wait ( in minutes ).

Morriston Cross, Swansea.

For more details about the service go to our refill page.

Information:
Empty cartridges should be refilled within 15 days of running out of ink for best results, eliminating major head clogging & air locking problems.
Do not allow any plastic to touch the print head on the colour cartridges, as this will cause seepage and will contaminate the colours. If using a transit clip, please ensure that the cartridge is correctly inserted and secured into the clip.

You can refill ink cartridges yourself, but here are the drawbacks;
1) You will be using generic ink, which is an average consistency ink that can be used on all printers. This will give poor quality print-outs and is not pigmented.

2) Unless you have carried out the process several times, you will undoubtedly make a lot of mess and ink is hard to get out of carpets and clothes.

3) When filling a colour ink cartridge, if any single colour seeps into the chamber of another colour (Cyan, Magenta or Yellow), it will contaminate the colours and give you some very strange results when printing.

4) Some cartridges have to have their circuits reset and require technical knowledge to do so, this information can be supplied by The INK Store.

Delivery ( UK mainland )

Due to changes in the Royal Mail's prices and procedures, unfortunately we now have to charge postage & packaging on all ink cartridges, but we are keeping this to a minimum.

When you order ink cartridges from The INK Store, we deliver them to your home / work address using the postal service (first class).
Payment will be credit / debit card or alternatively cheque / postal-order by post before delivery.

For laser toner cartridges we charge postage @ £3.50 in UK and £5.00 in Europe, this is subsidised by us.

Delivery charges for inkjet cartridges & media in Europe Weight  Postage All P&P prices are now added online when you order and are written beneath each order button. Air Mail up to 48 hours Click Here to see our Ordering Page for further information The following countries are treated as Europe for ink cartridge ordering purposes. Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria (EU), Azerbaijan, Azores (EU), Balearic Islands (EU), Belarus, Belgium (EU), Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria (EU), Canary Islands, Corsica (EU), Croatia, Cyprus (EU), Czech Republic (EU), Denmark (EU), Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland (EU), France (EU), Georgia, Germany (EU), Gibraltar, Greece (EU), Greenland, Hungary (EU), Iceland, Irish Republic (EU), Italy (EU), Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Latvia (EU), Liechtenstein, Lithuania (EU), Luxembourg (EU), Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Rep. of), Madeira (EU), Malta (EU), Moldova, Monaco (EU), Montenegro, Netherlands (EU), Norway, Poland (EU), Portugal (EU), Romania (EU), Russia, San Marino (EU), Serbia, Slovak Republic (EU), Slovenia (EU), Spain (EU), Spitzbergen, Sweden (EU), Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vatican City State. Ignore the UK flag, it is part of Europe, but for postal purposes, has a different rate. Please select the correct regional order button when ordering.

Delivery time is usually up to 48 hours from the time of order, depending on the time of day and the day of the week that the order is placed. The Christmas holiday period also causes delays in delivery time. Orders should be placed before 2pm to guarantee same day despatch.
Advice to Epson inkjet customers: Always have a spare ink cartridge in hand before your existing ink cartridge is empty. Thus, not leaving your printer without ink for any period, which causes clogging of the heads and air locks.

Ordering
Payment is by credit / debit card
There are a number of ways to place an order and in all cases we need the following details; Name, Address (with Post Code), Printer make & model and or cartridge numbers / ref & how many of each cartridge you wish to order, plus your credit / debit card details.
e.g. Joe Bloggs, 9 Tudor Close, Ravenhill, Swansea. SA5 5EC. 01792 123456. Epson Stylus Color 640. 2 Black & 1 Colour

Placing your order

1) Online: All cartridges and media now have an 'Add to Basket' or a 'Europe' button next to them. UK residents just Add the item to their shopping Basket and European residents use the Europe button to do the same. There is a difference in the postage charges, so please be sure to use the correct button.

2) Telephone:  01792 548731 Please have your credit / debit card ready when you call.

3) Email:  ink@page-net.com (Not recommended) If you order by email, we will still require all your personal and credit / debit card details as well as the details of what you wish to order, but this will be at your own risk. We recommend you use our online ordering for security.

4) Fax:  Please telephone us for the fax number on 01792 548731, as we do not post this on our website due to the amount of junk faxes we receive.

5) Post:  If you wish to order by mail just simply print out an order form, fill in the relevant details and post it. Click here to print the Order Form. Use landscape when printing.

Sending Empties
We no longer buy your empty inkjet cartridges from our main site, but if you wish to recycle your empty cartridges that have print heads attached & empty toner cartridges, use these links: ( Ink Cartridge Recycling ) ( Toner Cartridge Recycling ).

Place your empty cartridges in a suitably protected postage box / packet. Post through your local Post Office. 

If you are unsure of the procedure, use the relevant link above.

Post your empties to: The INK Store, 101 Clase Road, Morriston, Swansea, UK. SA6 8DY

General maintenance and ink cartridge care
Providing a remanufactured printer cartridge hasn't suffered any electronic breakdown, which will be indicated by a flashing light on the printer or an error message stating this on your computer screen, there are certain procedures that the user can carry out to assist smooth operation of the remanufactured / refilled ink cartridge, details of this are enclosed in the remanufactured inkjet cartridge box.

Unlike original inkjet cartridges, remanufactured inkjet cartridges usually require head cleaning once they have been installed into the printer. Compatible inkjet cartridges such as Epson do not require the inkjet cartridge to be cleaned as they have no print head, however the printer that uses the inkjet cartridge does have a print head and this type of printer requires head cleaning regularly regardless of replacing ink cartridges, because the head is a permanent part of the printer and isn't changed every time you install a new ink cartridge. Epson, Xerox and some Canon & Brother printers use this method.

Head Cleaning
Head cleaning is carried out using either the ink button on the printer (press and hold for about 3 seconds) or through the printer software. The cleaning utility is available from a number of places such as, your printer properties box / window, your computer control panel under printers & faxes and many other places on your computer.
Head cleaning can be listed under a number of different options depending on your printer software, such as; Utilities, Maintenance, Print Manager, Control Manager, Tool Box & many others.

* Note: Some older printers have outdated software, which may need upgrading to modern operating systems, the driver upgrades are usually available free to download on the Internet. Just use a search engine such as www.google.com and type in your printer make and model + your operating system (e.g. Windows 98) and the word driver (e.g. Epson Stylus Color 640 Windows 98 Driver).
A list of websites that have the correct drivers for you to download and install will be shown for you to access. When using the Google search engine, the exact page that contains the items you requested (highlighted) are listed under "Cached". This means that you can go directly to that page by clicking on the link "Cached", which saves you having to search through a website looking for the driver download that you require.

Printer head cleaning facility / utility

If your Epson printer needs resetting you can download the latest software Version of the SSC Service Utility (V4.3) from this link.
For information on how to install and use the utility click here.
For all Epson Printer Resets and other problems as well as General Printer and Cartridge maintenance problems, click here.


Here is the easy way to access your printer head cleaning facility.

1) Whatever package you are using be it Microsoft Word, Paintshop Pro, Photoshop or any other package, go to [File] and click with the left mouse button to reveal the file options then click on [Print].

2) Click with the left mouse button on the [Properties] or [Preferences] button (top right in this case).

3) Click with the left mouse button on the [Head Cleaning] button.

Your printer software will now take you through the head cleaning procedure.

Control Panel:
On some printer's software, the only way to access head cleaning is to double click on 'My Computer' then click on 'Control Panel' and select 'Printers & Faxes'. Left Click the mouse on your default printer to highlight it, then Right Click the mouse to see a drop down menu. The next step could be to click on properties, maintenance, control manager or some other word relating to printer maintenance. There can be a large variety of different words for printer maintenance, far too many to research and list. Please read your printer manual for details of printer maintenance.

HP & Lexmark all in 1 PSC Printers (Print Scan Copy):
Printer maintenance is carried out using an LCD display on the printer. To access head cleaning or other periodic maintenance, first press the menu button, then scroll through the different menus and press enter when you see 'maintenance' or 'utilities' appear on the LCD. Scroll through until you see the item of maintenance you require, then press enter. The printer will then carry out the task automatically.

HP & Lexmark Inkjet Printers:
On modern printers, cartridge maintenance is carried out using the 'Tool box' via your HP / Lexmark program. To access the 'Tool Box', first check that the full HP / Lexmark program has been installed from your HP / Lexmark printer driver disk, then follow these steps:
On Windows based PC's, click on the [ Start ] button (bottom left of your computer screen), click on 'programs' or 'all programs', click on 'HP' / 'Hewlett Packard' or 'Lexmark', then click on your model (if more than one printer is installed on your PC) & then click on 'Tool box'.
A properties box will appear on screen, giving you access to a variety of functions and maintenance for your printer and the inkjet cartridges. You can carry out cleaning & priming of the ink cartridges here, you can align the cartridge heads, you can print a test page, you can check your ink usage and remaining ink levels and many more functions.

If the Tool Box is not installed, follow the Control Panel steps above.

Nozzle Check
This prints out a pattern in black and three colours (5 colours on photo printers & just black on mono printers). The software will show you a picture of how the pattern should look and if there are any missing lines, you need to clean the print heads. On some HP and Lexmark printers, your printer will print some black text and a coloured picture.

Print Head Alignment
This is to align the black & colour print heads. It will print out a series of lines with numbers beneath, just look at the lines to see which number corresponds to the best aligned and type that number into the onscreen box provided. There are usually two sets to check, but on some printers there may be only one or more than two.
Alignment cannot be carried out until both the black & colour cartridges are printing correctly, i.e. do not require any further cleaning or priming and produce all the correct colours without any missing areas.

Running out of ink
If you have left your Epson inkjet printer without ink for any length of time, ink will dry & harden on the heads and it will require quite a lot of cleaning to clear the hardened ink from the heads. After you have completed the cleaning process once, the software usually takes you into a nozzle check [Print nozzle check pattern], this is fine when just cleaning generally, but when the printer has been left for a period without ink, doing a nozzle check after one clean only causes more clogging problems, especially after a period without ink where air gets trapped between the print head and the ink from the new cartridge.
We have found that the only way to clear the blockage is to carry out 4 to 5 or more cleans in a row before doing a nozzle check. Therefore, every time the software finishes cleaning and a box appears asking you to print nozzle check pattern, you need to cancel this and click on head cleaning again. Repeat this 4 to 5 times or more, then print the nozzle check pattern to see how the head cleaning is progressing. If necessary, repeat the procedure above until the print-out shows some improvement. Remember that cleaning uses quite a lot of ink so have a spare ink cartridge as a back up, otherwise you will be back where you started. In order not to have to carry out these drastic procedures, never leave your printer without ink for any length of time, always have a spare ink cartridge ready to fit and re-order 2 ink cartridges every time you fit your last cartridge, this goes for the black & colour (color) cartridges.
Cleaning Cartridges
Alternatively, we sell special cleaning cartridges for most Epson & Canon printer models. These are available online below your ink cartridges and also stocked at our shop. These cartridges contain a cleaning solution and are inserted the same as an ink cartridge. The solution will break down any hard / dry ink and clear your nozzles. However, printers that have been left to stand for many months or years, have no guarantee of clearing no matter what method you use, especially when you try to print after a long standing period, as the heads will just glaze over completely, never allowing any liquid to pass through from that moment on.
For cleaning heads that have been left without use for a few weeks or even up to a couple of months, cleaning cartridges will usually clear the blockages.
Cleaning Cartridges are good economy even though they are usually slightly more expensive than ink cartridges, because they are reusable. You can plug them and store then for future use.
If your cleaning cartridge came without nozzle plugs, just place some sticky tape over the air channels at the top of the cartridge, this will stop the flow of liquid from the cartridge, then place it in its cardboard box and store it away.

Printer functions
This is a difficult subject to cover, as all printers have different button and control set-up's.

Most Epson printers have a Paper Button & an Ink Button somewhere on the printer and these buttons can be used for a variety of tasks.

The paper button
This is normally used to feed a sheet of paper through and to clear paper jams by pressing it once. On some models, it can also be used to reset the printer cartridges to the parked access position to be able to remove ink cartridges for any maintenance reason when they have not yet run out of ink. To do this, press and hold the paper button until the carriage starts to move then you can release it, the carriage will come to the parked position, but on some printers, will only give you access to the black cartridge. To gain access to the colour cartridge, press the paper button once again and release without holding and the carriage will move across to the colour cartridge.

The Ink button
This is normally used to bring the ink cartridge carriage to the parked access position for replacing empty cartridges. It will automatically give you access to the correct cartridge when the software has detected low ink level and illuminated the low ink level light on the printer. When the ink level light is illuminated, press the ink button once and release, the carriage will then park itself for ink cartridge access.

This can also be used to clean the cartridges without using your computer software.
To start the printer cleaning process, press and hold the ink button for about 3 seconds or until the printer starts to move the carriage. The printer will now clean the print heads for you. On some printers the cleaning process can take a number of minutes, whilst on some modern printers the process can be as quick as 20 seconds.

**Note: If you have left the printer without ink for any length of time, the heads will become clogged with hardened dry ink and will take a lot of cleaning to clear the blockages when a new ink cartridge is fitted. As explained in the 'running out of ink' section above, you will be more successful in clearing the blockages by cleaning 4 or 5 times without carrying out a nozzle check. The easiest way to achieve this is to press and hold the ink button on the printer until it starts the cleaning process, then release and when it has finished, repeat the process until you have cleaned it 4 or 5 times. Print a nozzle check to see if there is any improvement in ink flow. Repeat the process if it still requires cleaning.
It is advised that you never leave your printer without ink for any length of time, always have a spare ink cartridge, a cleaning cartridge or a click in cartridge (special cartridge with fluid) at hand and use your printer at least once per week.
Also see Cleaning Cartridges above.





Changing Ink Cartridges
When your printer cartridge is low, your printer will usually tell you by either a flashing light on the printer or by a message on screen.
To change the cartridges when the printer light is flashing, simply press the ink button on the printer once. Wait for the carriage to stop in the space that gives you access to change the cartridges. Change only the cartridge that is low and if by chance more than one cartridge is low and require changing at the same time, change them one at a time. After inserting each cartridge correctly, press the ink button for the printer to prime and recognise the cartridge that has been replaced.

Cartridge not quite empty?
To change a cartridge on all Epson, some Canon, Xerox & Brother printers when the software is showing low ink, but is not yet telling you to change the cartridge.
If your printer has a paper button as well as an ink button, press and hold the paper button until you hear movement from the printer carriage then follow the same procedures as below.
If your printer only has an ink button, press and hold this until you hear movement from the carriage. The carriage should then park itself in the space for changing the cartridge. This is not always the case for those printer types that only have an ink button, changing cartridges can sometimes only be changed when the cartridge is low and the software tells you to change the cartridge.

Unpacking and readying the cartridge for inserting into the printer.
Cartridges are usually supplied sealed / vacuum sealed / taped and within a box. First remove the cartridge from the box, shake a few times, remove any vacuum sealed plastic / foil covering the cartridge, tear off any strips marked 'peal' / 'remove' / 'tear', remove any plastic protective spacers / sponges from locking clips (if applicable), remove any transit clip (if applicable) and place the cartridge with the nozzles facing down into the correct print carriage on your printer. Next, push closed any locking plates / lids / clips with a reasonable but not excessive amount of force so as to pierce the nozzles. On HP & Lexmark cartridges with print heads attached, no force will be required as they do not have any nozzles to pierce, just place these cartridges with the electronic contacts facing the printer contacts and either click into place or push the lid closed, depending on printer type. On most HP & Lexmark printers, closing the printer lid will usually start the priming and cartridge set up procedure automatically. On some HP & Lexmark printers, you will need to either select priming and other setup procedures on an LCD display menu or on your computer screen using the printer software / toolbox.

Clearing clogged heads / air locks.
On all Epson and some Canon / Xerox / Brother printers, the print heads are permanent and therefore require regular maintenance using the software provided. These permanent print heads can clog or air lock at any time. Don't worry this is quite normal for all users of these printer makes. You can usually purchase cleaning cartridges to clear severe clogging (dry ink) from the heads, but following the next procedure will usually clear any clogging and prime the ink to remove air locks.
Use the software and select 'Head Cleaning'. Once the printer has finished cleaning the heads, you will normally see a message asking you to print a nozzle check pattern. In this case, do not print the pattern, instead, cancel this and select 'Head Cleaning' 2 or 3 times more, cancelling the nozzle check pattern each time until the 3rd or 4th clean, then allow it to print the nozzle check pattern. You should now see improvement in the print or it may even have cleared and is printing perfectly. If improved but not perfect, carry out the complete procedure above once again. If no improvement or no flow is apparent, you will need a cleaning cartridge of the same colour type for your printer make and model. Use the cleaning cartridge until the clogging or air lock has been cleared.

Epson printer messages.
When fitting compatible Epson cartridges with smart chips to your Epson printer, you will see a message appear after fitting which will inform you that the cartridge installed is not made by Epson and it asks you if you wish to continue using the cartridge, click 'Yes' to use the cartridge.
If you select 'No', the micro chip information will be reset and the cartridge will be unusable.
If you selected 'No' at that point, you may not ask for a replacement cartridge, as the unserviceability of the cartridge will have been caused by you telling your software not to use the cartridge that you just installed.
For help finding the printer maintenance properties box, see 'Printer Head Cleaning Facility / Utility' above.

How do I know which ink cartridge fits my machine?

1. Your existing printer cartridge should have a number on it, which will help your search on this site.
2. Your printer has a model number, which should be listed in the printer brand-name pages. e.g. HP, Canon, Epson, Lexmark etc.
3. If your printer isn't listed under it's name, e.g. HP, Canon, etc, this doesn't mean that your cartridges are not available. They may be listed as compatible for another brand of printer. Type your make & model number into the site search to find the page it may be on (ignoring the paid links at the top of the page).
4. If you still can't find your printer model or cartridge listed on this site, phone us on 01792 548731 and state your printer make & model, tell us which colour cartridge you need (e.g. Black, 3 Colour etc.) and we will search our stock database for you.

Ink Cartridge & Printer Codes & what they mean
There are thousands of different number & letter combinations used for printer cartridges, toners & ribbons. Each manufacturer has its own set of codes, which have a meaning that helps them to recognise and distinguish each cartridge. Compatible companies and remanufacturing companies also use their own identity codes and this can be very confusing. In order not to confuse the end user, we always use the OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer's codes. Therefore, for Epson compatible cartridges, we will always use Epson's cartridge numbers to identify their compatibility.

Epson Printer Codes:
Epson printers were first called Stylus, followed by numbers to identify each different model. This was back when printers used one cartridge (mono), which was black.
As colour printers were introduced, Epson Stylus printers became Epson Stylus Color printers. Color is the USA spelling, which is how you will see it on your printer and the literature that accompanies it.
On the latest Epson printer models, the word Color has been replaced by the letter C. e.g. Epson Stylus C60.
Photo quality printers use different colour cartridges, these are 5 colour cartridges and the printer is listed as Epson Stylus Photo followed by the model number.

Epson Ink Cartridge Codes:
Epson cartridges have two types of codes: 'S' & 'T' with numbers after them. (e.g. S187, T007).
The full code for the 'S' cartridge range may be S020187, but the 020 would be used across the whole range (constant) and as it serves no purpose to the user, it is left out.
The full code for the 'T' cartridge range can be many different variations of numbers either side of the constant. As with the 'S' range, it is the differing numbers (variable) that we need to concern ourselves with in order to be able to identify different cartridges.
Colour cartridges use 3 standard colours; (C / M / Y) Cyan, Magenta & Yellow. Users tend to refer to them as Blue, Red & Yellow, but this is incorrect as Blue & Red are primary colours, whereas Cyan & Magenta are not, they are the colours that have been developed for best mixing with black ink, yellow ink & white paper to produce perfect printed colour.
Photo printer cartridges use 5 colours; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan & Light Magenta. The light cyan & magenta give the printer more gradients of colour, giving better photographic quality prints,
this is also the case for light black.
Light Black or Photo Black is actually Grey and you will find this type of ink cartridge on modern photo quality printers such as the Epson Stylus Photo 2100 / 2200.

Canon Printer Codes:
Canon Printers use the prefix BJ, which stands for Bubble Jet. Canon were the first company to produce an inkjet printer and they called it a bubble jet printer, then as other companies started manufacturing printers, the word inkjet became more popular.
Canon printers can be BJC, BJP, BJS etc. On the newer Canon printer models the BJ is hardly ever used when advertising the printer and instead you may see a printer code as S400, which would be BJS400.

Canon Ink Cartridge Codes:
Canon use a few types of code to identify their ink cartridges. The basic code that distinguish the two different types of cartridge is the letter ' i '. If a cartridge is listed as a BCI it is just an ink tank and if it is listed as a BC or BX it is an ink tank with a built in print head.
You may also see ink cartridges listed as BJI, again these are just ink tanks as the have the letter ' i ' in the code.

HP (Hewlett Packard) Ink Cartridge Codes:
HP ink cartridges have two types of codes e.g. C6578A & 51645A. For those with a C in the code, this is the constant and for those with a 516 in the code, this is the constant. e.g. 51626A, 51629A, C1823A, C6625A etc. They also give their ink cartridges additional easy to use codes, so C6578A is a N^o.78, 51626A is a N^o.26, 51625A is a N^o.25 & C6625A is a N^o.17. The 'A' at the end of the code is the capacity of ink in the ink cartridge, 'A' meaning full (Large). If the code has a 'G' it is half full of ink and if the code has a 'D' at the end it usually means ½ to ¾ full (Economy). 'AE' the 'A' means large capacity and the 'E' means produced for the region of Europe.

General Printer & Ink Cartridge Code:
I don't wish to list every make of printer and the thousands of combinations of codes, therefore I shall add a few general guides.

Any reference to OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for compatibles & remanufactured items is purely for compatibility reference. The trademarked names are also for reference to the printer make & model. We do supply Trademarked OEM and these are listed under their own category, Originals (OEM).

For Further Information Telephone: 01792 548731 Email

The INK Store
101 Clase Road, Morriston, Swansea, UK. SA6 8DY
Tel: 01792 548731


Page last updated: 30 January 2013

Rules & conditions apply, Click to view Terms, Conditions & Customers Rights.