Whether you use your printer to print photos at home or for business purposes at your workplace, there is one thing you never want to experience, and that’s running out of ink. Unfortunately, it does happen when you least expect it or when you have important tasks to accomplish.
Under such conditions, your operation comes to a standstill as you try to look for ink. In some worst cases, this can mean lost opportunities and/or extra costs. Fortunately, you can avoid experiencing such messes by subscribing to instant ink.
But wait, what’s an instant ink, and how does it work? Assuming you have no clue, read our post to the end as we try to explain instant ink work.
What is an Instant Ink?
In simple terms, instant ink is a form of subscription whereby your printer manufacturer guarantees to offer you ink or replace your cartridges whenever you run out of ink. Most printer manufacturers let you pick your desired subscription plan depending on your ink consumption and the frequency at which you use your printer.
When you subscribe to instant ink, you will require to make monthly payments, a failure to which your ink won’t be delivered.
How Does Instant Ink Work?
Now that you know what instant ink refers to, let’s find out how the ink works.
Your printer automatically detects the amount of ink or toner left in the cartridges and notifies the manufacturer when the levels go down. It then sends a message to your manufacturer requesting them to send you another ink cartridge.
This is extremely i. This is extremely important as it ensures you never run out of ink when demanding printing needs.
Are There Benefits of Using Instant Inks?
If you are also asking the above question, the answer is YES. There are many pleasing benefits that you can’t simply overlook. Some of these include
1. Saves on Your Cost
Depending on your printing needs, subscribing to an instant ink can reduce your overall printing costs significantly. This is the case, particularly if you print rarely. However, to save on cost, you have to ensure your printing needs match your subscription plan.
2. Offer You Convenience
How would it feel when you are loaded with files to print, and then your printer ink runs out unexpectedly? You’d feel bad, and the case would even worsen further, assuming it happened when you are facing financial constraints.
Luckily with an instant ink subscription plan, this will never happen to you. Your printer manufacturer will know when you are almost running out of ink and deliver. So you will never experience the headaches of getting your operation halted.
3. You Can Have Peace of Mind Printing Full-Color Pages
If you fear printing full-color pages due to the associated ink costs, you will truly embrace the idea of subscribing to instant ink. With it, you can print without any worries since your monthly fees for ink depend primarily on the number of pages you print for a given month.
4. You Can Rollover Any Unused Pages
If you print rarely or don’t have many tasks to print in a given month, you will roll over the unused pages to the next month (you already paid for them, so your printer manufacturer will let you use them even if the month you paid for ended).
You should, however, note that there are limitations when carrying forward any unused pages – for example, some printer manufacturers set limits to the number of pages that you can carry forward.
5. You Can Change Your Printing Plan or Cancel Subscription Anytime
If you are not happy with any printing plan you subscribe to, you can change it any time you wish. You will realize that your printer manufacturer offers various subscription plans so that you can pick the one that works best for you. Consequently, you can make changes whenever a need arises.
To make it even better, your printer manufacturer also allows you the freedom of unsubscribing whenever you want. To do this, message or call them and give reasons why you wish to quit.
What’s The Flipside of Subscribing to Instant Ink?
Much as you enjoy the above benefits, you should be aware that there are some consequences. You should be ready to bear the following.
Printed Pages Can be Different From What You Think
According to your printer’s manufacturer, one of the things that you should understand clearly is the definition of “a printed page.” According to them, a printed page refers to any page bearing ink from the printer. So even if you print one page, your printer counts that as a printed page, adding to your costs.
You Must Keep Printer Connected to the Internet
When subscribing to instant ink, ensure you have working internet at your place. Otherwise, it will be hard for your printer to monitor your usage or communicate with the manufacturer.
If you have no reliable internet connection, your printer will not monitor the number of pages you print. As a result, these pages won’t be counted, and this can cause trouble between you and your printer’s manufacturer.
Your Operation Are Monitored
By subscribing to instant ink, you permit your printer’s manufacturer to monitor activities such as;
- The number of pages you print
- The kind of documents you are managing
- The ink levels etc.
Such monitoring can infiltrate your privacy – something that may not be so pleasing.
The Bottom Line
As you can see from our post, subscribing to instant ink offers you a wide range of benefits. It means waving goodbye to the inconveniences you experience whenever your printer runs out of ink. Besides, it saves on your costs and offers you peace of mind even when dealing with full-color prints.
However, it would be best to bore a few things, which have already been discussed in this post. It’s now upon you to weigh the benefits and limitations before making a decision!
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So if it purely counts pages that suggests that it doesn’t matter how much ink you actually use on those pages? So whether you print an A4 size colour picture or just print one word on a page it still counts as one page, right? So I take it that it monitors the ink levels as well and if it runs out quicker because of colour pictures I would get new ink more often than if I just printed a few words on each page. Is this correct? Just wondered.