When it comes to the amount of money you have to invest in various computer peripheries, printers would probably come at the top as some of the most dough-thirsty contraptions out there.
That said, having a printer at home or at the office that you can use whenever you feel like is always a better option than being forced to go to a professional photocopier to do the same thing. In this article, we will talk how to put ink in a printer.
For the record, in the passages below, we’ve chosen three printer models from different manufacturers as examples.
Without further ado, here’s how to put ink in a printer.
How To Put Ink In A Printer
Most modern-day printers use cartridge filled with ink to work, so unless you buy ink separately and want to use syringes to fill these cartridges yourself, the best option is to buy new cartridges and simply replace the old with the new ones.
So, even though printers can be pretty expensive to maintain (depending on how much and how often you use them, of course), it’s also true that owning a printer pays off when you take into consideration just how much money you would lose if you had to pay someone else to print something for you constantly.
Of course, owning a printer also has the massive advantage that you can print anything you want from the comfort of your home. (Or office, if you use printers at work regularly.)
(By the way, many printer manufacturers also offer the option to refill the old, used-up cartridges for you, so you can save some money by buying a new batch if you want to use this option.)
Replacing ink cartridges on Epson models
1. Open up the Printer Lid
… and access the printer cartridges. Now, with Epson printers, the deal is that, to access the ink cartridges, you have to first do some button-pushing, so to speak.
First off, to change the cartridges in your Epson printer, you must turn it on. This is because you need to access its menu to ‘unlock’ the cartridge-changing mechanism.
To do this, find the Setup button on your printer’s home screen. You can do this by pressing the right arrow button until you reach the Setup section. Once you’re there, hit OK and press the right arrow until you get to the Maintenance option. Next, press OK again, press the right arrow key until you reach the Ink Cartridge Replacement option.
When you choose this option, the old cartridges will slide to the right, and you will be able to see them within the open tray.
2. Remove the old ink cartridges
… by pinching the sides of the cartridge and pushing them upwards until they come out of their slot.
(Of course, if there aren’t any cartridges in your printer, you can skip this step.)
Typically, there should be three separate ink cartridges in your printer – yellow, red, and blue.
3. Carefully unpack and prepare the new cartridges
Before you can pop the new cartridges in the place of the old ones, it’s always a good idea to first shake them a couple of times to prime the ink, so that it doesn’t stick and it’s ready for use when you want to use the printer.
After this, you need to remove the protective tape that all new cartridges come with nowadays.
(An important note: Make sure to first shake the cartridge and then remove the tape. If you remove the tape first, shaking the cartridge will make the ink leak, which can create a mess.)
Also, when handling these new cartridges, you’ve just unpacked and removed the protective tape from, make sure not to touch the green area of the cartridge because this can cause clogs and leave fingerprints.
4. Insert the cartridges into their slots
Once you’ve prepared everything making sure not to spill any ink, you can then proceed to gently slide the cartridges into their slots.
The ink nozzles should face away from you, so they should go first.
If you’re not sure which end should go where, a good way to figure it out would be to pay attention to the position of the old cartridges, as this will give you a clue as to how to position the new ones.
Some Epson printers also feature a special Ink button for connecting the cartridges with the printer’s ink delivery system. If your Epson printer has one of these, you need to press it after you’ve slid the cartridges in their slots.
After you’ve done all this, you can simply close the lid and press the Start button if your printer model comes with one. You might also need to press OK to complete the cartridge replacement process.
Now the cartridges are connected to the ink delivery system, and you can start using the printer as before.
Replacing the ink cartridges on HP models
1. Open the center ink tray on your printer
A growing number of modern-day printers will have a top lid, underneath which a scanner is positioned. It’s the same deal with many of the modern-day HP models.
Now, to change the printer’s cartridge, what you need to do is open the lower center ink tray rather than the top part where the scanner is.
Since ink cartridge changing is to a degree automated in modern-day printer models, you will have to leave the printer turned on to access the cartridges in the first place.
Once you open up the tray, the ink cartridges will slide into view, similar to how this happens with the Epson printers we described above.
2. Remove the old cartridges
In case you already have cartridges in your printer, you’ll need to remove these first before you can replace them with new ones.
The way to do this on an HP printer would be to press gently on them, applying downward pressure. When you hear a popping sound, you can take the cartridge out.
If your HP printer has multiple cartridges, you need to remove each of them the same way.
3. Insert the new ink cartridges
The procedure for ‘treating’ the new ink cartridges before you can pop them in the slots is the same as with the model above.
First, shake the cartridge a little bit, then remove the protective tape. Once you’ve done this, you can slide them in the same way you took the old ones out. (But the process is reversed, of course.)
Also, make sure not to touch the copper-colored part where the nozzles are because that can leave fingerprints and potentially create clogs, leading to printer jams.
4. Close the Lid
If you’ve completed all the steps from above, all you need to do is simply close the lid.
When you do this, you will hear a clicking sound. This means that the cartridges are in the slots and that they are ready to be used.
After this, you can open a Word document, for example, and start printing as you did before.
Replacing a Canon printer cartridge
1. Open the ink tray
… which is located in the center of your printer. Now, what happens next pretty much depends on what sort of ink cartridges your Canon printer is using.
If you have a model with finer ink cartridges of the MG or MX series, the tray with these cartridges will automatically slide to the ‘replacement’ position, and the cover that’s protecting them will open automatically.
If, on the other hand, you have a model with several smaller cartridges (the standard ones), the tray with the cartridges will slide into the middle of the printer’s inside when you open the top lid of the printer.
Either way, it’s important to remember that your printer needs to be turned ON while you’re opening these trays. If it’s off, the mechanism that pushes these cartridges into your view and that opens the cover (if you’re using fine cartridges) won’t start, and you won’t be able to change them.
2. Remove the old cartridges
Removing cartridges from a Canon printer is a piece of cake.
All you need to do is to press down on them until you hear a click. This click means that the protective piece of plastic holding the cartridge in place has been dislodged, meaning that you can now remove the cartridge.
3. Insert the new cartridges
Depending on what model of Canon printer you’re using, you will have to replace just two cartridges (black and one with three colors in it), or several cartridges with different colors.
Whichever model you have, make sure to remove the protective film that shields the nozzles. (Also, make sure not to touch these nozzles.)
Next, insert them the same way you took the old ones out, but in reverse, so to speak.
4. Close the Lid
Once you’ve placed the new cartridges in their slots, close the lid and you will hear a click that marks that the new cartridges are secure in their place.
After this, the cartridges will get connected to the printer’s ink delivery system, and you can start printing.
Conclusion
All things considered, putting new cartridges in your printer or replacing the old ones with new ones is a simple enough procedure. As you’ve seen, there are roughly four steps for doing this, so you can rest assured you’ll be able to figure it out pretty quickly, even if you’ve never done it before. We hope you found how to put ink in a printer in this article helpful.