In basic terms a CISS is an ink cartridge that you never have to replace. As the name suggests, the cartridge is supplied a continuous flow of ink usually contained in a separate reservoir through rubber tubing.

What purpose does this serve and what advantage does it hold over a regular cartridge? Well it’s simple really, it’s a lot cheaper and once its set up you won’t have to change any parts for a while, just top up the reservoir with ink.

As you can see in the illustration above, the idea is very simple. A pipe connects a reservoir full of ink to a cartridge similar in shape and size to whatever cartridge your printer usually uses. The printer cartridge slots into the printer as usual and as it uses up ink, it is continuously re-filled with ink. The science behind the technology is fairly simple, liquid contained within a high pressure chamber will usually flow into a chamber with lower pressure, meaning that as the cartridge empties itself of ink, the ink in the reservoir naturally flows in to it.

You may be asking why everyone doesn’t use this incredible yet simple system? Continuous ink systems are in fact used a lot in industrial printing, for example label printing or wide format printing. However when it comes to home users, it often not worth the time or effort.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to use a CISS with every printer, it often depends on where the cartridges are stored or what type of cartridges they are. While it is possible to set up a CISS yourself using existing cartridges, it’s not really recommended, so if you are lucky enough to have a printer that it is compatible with a CISS then the easiest thing to do is to purchase a full system that is made specifically for your printer. Even then you may still have to modify your printer slightly to accommodate the CISS.

So that ends our definition of a CISS, it’s just one of the many cheaper alternative options when it comes to printing. Do we think it’s a viable option for home users? Well that’s up to you to decide! Let us know what you think below in the comments.

First of all we have two very portable printer devices that were both shown off at this years CES, one is a stand alone portable printer and the other is a concept iPhone printer case.

The LG Pocket Photo Printer is the stand alone device. It’s a simple but very cool looking portable printer for android that uses Zink paper (thermal paper that is used by a few modern day portable printers) to print either wirelessly or via a USB port on the side of the device.

It’s a truly pocket sized device, it looks great and thanks to the previously mentioned Zink paper, it needs no ink whatsoever. The LG Pocket Photo Printer is already available in Korea and is soon to be released in other parts of the world. If the price remains roughly the same as it is over in Korea at the moment, it should cost just over £100, which I personally think is a little too much.

The second of the portable printing devices, is as mentioned previously, a printing iPhone case made by a company called Concept 101 while working with AT&T. It’s an extremely clever concept case that fits snugly round the iPhone 5 and plugs in via the lightning connector. Again, this device doesn’t need ink as it uses a thermal technology similar to the above mentioned Zink.

Personally I would be much more likely to buy and use this device over the LG portable printer, however, the printer case is still a concept and is not expected to be launched until much later this year.

Next up we have a Polaroid Shaped printer I stumbled across while on Vimeo. Like many of the other experimental and quirky printer ideas that we have talked about in previous posts, the so called “Polaroid Cacher” is just an interactive project and at the moment isn’t really a product as such.

The idea behind the Polaroid Cacher is very interesting. It’s purpose is to provide us with analog memories of our digital lives. Basically the Polaroid shaped printer is connected to your computer through Bluetooth and is then sent screen captures of your digital adventures. The printer then prints them out, again on Zink paper, creating an ‘analog memory’ of what would be a fleeting digital moment.

Last, but definitely not least we have the Filabot. It’s not a printer, but I think this product is too incredible not to talk about. As you all know 3D printers are huge at the moment, there’s not a day goes by that I don’t hear about a new 3D printing device or see the latest Kickstarter for a 3D printer. One of the reasons I personally didn’t really think 3D printers would become a household device just yet is because of the cost of the filament needed to print.

You could say that the filament is the equivalent of printer ink. It is the consumable you need to print a 3D object with most of the newer personal 3D printers. Obviously the filament can cost a fair amount at around an average of £25 for a kilo of plastic.

This is where Filabot comes in. It’s a truly simple idea, however it could change a lot for the personal 3D printing industry. The Filabot recycles plastic in to the filament your 3D printer needs! It can recycle pretty much any type of household plastics from plastic milk jugs to odd bits of Lego. The Filabot does this by tearing apart the plastics and then melting them down through an extruder meaning that you end up with a reel of plastic exactly the right thickness for your 3D printer.

Too long have cartridges been worth more than a printer! But fortunately, as mentioned above, the companies appear to be doing something about it. You have probably seen the Kodak ads about having the cheapest genuine ink, and it’s not just them, the likes of HP and other big brands are trying to be cheaper too.

So who is really the cheapest? Let’s find out. Let’s compare a few of the cheapest genuine ink cartridges to find out.

Kodak 10
Price: £19.00 – £20.00
Page Yield: 420 pages with the black and 420 pages with the colour.
Cost Per Page: £0.023

HP 364
Price: £22.00 – £28.00
Page Yield: 175 pages with the black and 540 pages with the combined colours.
Cost Per Page: £0.034

Epson 18
Price: £22.00 – £25.00
Page Yield: 250 pages with the black and 900 pages with the combined colours.
Cost Per Page: £0.020

Epson T0715
Price: £25.00
Page Yield: 250 pages with the black and 1255 pages with the combined colours.
Cost Per Page: £0.016

Brother LC-985
Price: £25.00
Page Yield: 300 pages with the black and 780 pages with the combined colours.
Cost Per Page: £0.023

HP 932XL & 933XL
Price: £50.00
Page Yield: 1000 pages with the black and 2475 pages with the combined colours.
Cost Per Page: £0.014

All the above is only a close estimation, as prices often change and ink levels are not always precise. As we can see, once you get down to the cost per page, there isn’t much difference in cost.

Surprisingly, the cheapest genuine cartridge we’ve found today was the new HP 932XL and 933XL combo pack. While it does cost the most at the time of purchase, it ends up getting you a lot more for the money, providing you with a cost per page of around £0.014.

The most costly out of the ones we have looked in to today was the newer Epson cartridge, the Epson 18 which costs you more than double per page at £0.034. It’s interesting as the older Epson T0715 cartridge only costs you £0.016.

So what knowledge have we gained from this? Well to summarise: If you are going to buy a new printer, buy a new HP printer that takes 932 and 933 cartridges. If you are going to buy an Epson printer, maybe stick with an older model.

The HP Officejet 6600 and 6700 Premium eAiO are all in one printer, scanner, copiers and come with both Air Print and E print technology. They are wireless and fully loaded with 2.0 USB connections that allow you to print straight from a flash drive and are Ethernet networkable.

They have a recommended duty cycle of 12000 pages per month. The 6700 utilises HP’s separate ink tank and print head system. The Officejet 6100 is entry level of this range and although it’s competitively priced it is also packed with most of the features of the other printers in this range, the duty cycle is a little lower with a recommended 3000 pages per month.

The new additions to the Officejet 6000 range of printers use the following consumables HP932XL Black (CN053AE), HP933XL Yellow (C056AE), Magenta (CN055AE) and the Cyan (CN054AE) make up the three colours.

Other additions to the Officejet range of printers is the Officejet 8100, Officejet 8600 and 8600 plus. Aimed mainly at the small to medium business user all three of the machines are multifunction fax, scanner and copier. HP recommends a duty cycle of up to 25000 pages so its heavier duty than the HP6000 range. The HP8000 series also uses the separate print head and ink tanks system and utilises the HP950XL Black (CN045AE), the colours are HP 951XL (CN046AE) Cyan, (CN047AE) Magenta and (CN048AE) Yellow printer cartridges.

All the above printers are available at reasonable prices direct from HP’s website.

But from a consumer’s or end users point of view I can understand why you might feel the opposite, in fact from a consumer’s point of view you can be forgiven for thinking that HP are totally anti-refilling.

Back in the not so old days, HP printer cartridges were not just bigger and had more ink they were a little less annoying too. It was really simple back then in the days of the 6578A or 51645A, you took out your ink cartridge, had it refilled, popped it back in the machine and hey presto! It worked; sometimes your printer would throw up a message asking if you were aware that you have re-installed an old cartridge, you clicked “Yes” then the printer was happy and would even reset your ink level gauge for you so you would know when you are almost out of ink.

If you have recently used a refilled HP inkjet cartridge or a compatible HP cartridge you will no doubt have realised that you get a warning when you reinstall the cartridge, the message usually warns you that “you are using a refilled or non-genuine cartridge which is quite naughty and for that I will not show you what ink you have left…. so there!”. Ok! the wording is not exact but it’s along those lines. If you choose to ignore it it will pop up again and often again which is annoying to say the least.

These messages are there for a couple of reasons and have changed as the newer and smaller cartridges were introduced back in early 2000ish. On some printers HP use this message to assist in identifying a counterfeit cartridge, the message says something along the lines of “the cartridge installed is depleted, if you bought this as a genuine product please contact HP” this is because some unscrupulous criminals are refilling empty HP cartridges then packing them in fake HP boxes and selling them on to the unsuspecting public as genuine HP products, so this message I understand and agree with, because it is trying to protect me and HP’s profits from criminals; but what I don’t understand is why this message cannot be over-ridden and then the printer function as it normally would with a brand new HP cartridge, i.e no more warnings no more flashing lights and ink level gauges that work.

What is missing is a button where I can click “NO I am using a refilled cartridge but thank you for warning me!” then the printer could do the job I purchased it for unhindered by warnings or flashing lights regardless of whether or not my cartridge has been refilled. Yes these warnings are there to serve a purpose but I can’t help thinking that its also a crafty little way of discouraging end users from using refilled cartridges.

No doubt some users will be discouraged too, annoyed with the little warnings and the fact that you don’t know exactly when the cartridge might run out, use genuine HP and have no warnings….but you will pay more for the privilege, but there are also many users who are quite happy to put up with the warnings, after all the massive savings to be had when using refilled or compatible HP printer cartridges far out weighs the minor inconvenience of a few flashing lights, you know the cartridge is out of ink when it stops printing.

I suppose its down to personal preference, Me? well with the amount of HP ink I use at home and in the office I will be sticking with the refills, even though the warnings are driving me mad!

As an HP supplier we are very much aware of the problem which is why we only purchase our supplies from authorised wholesalers, but we realise that many people are not aware of the problem so we are helping to raise awareness with this blog.

We are also a recycler of HP cartridges and recently whilst sorting through a batch of cartridges for recycling we came across what we believe to be a fake HP inkjet cartridge. Have a look at the images below and see how far the counterfeiters will go to make the fakes look so convincing, the end result being to rip you, the consumer, off.

Have a close look at the HP printer cartridges above, one of these is a fake and one is a genuine HP product. Which one do you think is fake and why? (see below for close ups)

Above: A closer look at cartridge A       Below: A closer look at cartridge B

The fake is cartridge A, did you guess correctly? Both cartridges are a little grubby as they have been in a recycling bin but if you look closely at cartridge A you will notice that the font on the cartridge code is different from Cartridge B, on A the number 57 is much slimmer and the font doesn’t look very bold. Also if you look at the line of coloured dots they do not line up correctly, the Cyan (blue) dot is higher than the other two dots.

On Cartridge B, the genuine HP one, the number 57 font is much wider and bolder in colour, also you will notice that the three coloured dots all line up perfect as you would expect from HP.

Counterfeiting is big business, a recent study conducted identified that a whopping 10% of world trade is in fake goods.

The fake cartridge above is not a true fake, well it is from the point that when buying them you actually believe you are buying a genuine HP product which you aren’t; what you are buying is a re-manufactured cartridge that instead of being labelled as such is being packed into fake HP packaging and sold as genuine so from that point of view it is a fake. Don’t get me wrong there are some fantastic quality re-manufactured printer cartridges out there its just a matter of finding a brand that you trust, unfortunately the villains who are running this counterfeit scam don’t put as much effort into the print quality as they do deceiving us all as the fake cartridges are usually really poor quality and often circuitry failures so often don’t work at all.

So what is HP doing about this problem? A lot to be fair, HP is putting a huge efforts into anti counterfeit measures and have been doing so for at least 10 years. They have a legal team who work relentlessly to protect their copyrights as well as working closely with Police,Customs and other Law Enforcement officers around the globe performing raids on the rogue factories that are turning these fake goods out.

They are also constantly changing the packaging to stay ahead of the crooks as well as introducing hologram stickers with QR codes that you can scan with a smart phone to prove authenticity. They have also introduced a section on their website where you can check your code on-line. Visit http://h41105.www4.hp.com/ok/en/index.asp for HP’s on-line product checker.

Check out the video below, this is an interview with HP’s David Cooper the Director of HP’s Anti Counterfeit Team, here David explains in detail a few steps you can take to not just spot the fakes but avoid buying them altogether.

However, I imagine it won’t be the same for much longer, even though housebuilding techniques constantly improve and  the materials used become more advance, I think the biggest changes in construction are still to come, in fact the biggest changes are all ready on their way.

You’re probably asking what exactly I’m talking about. I’m talking about the automation of construction, cement printers, 3D moon dust printers capable of creating shelter… All these things all ready exist, albeit in prototype form, and they could change our lives in amazing ways.

The first outstanding example we have is the D-Shape “Moon Dust Printer” created by Enrico Dini. The D-Shape is a robotic building system that works in similar fashion to some 3D printers. The technology uses a new superior sandstone like material to construct strong and useful structures with a stereolithography 3-D printing process.

The technology uses sand and a binding material to  ’print’ shapes, structures and building layer by layer, much like many of the smaller 3D printing devices available today. This system would not only automate and speed up construction, but would also allow much more precision, creativity, complexity and environmental compliance to modern day construction.

The creators of D-Shape have some very interesting and not ridiculously ambitious ideas of what they believe their tech could be used for. Just a few examples include

• Urban structures such as bus shelters, benches, pavements, fountains, etc.
• Playground structures, small playhouses, tunnels and caves.
• Portions of bridges, roads, tunnels, tube sections, etc.
• Replicas of ancient structures, missing parts of columns, religious structures, etc.

The possibilities of such a device are almost endless and it sounds like these guys have just the right sort of ideas in mind. However, the D-Shape isn’t the only project out there that’s concentrated on “printing” instead of constructing. Behrokh Khoshnevis, the Director of Manufacturing Engineering Graduate Program at the University of Southern California, did an amazing TED talk on the subject that you can see below. He explains the concept of “3D printing” buildings and the ideas being worked on in detail so be sure to give it a watch.

The article is fairly heavy going but in it Cronin describes how that by utilising a 3D printer that is already available on the open market it is in theory (theory at the moment) possible to be able to actually print drugs at molecular level. The process is very complex as you can imagine so I have tried to really simplify it but it is based around the idea of using a standard bathroom sealant as a substrate or holder which will create a kind of lab, the idea is then to print into the sealant with specially formulated “chemical inks” held in special printer cartridges one chemical at a time, each layer of chemical ink printed will then react with the previous one within the silicone, this process is repeated until the end result or “chemical ink formula” is reached.

The first drug they are looking at formulating with a 3D printer is Ibuprofen and if this is successful then the options really are excitingly limitless. It’s unlikely that you will be printing drugs at home with your HP printer cartridges anytime soon but what changes lay ahead in the pharmaceutical world if this becomes a reality.

Cronin explains that once the software is finalised replication will be simple enough, the Chem-puter as he as nick-named it will potentially allow drugs to be formulated and printed exactly where they are needed rather than have to be delivered, this could make a massive difference to famine and drought torn countries and to military hospitals in warzones or other difficult places.

Once the process has been fine-tuned then it should be as simple as using pre-programmed software from the pharmaceutical companies to replicate the formula and print in 3D format just like when the printer uses colours to create an image on paper, a drug or tablet could be created.

At the moment this is an idea, a very real idea with the possibility of becoming a reality, if it does; it will without doubt be a world changing event that has far out reaching possibilities.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/21/chemputer-that-prints-out-drugs

For starters one thing that stands out in a real bank note is the feel of the note, a counterfeit note is usually smooth as it is just an image printed onto paper using a laser printer or an inkjet with standard off the shelf printer cartridges, a real bank note is not printed on paper, have you have ever wondered why that fiver you left in your pocket that when washed came out still like a fiver but the bus ticket or other normal paper came out like a ball of unreadable mess? Well that’s another main difference between real money and funny money, real money is not printed on paper it is printed on a specially formulated pulp that is a mix of 75% (hemp)cotton and 25% linen so it’s basically a cloth rather than a paper, which is the reason why it doesn’t disintegrate when wet. This special formula of materiel is a closely guarded secret and is supplied by a trusted company under armed guard; every scrap of the material is closely monitored and accounted for throughout the whole printing process.

When bank notes are printed they are not printed like a document is at home, which usually consists of an image on a screen then printed through an inkjet or laser printer using printer cartridges, they are printed using offset printing plates or negative plates which kind of stamps the image. But before this the final design will have to be carefully planned, counterfeiters are constantly trying to copy banknotes so a lot of anti-counterfeit measures are put in place in the design and colour choosing stage. Even the ink is a specially designed formula that only few are privileged to know the formula of.

The first book to roll of his printing press was the Holy Bible which was completed somewhere around 1450 to 1455, there were only 200 copies which were thought to be printed on paper made from rag cotton pulp and another 30 copies were also printed on animal skins, to date only 22 copies are known to exist, of which 7 are on animal skins. This means that somewhere there are possibly 208 copies hidden away in attics or cellars, that’s  if they haven’t been destroyed over the years.

Now in the unlikely event that you might come across an authentic original copy of Johan Gutenberg’s Bible stashed in your grans attic first treat it with care then get ready to celebrate, if a 1^st press Guttenberg Holy bible was to come on the antique collectors market today it would have a value in excess of 1 million dollars (USD), in fact even a single page printed double side would be worth more than $100,000.

I wonder what Johan would make of today’s superfast high speed printers that can print a page of high quality full colour in the  blink of an eye, what would he make of the desk top printer and printer cartridges that can print a full colour photograph in a moment or too? I think it would blow his mind but he would also feel pride, that a vision he had had such an impact on the world, as we know today more than ever, knowledge and the ability to use or share that knowledge is king.