replacing ink with its actual chemical replica is a simple idea and a simple practice with a jet cartridge. In the section 'Travel to the Center of a Jet Cartridge' we will discuss the principles of jet cartridge operations. The complexity in a jet cartridge has to do with the electronics and the software command and signal structure exchanged between computer and printer. But you do NOT have to concern yourself with the electronics, only with the ink.

Finally, printing with a jet printer, particularly in color, is beautiful. In the jargon of pop psychology it is a rewarding experience. Swiftly, silently and mysteriously your printer duplicates the crispness, the brilliance, the art of an illuminated manuscript. Pictures and words that took years to paint by patient Medieval monks are created for you in less than one minute. 
But this beauty is limited if you do not have the freedom to express it in print - if you are concerned and constrained by the exceedingly high cost of printing. Recharge your cartridges! Freed from the constraints of cost, your imagination will have the freedom to soar, to express your best, to find your Zen. Just like a wild mustang, freed from the tether, will dart with speed and grace across the prairie, displaying the very gifts that Nature gave him.

Printer Wars and Wars on Printers

Battle of Crecy (1346) between the forces of Philip VI of France (on the left, notice the flag with the three lilies) and Edward III Plantagenet of England. Through a very complicated lineage Edward lay claim to the crown of France. In this instance the French lost, but Crecy marks the beginning of the 100 years war.

A less gory but nevertheless protracted war has been fought now for 20 years between printer manufacturers and end users. We are, in a sense, the champions of end users, the front line soldiers of this war.

XV Century Miniature

Manufacturers tried and are trying to prevent users from re-charging their own cartridges, first with dot matrix, then with laser and jet printers. Manufacturers employ a vast array of weapons, including fear, rumor mongering, half truths, half lies, driver software tricks plus the inherent power of the label. A statement in a printer manual that you cannot re-charge or re-use a cartridge (or that you must only use the manufacturers' own cartridges) has a ring of finality. Though our collective mind is gradually changing,