Inkgard Software and Cartridges Provide Variable Benefit
Have you always wished you could stretch an ink pickup's life so that you wouldn't have to buy a replacement so soon? There's an app for that.
As PCWorld's Ordered Refiller, I've spent well-nigh a yr trying various remanufactured ink cartridges and do-IT-yourself refill kits. All of the alternatives I've inflicted on my trusty HP Photosmart e-All-in-Peerless pressman have been cheaper than the OEM cartridges (HP 60 blackamoor and tricolor), but with each unity I've encountered a taking into custody: a untidy refill process, for instance, or inferior print quality.
For my final experiment, I'm trying Inkgard's wares. Inkgard sells remanufactured cartridges as well as the Inkgard software utility, which lets you dial plump for ink usage–as drastically as 75 percent–to stretch the pickup's life. According to Inkgard, the software acts as a pressman driver, removing the coveted per centum of ink (or toner pixels, if you give a laser printer) and reformatting the print file to raise the image quality. A one-class subscription to the Inkgard utility comes with whatever purchase of Inkgard remanufactured ink or toner; information technology's too procurable on an individual basi for $10. The software supports but Windows PCs, but IT whole kit with whatsoever printer and with whatsoever ink operating theatre toner cartridge.
To get a fuller picture of how Inkgard's products work together and with other inks, I conducted three experiments: printing with the Inkgard cartridges, with and without the Inkgard software, and trying HP's own cartridges with the Inkgard software.
Product: Inkgard replacement cartridges for HP 60 Black (CC640WN) and Tricolor (CC643WN) Vendor URL: Inkgard.com Total price: $27.93 (black, $13.94; color, $13.99; includes a annual subscription to InkGard's ink- and toner-saving software program, a $10 value)
Inkgard cartridges tested without Inkgard software: Hassle factor: Squat Print quality compared with OEM ink: Good to Fair Average yield (heterogenous set of samples): 116 pages (88, 151, and 109 pages in three tests) Average cost per page: 24 cents
Inkgard cartridges dependable with Inkgard software program: Chivy factor: Medium Print quality compared with OEM ink: Fair Average out yield using 25 percent ink-saving setting (mixed set of samples): 186 pages (175 and 197 pages in two tests) Average cost per varlet: 15 cents
HP OEM cartridges tested with Inkgard software: Harass factor: Cooked Print quality compared with frequent Horsepower prints: Mediocre Concede using 25 percent ink-saving setting (blended set of samples): 152 pages Cost per page using default 25 percent ink-rescue setting: 23 cents
My findings surprised me. The page bear from Inkgard's remanufactured cartridges, when used alone, varied widely. Among the three sets of cartridges I tried, only once did Inkgard's yield exceed the OEM ink's total of 134 pages–and that time, the production was disappointing. In addition, Inkgard's software provided less of a savings with the HP OEM cartridges than information technology did with its own cartridges. Last, although Inkgard's software gives you dozens of parallel of latitude to tweak the settings and reduce ink usage, you throw to accept a patronage-off betwixt ink savings and black and white quality.
My Serial Refiller short-term experiences are anecdotal, and they fare not test the strength or archivability of third-political party inks, nor how the printer will menu afterwards repeated use with them. Nevertheless, my men-along tests offer a taste of what you force out expect if you hear a third-company alternate with your own printer. Check out my prior Serial Refiller adventures to learn more about what it's same to use refilled or remanufactured ink cartridges.
Inkgard Cartridges Alone Are a Mediocre Deal
Over the course of two months, I bought multiple sets of Inkgard cartridges online, and they always arrived at my doorstep inside a few days. Like remanufactured cartridges from strange vendors, the Inkgard tanks were visually identical from the H.P. OEM models, divagation from the company's stickers.
Printing went off without a hitch. I ran the H.P.-recommended alignment procedure, and began printing. Aside from the usual warning messages that appear on the pressman's control panel whenever I use third-company cartridges, I encountered no other glitches.
None of the Inkgard cartridge sets, tried alone, were satisfactory in both page yield and print quality. The first and ordinal sets of cartridges produced disappointing yields of 88 and 109 pages, respectively–both totals significantly glower than the OEM cartridges' yield of 134 pages. On the other hand, the prints they generated were impressive: Fonts were sharp, and colors were accurate. A closer inspection revealed slight banding on extraordinary of the images, but most casual users wouldn't notice the deviation. The pages looked so good, in fact, that I found it difficult to distinguish them from those created with HP's own inks, which are the gold standard for the Serial Refiller.
My test of the second Inkgard pickup set was the oddball. Page output was high than in the starting time and third tests, amounting to 151 pages versus the OEM cartridges' 134. Unfortunately, the mark quality grew progressively worse, with attenuation colors, inaccurate frame tones, and an odd, greenish tint appearing on one grayscale image.
I averaged the pageboy yields of all three sets of Inkgard cartridges to get a representative yield of 116 pages, resulting in an average per-Page cost of 24 cents–no great savings compared with 26 cents for HP's own cartridges. Among remanufactured competitors I've tried, Cartridge Human beings's HP-compatible ink tanks cost me 19 cents per Sri Frederick Handley Page, and Office Depot's ink cartridges cost 22 cents per page.
Could the Inkgard cartridges regain around ground when paired with their ink-saving software? That would exist my next experiment.
Inkgard Software Saves, and Output Quality Suffers
As I mentioned earlier, Inkgard's pickup and toner products come with a one-year subscription to Inkgard software, which sells separately for $10. The program works with whatsoever printer, according to Inkgard, and toilet punctured ink Oregon toner usage by as very much like 75 percent. That's a yack away-falling claim, o.k., and IT's an ink-saving enhancement that Inkgard's own cartridges could certainly use.
I tested the Inkgard software twice connected a Windows 7 laptop. For each one time, my pressman held a fresh pair of Inkgard cartridges. The 52MB app downloaded and installed effortlessly. Formerly I activated the software, the Inkgard Getting Protrusive Wizard launched, and showed me how to configure the Inkgard app Eastern Samoa the default printing machine. Setup took just a few transactions. The next time I printed a document, Inkgard's speedometer-like Smart Ink Control screen popped up. The default ink-savings scope is 25 pct, which I used in about altogether of my tests.
The Voguish Ink Control dialogue box offers ink-nest egg suggestions for various print jobs. Printing photos? Reduce ink usage aside 10 percent operating theatre less. Email? Well, quality doesn't matter arsenic much, so try 65 to 75 percent. The greater the savings, plainly, the light the prints.
To find exterior which setting whole kit best, you should black and white a sample varlet. For instance, I written a page from a Macworld magazine article containing color blocks and an abstract paradigm. I selected five different settings: 0 (no savings), 25, 45, 55, and 75 percent. Presented here is a detail of the same area on each foliate (click each sample to view it rotund-size); in these samples, you can see how text and images grow more and more lighter as ink usage decreases.
For me, the default 25 percent nest egg level produced the most acceptable results. Although color and grayscale images lose considerable distinctness at that place setting, they'Re fine for everyday home and office use. For high-quality photos, yet, you'll probably deprivation to get as close to nourished ink usage as possible.
The yield results were impressive: Under the default on 25 percentage setting, Inkgard's software boosted the output of its own cartridges to 175 pages in the first test, and to 197 pages in the second. That's an average of 186 pages, which is 60 percent higher than the 116-page average of the Inkgard cartridges without the software. The price per page came out to a more better 15 cents–cheaper than either Pickup World's or Office Depot's remanufactured cartridges. The Cartridge World and Office Depot contender ill-used stentorian ink coverage, still, and thus produced fine-looking images.
Inkgard Software Less Effective With HP Cartridges
Finally, I tested Inkgard's software package with a fresh duet of H.P. 60 ink cartridges. The 25 percent place setting boosted the HP cartridges' page yield, but not by much: The gross went from 134 to 152 pages, for a mere 13 percent melioration in yield. The cost per page improved at the indistinguishable unassuming rate, to 23 cents per page from 26 cents per page.
Inkgard could not tell me why the Inkgard software produced greater nest egg with its own cartridges than with HP's. The company said that the software does not precaution what brand of cartridge is used.
With Inkgard's software, print quality from the HP 60 cartridges was mediocre, but unruffled acceptable. Take a view the samples here, showing the Macworld page with and without Inkgard (dog the samples to take in them full-size).
Inkgard Software Delivers–But Not Much, Perhaps
I was unable to try Inkgard's Software with other cartridges. Judging from my trials with Inkgard's own cartridges and with HP's, the savings come out to vary widely. I was more disappointed, however, by the varying performance of the three sets of Inkgard remanufactured cartridges I tested. Inkgard's products process, only not predictably.
Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/478161/inkgard_software_and_cartridges_provide_variable_benefit.html
Posted by: toddafrourned.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Inkgard Software and Cartridges Provide Variable Benefit"
Post a Comment