ink cartridges – Dispatches From The Front

THERE’S A REASON everyone hates printers. They break, jam, and always run out of cyan ink—which, inexplicably, also breaks them. Even when they work, toner costs so much you have to give up avocado toast for a month to buy more. As Matthew Inman, one of the great poets of his time, famously said: “Either printer ink is made from unicorn blood or we’re all getting screwed.”

Impression Products wanted to make toner a bit cheaper by refilling Lexmark printer cartridges. Lexmark of course hated that and sued. The fight dragged on for years, and made it all the way to the US Supreme Court. This week, the highest court in the land ruled against Lexmark. You may consider this an insignificant tussle over printer toner, but this important ruling clears the way for small businesses to fix your stuff—even without the manufacturer’s permission.

Ticking off one’s best customers every few months isn’t a flawless corporate strategy. It tends to incite strong feelings, at best, and massive class-action lawsuits, at worst. Epson seems to have finally realized as much.

After decades of selling cheap printers that require a steady stream of expensive ink cartridges, the company is smashing its business model to bits. In September the Tokyo-based tech giant will offer a new line of consumer printers in the U.S., each with enough ink to print at least 4,000 documents. When the well finally runs dry, customers will be able to refill it with a bottle, just like a baby.

The machines even have a trendy name: EcoTank.1

The new Espon printers can be fed by bottle. Source: Epson

“It’s a really big advantage to the end user,” says John Lang, Epson’s chief executive officer for North America. “That anxiety and that fear of running out of ink—it’s amazing to me that that was so prevalent.”

Tag: ink cartridges

How a Supreme Court Ruling on Printer Ink Bolsters Your Digital Rights | WIRED

Epson Is About to Solve the Most Annoying Problem With Inkjet Printers | Bloomberg Business