Comparison Canon 040C 0458C001 vs HP 21 C9351AE

The printing technology where the cartridge is used.

— Laser. Laser printing uses a special light-sensitive drum and paint in the form of the smallest powder (toner): the laser marks certain areas of the drum, while the toner sticks to them, which is then transferred to paper. Such printing is considered optimal for business, educational and other similar documents: it is great for black and white materials, but poorly suitable for colour ones, and that's why most laser printers are made for black and white output type. One of the features of this type of cartridges is that the mentioned drum is included with the toner container — as a result, such components are quite expensive. However, this is compensated by the long life of the cartridge and, accordingly, the very low cost of each separate print.

— Inkjet. Inkjet technology involves the use of microscopic droplets of liquid ink that are "shot" from a printer nozzle onto paper. Unlike a laser, an inkjet cartridge is usually only a reservoir of ink and, accordingly, is inexpensive. Most printers of this type are colour, respectively, and cartridges can contain ink of different colours (there are also multi-colour models). Inkjet printing is well suited for coloured image printing, including photo quality, but the cost per sheet is quite high.

— Dot-Matrix. The principle of operation of dot matrix printers is that the sep...arate dots of the image are hit on paper using needles of the print head. The cartridge for such a printer is usually an ink ribbon with additional devices — it is through such a ribbon that each needle strikes. Dot matrix printing is the oldest printing technology that is used today; such printers are noisy, rather slow, and the image quality is poor. At the same time, it is quite enough to work with text information, and the cost of printing is also low; therefore dot-matrix devices are still in use — particularly, in official institutions for printing receipts and even documents on letterhead. Accordingly, cartridges for them are also found on the market — although quite rarely.

— Thermal sublimation. This printing technology is somewhat similar to the dot matrix described above — in particular, it also involves the use of an ink ribbon. However, in this case, unlike the dot matrix with needled print head, the heating elements are acting with a tape: they heat up the dye, which evaporates and transfers to the paper. Dye-sublimation printing provides high resolution and excellent colour reproduction characteristics, in addition, it allows you to adjust the colour rendering characteristics by changing the settings of the printer itself. On the other hand, it requires the use of special paper and is slow because the image is formed in several passes (usually four to three base colours plus a protective coating). Thereby, photo printers are the main area of application of this technology, and sublimation cartridges are often sold as kits that include not only the cartridges themselves, but also the printing paper.

— Pigment. Ink based on pigments – solid dyes, which are diluted in the form of microparticles in a liquid filler to a state of suspension. Compared to more popular water-based inks, these formulations are noticeably more expensive, and the completed image may be somewhat less bright (compared to printing with water-based dye on the same printer). On the other hand, pigment ink gives higher detail, which is especially important for photo printing. In addition, completed images resist moisture better and do not fade as quickly in bright light – this resistance is not enough for outdoor use, but indoors such prints can be stored for a very long time.

— Water soluble. Inks based on water-soluble dyes allow achieving high realism of colour reproduction in colour printing, they are well absorbed into the deep layers of paper and are cheaper than pigment inks. Also, water-soluble ink does not dry as quickly in the cartridge or print head of the printer. They are recommended for use with inkjet paper – ordinary thin paper strongly absorbs drops, which can cause ink to show through on the back of the sheet. At the same time, water-soluble ink is afraid of moisture and direct exposure to ultraviolet rays – when water gets in, the image on paper “floats”, and it fades under the sun rays.

— Pigmented / water soluble. Some printers and MFPs have a printhead that allows you to print with two types...of ink at once. A common case is when their black cartridge is filled with pigment ink, and the colour one is filled with water-soluble ink.

— Sublimation. A key feature of sublimation ink is the ability to change from a solid to a gaseous state. When heated to a certain temperature, such paints turn into a “coloured cloud”, which easily penetrates deep into the fibers of the material, fixes on them and forms strong chemical bonds for coloring deep layers. Sublimation ink is commonly used to transfer images onto special paper, glass, ceramics, metal and textiles.

The print color provided by the cartridge. Many models have color indication directly in the specs, for example, “black”, “yellow” or “light blue” ; in such cases, there are no difficulties. However, there are other designations worth explaining:

— Tricolor. A cartridge that includes three separate color blocks — cyan, magenta, and yellow, the base colors of the popular CMYK scheme (the fourth color, Kontur — black — in such cases is provided by a separate cartridge). A “threefold” cartridge is cheaper and easier to change than three separately made ones; on the other hand, when one color is empty, the entire block may have to be changed. Therefore, such consumables are found in relatively inexpensive printers, but advanced models (especially those designed for large print volumes) usually still have three separate color cartridges.

— Kit. Kits are sets that include all the necessary cartridges for a specific printer (see "Compatibility"), and in some cases, additional items, such as sublimation printing paper (see "Product type"). Thanks to this, printer owners have the opportunity to purchase all consumables in one set, which is easier, more convenient, and often cheaper than buying cartridges separately.

— Saturated colour (photo). More...saturated colour cartridges used in multicolor photo printers. Blacks and grays create rich dark tones, magenta and cyan add saturation to color photos.

Estimated cartridge yield is the number of pages that can be printed without replacing the cartridge. The larger the value, the longer the cartridge will last, the more prints you can make with it. At the same time, it should be noted that we are talking about the approximate number of sheets. This is due to the fact that the resource is usually indicated according to a certain standard, which provides for an average rate of filling the page with ink during printing (about 5%). In fact, fill rate do not always correspond to the standard ones, which is why the actual yield of the cartridge may differ from the claimed one. Nevertheless, this indicator makes it possible to evaluate the stock of ink — both in a separate cartridge and in comparison to several models.