To help shed light on the true cost of printing, I surveyed 100 ink cartridges using publicly available information from the official websites of four major brands: HP, Canon, Epson, and Brother.

Take, for instance, the Epson T850, which sells for $71 for an 80ml cartridge and can print up to 850 pages. With this printer, the cost of printing 1,000 pages would be just under $85 ...

With that done, the Epson ribbon could be looped into the Canon cartridge and wound in using the built-in winder. With this done, [Chris] attempted a test print, but found results to be poor.

The Epson EcoTank ET-1810 inkjet printer clearly has designs on being one of the best printers in its price ... refillable ink tanks rather than ink cartridges to try and get your money to stretch ...

Users with frequent color printing needs may want to consider brands like Epson, which offers more affordable options for color ink. The Epson T664220-S cartridges in cyan, magenta, and yellow ...