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Canon Printer Cartridges

Short History of the Canon Company

In 1933, a group of young people started a lab in a Tokyo apartment in an attempt to produce a high quality Japanese camera. At the time, Germany led the market in high quality products of this nature. By 1935, the budding company had produced the Hawza Canon, a 35 mm shutter camera. The company continued to refine the cameras and opened an office in New York City in 1955. Canon Europa opened in Geneva, Switzerland in 1957 as a distributor.

No longer satisfied with manufacturing cameras alone, the company broadened into the office equipment market and developed a 10-key calculator that was electronic in 1964. The Canon Camera Company Inc. officially became Canon Inc. in 1967. Three years later, a plain paper copying machine was introduced into the product line. Due to product defects, the company suffered a financial blow, but incorporated the Premier Company Plan to recoup losses in 1976. During this same time, a copying machine with a semiconductor laser and bubble jet printer was introduced.

Recognizing the market for consumer products, the personal printer/copy machine began retailing in 1982. Canon innovated “green” technology, by developing an environmentally friendly recyclable toner printer cartridge 1988. In 1996, the corporation expanded worldwide with the institution of the Global Corporation Plan. Canon shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2000 and a compact version of the digital camera was available to consumers. Large format inkjet printers made their debut in 2006 and a digital printing press was introduced in 2007.

Bubble Jet, Inkjet, and Toner Cartridges

The bubble jet or inkjet printer cartridge uses small resistors to heat the ink creating a tiny bubble. The drop of ink is then transferred to the designated area on paper along with millions of others to make up an image. The ink used initially was water based and is preferred for photography because of the high-resolution results, latterly Canon have started to use longer lasting pigment based inks. The print heads are usually replaceable in comparison to other printer types which are fixed within the printer. Another advantage of using Canon Inkjet printers is that the machines run very quietly.

An inkjet printer uses tiny spray nozzles to disperse minute quantities of ink onto the printing medium. Some printer models utilize piezoelectric crystals to heat and move the ink through the cartridge to the nozzle. This method of printing produces images more quickly than other versions and when mechanical problems arise, the entire printer is usually and inexpensively replaced.

Printers using toner cartridges can traditionally be the most cost effective, depending on volumes of prints being produced and quality required etc. The toner cartridge contains a fine powder and a plastic medium, which is transferred onto the paper, then sealed onto the paper by heat, preventing the image from bleeding and smudging. A colour toner cartridge repeats this process for each of the four colours needed, which are usually black, cyan (blue), magenta (red) and yellow. Though canon toner cartridges produce more images per cartridge than other printers, the machines themselves have more intricate parts, making repairs costly. It's therefore a good idea to have the printer serviced at regular intervals.

Compatible and Genuine Replacement Cartridges

Canon original cartridges are manufactured by Canon themselves. They are sold as new for Canon printers and are available wherever the machines are available. In the case of the most commonly used inkjet varieties, cartridges are sold in numerous places including mass merchandisers, but the most cost effective method of buying Canon printer cartridges is online.

Compatible Canon printer cartridges are manufactured from new materials, but not by Canon, they are made by third parties who attempt to make them as near as possible to the Canon original ones, without infringing Canon's intellectual property rights. Compatible Canon cartridges are available for most of the popular Canon printers, but because they are backwardly engineered they are only released after the original cartridges have been marketed. Recycled or remanufactured Canon printer cartridges may or may not have had the imaging components replaced. Compatible cartridges are sold at a fraction of the cost of the brand name counterparts and are available in many locations. However, you must be careful on quality, as not all the third party manufacturer's are as good as the high quality compatible we sell!

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