Unlike laser printers, which excel at speed and efficiency, inkjet printers can achieve great detail and vibrancy. This means that they are excellent candidates for printing photographs or graphics at home or in the office.

Ink for these printers comes in plastic cartridges, and even if you only intend to utilize black printer ink on a color printer, most inkjet printers require all cartridges to be in place for printing. Conventional color inkjet printers require either a pair of cartridges (one black and one multicolor) or a set of single-color cartridges (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) to reproduce a wide range of shades and color variations. Photo printers may use six printer cartridges to provide more nuanced color reproduction.

All printer ink cartridges are designed to work with a particular brand, line or series of printers. So be sure you find the printer ink and toner you need for the device you choose.

If you're printing a series of high-resolution images, logos, or pictures, you’ll want to have high-quality paper, such as photo paper, on hand. To save ink, you’ll also want to review your print preview to ensure the size and margins look correct before you print. If you’re using photo editing software, check your document’s color settings. Most photo editing software allows you to save documents in either the RGB (Red/Green/Blue) color scale for your computer or in CMYK (Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black), which is optimized for printing purposes.

To reduce ink use, you can print documents that don’t need to look polished in eco or draft mode. You should also make sure to print frequently enough to prevent your ink from drying up. That shouldn’t be difficult as printing has become easier than ever. You can even print directly from your phone. Finally, to reduce your carbon footprint, choose to recycle your ink cartridges through Best Buy’s recycling program or purchase a printer that allows you to refill your ink cartridges.