When you buy an entry level or mid range printer you would think that the cost of the replacement ink cartridges would relative to the cost of the printer i.e. cheap printer, cheap printer ink cartridges , this is far from the reality. The price of ink cartridges for printers has sometimes left people with a printer that they simply can’t afford to run, especially if the young children are using the printer to print off any old rubbish not realizes that it costing a fortune. There is a cheaper option to buying branded ink cartridges and they are called compatible ink cartridges. These are basically copies of the branded inks that are made by third party companies and because they don’t carry the branded name they don’t carry the heavy price tag either. Compatibles offer the biggest saving for Epson ink and although they don’t contain the same patented ink that genuine Epson ink cartridges do they still produce excellent prints for all types of documents. Compatible inks are widely available from all good retailers and should come with full money back guarantees. For obvious reason printer manufacturers don’t want you using compatible inks in your printer but because by law they can’t stop you they are thinking up new trick to try and make life difficult for those who do. One trick Epson has implemented into new printers such as the Stylus Photo 285 is every time you print a message will appear asking if you are aware you are using compatible Epson R285 ink cartridges ? and are you sure you want to continue? While this can be slightly irritating, when you consider how much the genuine Epson inks cost it becomes slightly less annoying.