We have come a long way when you think with regards to printers and printer ink. In the old days you had all the colour cartridges combining their colours to make black ink, and you only knew that you were low on ink when your pages started printing badly. Nowadays, you have large cartridges that last for thousands of prints and warn you well in advance when your ink gets low and even tells you exactly what percentage of ink is left in the cartridge. Then some printers also have digital displays that show you how to remove and replace a cartridge and give you more information on the specific details relating to each cartridge. Cartridges come in a variety of sizes and shapes to suit printers that have been bought for different printing requirements. Colour cartridges are, in general, more expensive than black cartridges although for the very large printers all the cartridges usually cost the same.