The printhead is the chip that operates the printing action. The printhead may be integrated into the inkjet printer or it may be part of the ink cartridge. This isn’t usually noted on the box. If the printhead is on the printer, the ink cartridge is actually little more than a tank. If a printer-mounted printhead fails, you may find an Overstock.com replacement printer cheaper than paying a technician to do major surgery on your printer.

A color inkjet printer uses just four colored inks to produce its 26,000,000,000 colors–black, magenta (light red), yellow and cyan (light blue). Color inkjet cartridges may consist of 4 tanks, one for each color. A tri color ink cartridge contains only three colors. Some combine the colors to create black (not a very good black, say some people), while others are paired with a separate black ink cartridge. This is especially useful for those who print lots of text but not many pictures. Some inkjets have an individual cartridge or tank for each color. Higher end printers use additional colors (up to eight) and special inks to create film-quality photographic outputs.