Before reading any further, take a quick look to your right and left. There is a good chance while scanning the area around your computer you saw an inkjet printer. And if you are like me, your brain wonders just how the printer and the inkjet cartridges within work.

Over the last three decades inkjet printers have become a staple of any computer setup. In that time, billions of dollars have been spent on the devices, their cartridges and ink refills.

Companies don't just make profits from the inkjet printers alone. Printer ink cartridges, ink refill and cartridge toner are just a few of the supplies included in this market

In order to produce an image, an inkjet printer relies on tiny nozzles emitting minuscule ink drops. Measuring in at less than 60 microns, these drops of ink are smaller than the diameter of an eyelash.

Printer ink cartridges come in various combinations. The most common inkjet printers use a seperate black ink cartridge and a color cartridge to product an image. Some use a separate cartridge for each ink color.

It is important you choose a compatible cartridge for your inkjet printer. If you don't use compatible ink you may ruin your inkjet printer. Two main versions of inkjet printers dominate the inkjet market.

Canon inkjet toner cartridges, for example, utilize thermal bubbles when creating images. In these thermal inkjet printers, tiny resistors create heat, which vaporize the ink to create a bubble.

The bubble will then expand, pushing ink out of a nozzle onto the paper. As this ink bubble pops, a vacuum is created, pulling more ink from the print head into the cartridge. These inkjet cartridges contain as many as 600 tiny nozzles simultaneously firing droplets of ink.

Epson, though, patented a different kind of technology that uses piezo crystals. In piezoelectric printer ink cartridges, these crystals line the reservoirs of ink.

Piezoelectric printing uses electricity to vibrate devices within the inkjet cartridge. The vibrations excite the ink and push it up through the nozzles, out of the cartridge and onto the paper.

Whether it's crystal or thermal, both versions of inkjet printers remain more affordable than laser printers. Instead of using nozzles like an inkjet toner cartridge, the costly laser printer relies on heat and dry ink toner cartridge to print images.

By refilling the ink cartridge with an ink cartridge refill kit, you can also save. You can also purchase cartridges refilled with ink at a discount if you do not feel like dealing with the mess of refilling an inkjet cartridge yourself.

Retailers such as Cartridge World offer affordable printer supplies such as inkjet toner cartridge refills. These cartridges provide the same quality of new inkjet cartridges for a fraction of the price.

Knowing you won't have to mortgage your house to buy your print supplies, your mind can rest easy and begin to create an endless array of media. Inkjet printer cartridges can produce labels, shirt decals pictures and birthday cards.

Magical? No. Practical? Absolutely. Inkjet printers and their compatible cartridges open an endless world of opportunity for their users. So stop reading, start printing and enjoy the wonders of ink.