Canon PG-220/CL-221 Genuine Combo Pack with 50 Photo Paper Sheets, Compatible with MP980, MP560, MP620, MP640, MP990, MX860, MX870, iP4600, iP3600, and iP4700 Printers

Canon makes excellent ink and photo paper so this ink/paper combo is almost the best of two worlds, quality and economy. I've never had any negative issues with either Canon inks or photo paper so I have no negative comments about them. I made a costly error a number of years ago by using non-OEM ink to save a buck. Saving a buck on ink cost me a printer which gummed up and quit working due to poor quality ink. Lesson learned, stick with Canon OEM ink for your Canon printer. Why did I say this combo was "almost" the best of two worlds? What you receive with this combo are CLI-221 tanks in cyan, magenta, & yellow and the PGI 220 black tank as well as 50 sheets of Canon glossy photo paper. You DO NOT get the CLI 221 black ink which is required for the MP-560 and some other Canon printers. I didn't read as thoroughly as I should have and thought I was getting all four CLI 221 tanks. My MP 560 requires both the pigment-based and dye-based black ink cartridges (pigment for text and dye for photo printing). As I said, it was totally my fault for not reading thoroughly but I do wonder how many others may have made the same mistake. It's an easy fix, just order a CLI 221 black tank. Regardless of my error, it is still an excellent value for which you get Canon quality for ink and paper.

My title says it all. Purchasing Canon brand cartridges helps my printer work pretty much flawlessly versus my experience with so called generics. Compared to the pricing at the local office supply stores these are only $2-4 more than the “store brands” and save around ‘$12-15 compared to the store’s Canon cartridges. Service/delivery time has always been very good and the cartridges arrive in good condition. Not much to add to that. They do what they are supposed to at a reasonable price.

Original OEM. Highly recommended. Always use Canon cartridge. Those cheap imitations only will run your printer.

I've been dealing with printers and copiers now for over 30 years, 16 of which were as an IT manager. During that time, I've learned through several lessons that it's always wise to stay with the original manufacturer's ink. Such factors as color fastness, viscosity, uniform particle size (in the case of laser printers), and built-in lubrication (for dot-matrix printers) all contribute to print heads lasting much longer. And we tested this with printers by various manufacturers. Once we built the case, our purchasing people allowed us to avoid "white-box" products. The Canon inks are of high quality. But the MX870 printer has such small cartridges that one is constantly replacing them. Not a fault of the replacement cartridges so much as of the printer's design. Like most ink-jet inks, these will smudge when subjected to moisture. Some people use hair spray to fix the inks after printing, but Canon does not support this approach. Spray-lacquer for photos is available from some photographic specialty companies in glossy, satin, and matte finishes. I would love to see Canon and other inkjet manufacturers produce a smudge-free ink of like quality in other respects.

Throughout the years I have tried almost every brand of Brand X ink in an attempt to save a few bucks. I succeeded in saving a few bucks but I sure wasted money in doing so. Canon ink just works so much better than any other brand I tried without exception. Brand X clogged the print heads causing excessive cleaning and in one instance the printer no longer printed. I hate to discard a good printer because of bad ink so I decided it would be Canon ink regardless of the price. This time the package contained a bonus of 50 sheets of PP-201. PP-201 is a glossy 6"X4" 40# (I am guessing at the weight) paper stock that is perfect for all those 6X4 images we all print so often. That is, except for me. I hardly ever print in that size but I will find a use for them. The inclusion of the PP-201s is not a governing consideration at all. The only consideration is having an ink that prints whatever I want. The Canon and its ink cartridges do just that. My complaint as I have stated before is the cost per page and the fact that the printer (MX860) requires each cartridge to be in place with ink otherwise it will not print. I cannot substitute a yellow for a blue or a black or a yellow. Does not matter. I get output consistently and with ease. Those factors alone seal the deal.

Item exactly as ordered

This appears to be a genuine Canon brand product. Why is that important? Well, I plugged the print heads on two previous printers using generic "knock-off" brand ink cartridges. It simply isn't worth it. So I look for the real deal, and this is it. Be aware that This set includes the large pigment-based black cartridge (PGI-220BK), along with the color set of three dye based cartridges (the smaller cartridges, CLI-221Y, CLI-221M, CLI-221C). You will NOT get the smaller black dye based cartridge (CLI-221BK). You also get a nice thick set of photo paper, in the 4"x6" size. These install perfectly and they work perfectly. They register correctly in the software and show the proper amount of ink remaining in each cartridge. They apear to be genuine, and I have bought several sets of these cartridges and find them to work well and they do NOT plug up the ink heads in the printer. I recommend. Just be aware that this set does not include the small black dye-based cartridge.

This appeared like a great deal, but turned into a bit of a disaster. When I inserted the ink cartridges into my printer, I got an 'cartridge not recognized error' message. After cleaning and re-inserting them did not help, an internet search and posting on canon's forum revealed that these cartridges are region coded and only work in printers that were sold in the same region (which isn't the case for me as I'm in Australia). I finally found a workaround - to swap the chips on the new cartridges with those on the old ones (there is a youtube video called 'Chip swapping Canon inkjet cartridges' which explains how to do it). The downside is that the printer complains about empty cartridges and I won't know when they will actually be empty unless I check manually/visually (there are resetting tools designed to re-fill cartridges, but I don't bother).