Even with the best ink cartridges, optimal print quality cannot be achieved without regular printer maintenance. Clogged printheads or dirty components can lead to streaks, smudges, or uneven colors.

With no ink to act as a coolant, the element can begin to burn out in the head and cause permanent damage that often necessitates replacing the entire print head.

Led by Assoc. Prof. Ying Diao and graduate student Sanghyun Jeon, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign set out to replicate that effect in a photosensitive 3D-printing ink.

The tanks hold enough ink to print up to 4,000 pages black and 6,500 pages color, which is about two years' worth of use or 20 sets of ink cartridges, according to Epson.

If you don’t need to print in color, CR says a black and white laser printer is your best bet. The all-in-one Canon imageCLASS MF264dw for $150 only costs about $13 a year for toner.