Ink has been around as long as writing and perhaps longer as civilizations from around the world each discovered and used their own ink formula for their own purposes. Plant extracts, soot, oil, animal products, and more were all employed by those who wanted to set their words and pictures down to endure. This early ink was imprecise and often unreliable. Many versions would fade from a dark blue to a brown over time or eat away at the paper. Sometimes it would not bond well and would run or rub off during storage—and finding a reliable writing material like paper, parchment, or linen was also incredibly difficult. However, in Europe in the early fifteenth century a new ink was developed for a very important purpose. The Printing Press was invented, and it needed a reliable, consistently thin ink that would dry quickly and would not run. This was the first printing ink and it is safe to say that those Germans would have had no idea that Dell, Epson, Hp, Cannon, and Samsung toner would be their legacy.
However, ink itself changed little after that. There were improvements in the formulation sure enough and the ingredients changed—but to the public ink remained something for pens. The printing press affected daily life but was removed from it. No one really interacted with the vast amounts of ink that modern life requires. It took the modern century for this to begin to change. Printing presses gained power as newspapers took off in major cities around the world. Books gradually became more common. Mimeographs allowed individuals to reproduce works quickly and demanded ink as they did it. But the personal computer stands far and above as the defining factor for ink consumption in the modern age. The computer allows information to be sent quickly and in large amounts, and its companion the personal printer can eat and spew ink and paper well enough as most modern computer-owners well know. In fact, it is ironic that the day to day process of buying and refilling ink cartridges has in some measure replaced the old daily need to replace the ink for ones pen.
Because of the widespread dispersal of modern ink uses, needs, and suppliers many companies have sought to carve out niches where they can dominate particular markets. For instance, companies like Dell or Samsung or Hp compete viscously to supply personal printers along with personal computers, and by doing so to rope their customers into their own personal lines of cartridges. Not every printer can fit every cartridge. Far from it in fact. Meanwhile, other products such as Konica-Minolta toner cartridges are commonly meant for industrial or commercial use as clothing, posters, or other large scale canvases require colorful and high quality printing at great cost. Still other branches of other companies focus on design plans or chemical readouts or book publishing. Not to mention the huge and expanding market of non OEM products, products and cartridges often made overseas by companies which do not sell printers, but sell cartridges and ink that fit those printers—and at reduced price.
Still another earth shattering change in the modern printing climate took place half a century or so ago as something called toner was developed. When a person uses a LaserJet printer running Dell, Epson, or HP toner cartridges they are actually printing from a container of powder, not ink. Modern toner is actually a fine plastic powder mixed heavily with carbon which gives it its black appearance. This powder is fired under great heat and at great speed in a specific pattern onto the paper. The heat melts the powder and it sticks to the paper. With modern technology providing accuracy and consistent performance this has resulted in magnificently fast high quality printing for institutions and companies. A library printer at a busy college may be shooting out warm, toner bathed paper for ten hours a day, two or three pages a second when it is use. And still the quality will be precise and the words will not run, unlike liquid ink cartridges which many home printing setups use. Toner may still rub off on skin or clothing, but not nearly as bad as old style runny ink cartridges do when they are replaced or refilled. As an interesting fact, one should always wash ink and toner off of their bodies or their clothing using cold water, as warm or hot water actually activate bonding sites in the ink and make it almost impossible to remove, much to the frustrated housewifes chagrin as that pesky exploded pen claims an entire load of wash again.