If you operate your own home office, you'll find that you have to learn many of the same tips and tricks that office managers use to keep office equipment functioning properly. If you're having trouble with your printer, take a look at the following aspects of the machine and make certain that everything is in proper order.

First, make certain that you have the right ink cartridges. Most of the time, ink cartridges are designed so that you don't really have any way of installing the improper cartridge in your machine. There are cases, however, where they do overlap a bit. For example, it's sometimes possible to take Lexmark printer ink cartridges and, with a little bit of alteration to your printer, use them in place of Dell ink cartridges. Even though you can do this, it's not necessarily a good idea. In fact, it can cause big problems, so make certain that you are using ink that was specifically manufactured for your computer.

Second, check the alignment on your machine. If you have an expensive machine, such as one of the high-performance Epson printers, installing cheap Epson ink should not compromise the performance of the machine, so long as the cartridge was designed for the printer itself. The majority of printers have a self-testing feature that allows you to let the device realign itself. Make sure that you run this feature every time you install new ink. Most printer drivers will serve up a pop-up window warning you to do just that when you install new ink in the machine.

If you happen to be using your printer for photo printing, make certain that you have ink that is appropriate for that task. For example, Canon makes several models of printers that are popular with photographers. Even though these printers may be very high-end devices, having Canon printer ink cartridges installed that aren't designed for photo printing will generally give you less than optimal results. Make sure you always get the highest quality ink available if you plan on using your printer as a way of producing hard copies of your digital photography.

If you continue to have problems, particularly with colour rendering, take a look at your software. Having the right printer ink cartridges installed is only part of the battle. If your machine is set up so that it is not rendering colours properly, you will generally have trouble when you try to print photography.