Where your print head lives the design difference that decides whether a bad cartridge costs you a cartridge or a printer

Two designs, and why nobody tells you which one you bought

An inkjet works by firing tiny drops of ink through a plate full of microscopic nozzles. That plate, plus the electronics that fire it, is the print head. Makers have gone two ways with it and neither puts it on the box.

HP names the two designs plainly in its own support material: the Integrated Printhead is integrated into the ink cartridge, while the Individual Ink Cartridges design has a printhead built into the printer. Canon does the same thing under a different name. Its FINE cartridges, the ones you find in the cheaper PIXMA machines, are described by Canon as a single unit where inks and print head are combined, replaceable in seconds.

Epson went the other way and stayed there. Its Micro Piezo heads are permanent, and Epson says so in the sales pitch, telling buyers its permanent printhead does not degrade and that they will not have to budget for a replacement. Its own knowledge base is blunter still: Micro Piezo heads are permanent whereas thermal heads are disposable. Brother builds the same way. Its cleaning instructions warn you not to touch the print head because doing so may cause permanent damage and may void the print head's warranty, which is not something anybody says about a part you throw away every few months.

You cannot settle this one by brand. HP builds machines of both kinds, so it comes down to the model. Of the 154 cartridge inkjets we track, 55 carry the head on the cartridge and 99 keep it in the body. The 24 bottle-fed tank machines all keep it in the body, since there is no cartridge for it to live on.

How to tell which one you own

You do not need the manual. Take a cartridge out and look at the underside.

• A copper or gold strip running along the bottom edge means the nozzles are on the cartridge. Canon says not to touch the electrical contacts or the print head nozzle on a FINE cartridge because the machine may not print properly afterwards, which tells you both parts are there in your hand.
• A plain plastic outlet with a rubber seal or a sponge means you are holding an ink container. The nozzles are in the carriage the cartridge slots into.
• Count the slots. A machine that takes two cartridges, one black and one colour, is almost always the head-on-cartridge design. A machine with four or more separate tanks has the head in the body.
• On an HP, look for a latch. HP's own printhead troubleshooting tells you to open the cartridge access door and look at the carriage: if there is no latch, the printhead is not replaceable.

The count trick works because the two things go together. A tri-colour cartridge exists precisely so that one moulding can carry one head serving three colours. Every one of the 55 head-on-cartridge machines in our catalogue takes a tri-colour cartridge, and they come from two makers: 30 HP models and 25 Canon. The other 99 take separate colour tanks, 37 of them HP, 24 Epson, 20 Brother and 18 Canon.

HP appears on both sides of that split and so does Canon. An HP DeskJet and an HP OfficeJet Pro are built to different rules, and a PIXMA TS3320 and a PIXMA TS6320 are two different machines wearing the same badge. Your own printer page on this site lists exactly which cartridges your model takes, which is the quickest way to settle it.

What the disposable head costs you per page

A print head is a precision component. If you throw one away with every cartridge, somebody has to pay for the new one, and the price shows up where you would expect.

Across our catalogue, taking each machine's cheapest high-yield black cartridge and dividing by its rated yield, the head-on-cartridge machines work out at a median of 8.33c a page and the ones with the head in the body at 4.20c. At standard yield the same comparison is 11.11c against 5.50c. The disposable head roughly doubles the cost of a black page.

Same-maker pairs make it concrete, and every figure here is that cartridge's list price divided by its rated yield:

The table needs two qualifications. The OfficeJet Pro and the TS6320 cost more to buy than the DeskJet and the TS3320, so some of that gap is the usual trade of a higher sticker price against cheaper supplies, and our cost per page ranking works that through properly. And the Canon colour numbers barely move: 10.00c against 9.23c, because Canon prices its FINE colour cartridge close to a set of individual tanks. The black side is where Canon's gap opens, 9.33c against 4.50c.

HP's own range shows the pattern most clearly. Its head-on-cartridge models come out at a median 12.12c for a page of colour ink, its individual-tank models at 6.91c.

Rated yields are measured to a standard test, not to your documents, so treat all of these as a comparison between machines rather than a forecast of your bill. What the rated page yield actually measures explains the gap.

What you are risking when the cartridge is a bad one

When something goes wrong with the ink, the design decides how far the damage can travel.

Head on the cartridge. A poorly made compatible can print badly, streak, or clog on its own nozzles. All of that is contained in a part you can throw in the bin. Fit a different cartridge and the machine has a new set of nozzles again. The failure costs you the price of the cartridge and an afternoon.

Head in the printer. The same bad ink now runs through nozzles you cannot replace. Most of the time nothing dramatic happens, because ink that reaches a shop shelf is usually formulated to work. When it does go wrong, it goes wrong at the machine, and the repair path runs out fast. Epson's instructions for its strongest cleaning cycle say that if the quality still does not improve you should contact Epson for support, which is the polite version of the end of the road on a printer that cost less than a service call.

Third party ink is still worth buying on either design. What changes is how much a bad one can cost you. On a head-on-cartridge printer, trying a cheap brand is a low stakes experiment. On a permanent-head machine, and especially on a tank machine you plan to keep for years, buy from a supplier with a returns policy and a reputation behind it, and stick with one brand of ink rather than switching every time. How to judge a third party cartridge covers what to look for.

There is a separate risk that people mix up with this one. Firmware locks are about authentication, not nozzles, and they run on a different axis entirely. In our catalogue 16 of the 55 head-on-cartridge machines and 23 of the 99 permanent-head machines carry a documented firmware policy that can refuse a cartridge, and every one of those is an HP. A machine can be locked and disposable-headed, locked and permanent-headed, or neither. The firmware DRM tracker lists which models are which, and what the cartridge chip actually does explains the mechanism.

Clogs, idle weeks and who should worry

Dried ink blocks nozzles. That is true of both designs, and it lands differently on each.

On a head-on-cartridge machine the clog usually leaves with the cartridge. Canon puts numbers on the exposure: use a FINE cartridge within six months of first use, do not take one out and leave it in the open air because it will dry out, and do not install a used FINE cartridge because the nozzles may clog. Read those as a warning about the cartridge, not the printer.

On a permanent-head machine the clog stays with you, and clearing it costs ink. Epson's Power Cleaning documentation is unusually candid about the price. It says the cycle consumes a lot of ink and should be run only if necessary, that each tank must be at least a third full first or it may damage the product, and that Power Cleaning may cause the ink pads to reach their capacity sooner, at which point the product stops printing and you must contact Epson for support. Epson also tells you to wait at least twelve hours before another attempt. Brother offers the same escalation, warning that its special cleaning method uses the most power and consumes the most ink, and should only be used after ordinary cleaning has already failed.

So the maintenance advice splits by design:

• Permanent head, prints rarely. This is the combination that gets people into trouble. Print something in colour every week or two and you will likely never see a clog. Leave the machine for three months and you may spend a set of ink getting it back.
• Permanent head, prints regularly. The best case on this list. Cheap pages, ink moving through the nozzles often enough to keep them wet.
• Head on the cartridge, prints rarely. Also fine, and the reason these machines suit a household that prints a boarding pass twice a year. Pay more per page, worry less about the gaps.
• Head on the cartridge, prints a lot. The expensive corner. You are buying a fresh print head every few hundred pages and you do not need one.

Whichever you have, run a nozzle check before you run a cleaning cycle. The check costs one sheet of paper and tells you which colour is actually blocked, while cleaning costs ink every time. Reading a nozzle check walks through the patterns, and keeping a print head from drying out covers the prevention side.

Refilling, remanufacturing and which shells are worth reusing

The two designs also change what a refilled or remanufactured cartridge is.

A remanufactured head-on-cartridge unit is a used original that has been cleaned and refilled, so you are buying somebody else's print head with a fresh load of ink in it. Whether that is a bargain depends on how much life the nozzles have left, which is why the good remanufacturers test and the cheap ones do not. Canon's own instruction not to install a used FINE cartridge is written about your own empties rather than the trade, but it points at the same weakness.

A remanufactured cartridge for a permanent-head machine is a simpler object. There are no nozzles in it, so nothing wears out on the way back to you, and the reman is competing on the quality of the ink and the seal alone. That is a smaller thing to get wrong.

Refilling your own follows the same logic. Refilling an ink container is a mess-and-patience problem. Refilling a cartridge that carries the head means pushing home-mixed ink through nozzles that are already part-worn, on a component the manufacturer expects you to replace. Neither is dangerous to the machine on a head-on-cartridge printer, which is exactly the point of the design.

On price, our OEM against compatible against remanufactured comparison puts real numbers on the three routes, and what to do with your empties explains why the trade will pay for some shells and not others.

Which design should you buy next time

Once you know the difference, the buying question stops being about brands.

• You print a handful of pages a month and go weeks without touching it. Head on the cartridge. You will pay somewhere around 8.33c a black page, and you will not lose a machine to three idle months. On our numbers this is the design that suits the occasional printer, whatever the review scores say.
• You print most weeks, in any volume. Head in the printer. The cheapest page on the table above is 0.29c on a bottle-fed tank machine, and even a cartridge model with a permanent head sits at a median 4.20c against 8.33c. Regular use is what keeps the nozzles happy, so the design's weakness never shows up. Is a tank printer worth it works out where the higher purchase price pays back.
• You buy third party ink and want the smallest downside. Head on the cartridge limits any bad batch to the cartridge. If you would rather have the cheap pages, buy a permanent-head machine and be choosier about the supplier.
• You want to avoid firmware surprises as well. That is a separate check against the DRM tracker, since it does not follow from the print head at all.

What you should not do is buy a machine with a disposable head because someone told you it was the safe choice, and then run two thousand pages a year through it. That is the one combination where you pay the premium for a feature you are not using.

Common questions

Keep reading

• How safe is a cheap third party cartridge what to check once you know how much your machine has to lose.
• Stopping a print head drying out the prevention routine, which matters most on a permanent head.
• Reading a nozzle check which colour is blocked, before you spend ink on cleaning.
• Cheapest printers to run the full cost per page ranking with purchase price folded in.
• Ink tank vs cartridge the permanent-head design taken to its logical end.
• It will not print black and only a colour is empty why a permanent head needs every tank, even for a black page.

Sources

1. HP Support Community, HP support documentation quoted in a printhead cleaning and alignment answer, for HP's two inkjet printhead designs: the Integrated Printhead (IPH) integrated into the ink cartridge, and Individual Ink Cartridges (IIC) with a printhead built into the printer. hp.com
2. HP Support, HP Inkjet printers, Printhead errors, for the check that identifies a replaceable head: open the cartridge access area, look for a latch on the carriage, and if there is no latch the printhead is not replaceable. hp.com
3. Canon Europe, PIXMA FINE Cartridges, for the statement that inks and print head are combined in a single unit which can be replaced in seconds. canon-europe.com
4. Canon Support, How to replace the FINE cartridge(s), article ART137513, for the warnings not to touch the electrical contacts or print head nozzle, not to leave a cartridge out in the open because it will dry out, not to install a used FINE cartridge because the nozzles may clog and the machine will not report replacement properly, and to use a FINE cartridge within six months of first use. canon.com
5. Canon Support, article ART141309, for reseating and replacing the print head as a separate serviceable part on the PIXMA MG5420, MG5422, MG6320, MG7120, MG7520 and MG7720. canon.com
6. Epson Europe, Micro Piezo Technology, for the claim that the permanent printhead does not degrade and that buyers will not have to budget for a replacement printhead. epson.eu
7. Epson knowledge base article KB020019, How does Micro Piezo technology compare to thermal technology, for the statement that Micro Piezo heads are permanent whereas thermal heads are disposable. epson.com
8. Epson Official Support, Power Cleaning, for the cautions that a Power Cleaning consumes a lot of ink and should be run only if necessary, that each ink tank must be at least one-third full or it may damage the product, that Power Cleaning may cause the ink pads to reach their capacity sooner and the product then stops printing, and the instruction to wait at least twelve hours before running another. epson.com
9. Epson Official Support, Power Cleaning for cartridge models, for the instruction to contact Epson for support if quality still does not improve after waiting and repeating. epson.com
10. Brother Support, Clean the Print Head from Your Brother Machine, FAQ faq00002531, for the warning not to touch the print head because it may cause permanent damage and may void the print head's warranty, and for the special cleaning method that uses the most power and consumes the most ink. brother.com

Last updated 13 September 2026. This guide is general information, not a repair warranty. Printer menus and HP's model lists change, so confirm the exact steps for your model on the manufacturer's support site before you make changes.