Which ink does the Canon PIXMA TS3720 use?

The PIXMA TS3720 prints from two cartridges, so there are four parts to choose between: a PG-275 pigment black and a CL-276 tri-color, each sold at a standard size and as an XL.

Which two you pick matters more on this machine than on almost anything else we list. The standard PG-275 is rated 100 pages for $18.00, which is 18.00c a page. Set against the 82 distinct inkjet black cartridges we hold prices for, that is the most expensive black page in the catalogue, and the median is 6.00c. The standard CL-276 does much the same on its own side, 22.00c a page where the median tri-colour unit is 12.22c, second dearest of 23.

The XL versions turn that around completely. A PG-275XL is rated 300 pages for $25.00, so 8.33c, and a CL-276XL 300 pages for $30.00, so 10.00c. That is 54 percent off the black and 55 percent off the colour, and it leaves the CL-276XL as the seventh cheapest tri-colour cartridge on the site. The standard pair costs $40.00 and prints 100 pages of each. The XL pair costs $55.00 and prints 300 of each. The extra $15.00 is buying three times the paper.

Canon does not run firmware authentication on the TS3720, so third party PG-275 and CL-276 cartridges work and go on working after updates. On a printer whose standard black is the dearest page in the catalogue, that option is worth using, and the tri-color is where it pays best, because one body holds cyan, magenta and yellow and the whole cartridge is spent the moment any single colour runs out.

Canon also sells a machine that sidesteps the whole question. The PIXMA G3270 fills from GI-21 bottles at 0.22c a black page, roughly 38 times less than this printer manages on its XL black. For a few documents a week the TS3720 is fine and its purchase price reflects that. Once you are printing most days, that 38 times is what you are paying for the cheaper machine.

When the printer calls a cartridge empty and you doubt it, remember that the reading comes from a page counter and not from anything measuring ink, and holding the Stop button until the alarm lamp responds lets you keep printing on what is left. Pale or missing colour is more often a blocked nozzle than an empty cartridge, so a nozzle check and one cleaning cycle come before any spending. A cartridge the printer cannot see at all is usually a contact problem: lift it out, wipe the gold pads with a dry lint free cloth, and press it back until it clicks.