I love my canon ink jet printer and to save money have been using compatible cartridges, whatever the brand they have been great, however there is an exception to the rule and that is for the black inkBecause of the quantity and quality of print out I need I noticed problems with BCI-3EBK, namely with every compatible or refill black ink cartridge I have tried the quality has shown smudging around the sides.The only seems to happen on certain papers.This meant a lot of time realising the problem was the black ink.So there is a real vast difference between the original and compatible or refill ink cartridge for the BCI-3EBK
So to save yourselves a lot of trouble, if you have noticed the same problem that I, had my suggestion to you is buy compatible colour cartridges (including the small black) but when buying the big black buy the original CANON BCI-3EBK cartridge.And thanks again Canon for a great printer (mine being the IP4000)