HP has expanded its Instant Ink program to the UK

Don’t you just hate it when your printer runs out of ink? For some reason this usually happens at the most inopportune moments, like when you have a report to submit by the end of the day and you only have 5 minutes left, or if you have a huge school assignment that needs to be turned in in the next hour. Well we suppose that’s what printer ink levels are for, to keep us informed, but if you were hoping for something more “automated”, those in the UK might be pleased to learn that HP will be expanding their Instant Ink program to your country, making the UK the first country in Europe to gain access to the Instant Ink program.

We’ve all been there: you dust off your printer to print out that important map, form or cover letter you need right now — and the cartridge is dryer than a hosepipe ban. Thankfully, the panicked emergency dash to Staples could become a thing of the past with HP Instant Ink, because your printer buys the ink for you. Already available in the US and launching now in Europe, the Instant Ink service takes the inconvenience out of ink, for a monthly fee. Sign up to Instant Ink and connect your Wi-Fi-enabled printer to the Internet, and it will monitor your ink levels, telling HP when you’re running low. Before you run out of ink, a new ink cartridge magically arrives. That costs you a small monthly fee instead of paying for cartridges whenever you need them. The trade-off is that the fee comes with a cap on how many pages you can print. That sounds a bit weird, at first blush — when you’ve parted with your hard-earned for a gadget, you want it to be able to use it as much as you like.