In contrast to conventional inkjet cartridges, a new type of ink system was introduced in the year 1999. These revolutionary ink systems came to be known as Continuous Ink Systems. This system ensured to deliver continuous large and unlimited supply of ink to small inkjet print heads. Today, many businesses have incorporated continuous ink systems  in their printing process so as to increase the speed and volume of the printer. CIS, as it is popularly known, is a bulk feed solution and has been designed to make printing more effective and efficient.

Continuous ink systems use ink tanks that are designed to sit beside a printer. These ink tanks have a capacity to hold 100 times more the amount of ink than regular ink jet printer cartridges. These ink tanks can be filled one-by-one unlike other cartridges, where it is not possible. The best thing about CIS is the amount of ink it can hold, so one does not need to replace the ink every now and then.

More expensive business-grade printers use larger ink tanks on the print head extensively. Though, once the plate width and speed of the printer increases, it becomes impractical to have tanks integrated with the print heads. This is caused due to high mass and inertia that the liquid volume adds to the print heads, resulting in reduced accuracy of printing. Thus, separating the ink tank from the print head becomes necessary. This disintegration allows the ink storage to be refilled even when the printing is in progress. This is something which cannot be achieved with a regular ink cartridge.

Many CIS systems have been developed to cover most Epson, HP, Canon and other printers. This is the ideal solution for not only saving money but also for cutting down on a lot of technological waste.