[Narrator] At more than three dollars a milliliter,

it would be cheaper to print your vacation pics

with Dom Pérignon.

But inkjet cartridges are 95 percent water.

So what's the other five percent?

The color comes from three dyes: Reactive red 23,

direct blue 199, and acid yellow 23.

Each lives in its own cartridge,

with a little ethylene glycol (that's antifreeze)

to keep it mixed with the water.

Each cartridge has hundreds of tiny nozzles that

spray drops of ink thousands of times per second.

What could possibly go wrong? A lot.

For one thing, the adhesive strips you pull off

when you open a fresh cartridge are great

at keeping the ink from drying out,

but they're also full of metal contaminants,

left on the print head for too long.

The contaminants can foul the ink, and clog

up the nozzles. That's where EDTA steps in.

Its clawlike molecular structure snatches metal ions

before they cause a jam.

Then there's the surface tension of the ink.

Too little tension and it will pour out of the cartridge.

Too much, and it won't move at all.

Ethoxylated acetylenic diols lower it

to just the right point.

But it's not over once the ink hits the paper.

A solvent called cyclohexanone

helps the ink stick to the slippery polymers

on Super Gloss photostock.

Butyl urea slows down the shrinkage that happens

when moisture evaporates from cellulose fibers,

which would otherwise cause the paper

to warp, and wrinkle.

That's a lot packed into every drop, but worth

its weight in fancy french champagne?

You make the call.