Canon PIXMA TR4520

Canon PIXMA TR4520 Ink — PG-245 / CL-246

The PIXMA TR4520 is a home-office all-in-one with an automatic document feeder and full wireless, built for document work, and it runs on the PG-245 / CL-246 FINE family: PG-245 black (up to 180 pages, $27.74); PG-245XL black (up to 300 pages, $28.49); CL-246 tri-color (up to 180 pages, $29.24); CL-246XL tri-color (up to 300 pages, $29.99). Every cartridge listed here is a Clever Supplies compatible, filled to the genuine specification and covered by our Lifetime Warranty.

Document work sets the pace in a TR4520. Pages fed through the automatic document feeder and printed from the desk are mostly black text, so the black cartridge does the steady mileage while the tri-color side is spent in smaller bursts whenever a chart, photo or color copy comes along. Planning around that imbalance, with black as the regular replacement and color as the slower one, suits the way this home-office machine is actually used. The hardware underneath stays uncomplicated: two FINE cartridges, a new printhead inside each one, and a printer that has sat idle between projects will normally recover with a fresh cartridge rather than a repair visit. Keep orders inside the PG-245 / CL-246 family, since cartridges from nearby Canon lines may look alike but use another code and chip and will not be recognized. Units that shipped with PG-243 / CL-244 starters used the same two slots at a lower fill, up to 100 pages each; there is no compatible starter version, and the standard and XL cartridges here are the fills that drop straight in.

Which PG-245 / CL-246 should you buy?

Black ran out first: the PG-245 Black Ink Cartridge ($27.74) goes into the black slot alone — up to 180 pages of feeder-fed document work before black calls again.
Black for the long run: the PG-245XL Black Ink Cartridge ($28.49) puts more ink in the PG-245XL slot — up to 300 pages, suiting a desk that prints documents every week.
Color ran out: the CL-246 Tri-Color Ink Cartridge ($29.24) slots into the color position alone — up to 180 pages for the occasional color job between document batches.
Color for photo runs: the CL-246XL Tri-Color Ink Cartridge ($29.99) adds a larger color fill to the CL-246XL position — up to 300 pages for households that print color in bursts.
Color pods for steady use: the CL-246XL InkPods Refill Set of 3 ($59.99) lowers what each color page costs — tri-color refill pods paired with a fresh original Canon printhead.
Black pods for steady use: the PG-245XL InkPods Refill Set of 4 ($59.99) lowers what each document page costs — black refill pods paired with a fresh original Canon printhead.
Spares in the right mix: the PG-245XL CL-246XL Ink Cartridges Set of 5 ($138.75) holds spares in the black-heavy ratio a document-led home office goes through.
Change the pair together: the PG-245XL CL-246XL Ink Cartridges Set of 2 ($56.97) replaces both positions in one order — the right call when the pair finish together.

Chip, ink and everyday use

In a document-led routine the black level is the one to watch, and a fresh compatible chip in every cartridge means the TR4520 reports that level normally and warns before the cartridge runs dry. Pigment black carries the paperwork with sharp, smudge-resistant text; dye tri-color is there for bright photo color when a job calls for it, so the two sides empty at very different speeds. The printhead lives in the cartridge, not the printer, so swapping the exhausted side also replaces the printhead and often ends the streaks and gaps cleaning cycles leave behind. Hold spares sealed until install day, because an opened FINE cartridge can dry at the nozzle plate.