Frequently Asked Questions

• The printer flagged a message when I put this tank in — what now?

  Acknowledge the on-screen message first, then reseat the cartridge until it clicks and restart the printer. Should the message persist, take the tank out, wipe the gold chip contacts with a dry lint-free cloth, and reinstall it.

• How does the printer read this compatible cartridge?

  A new compatible chip reports the ink level back to the printer, so your low-ink warnings keep working the way they did before. The cartridge is not a refilled original shell running on a reset chip.

• What part does cyan play in my prints?

  Cyan is one of the three process colors. Working together with magenta and yellow, it builds the full color range, and it is the tank that carries the blues and greens — skies, water and foliage — in color prints and photos.

• How many pages should I expect from one tank?

  The rating is up to 715 pages, Canon's own published figure for the XL tier. That number is measured on standard test pages at around 5% coverage, so your own yield moves with what you print: dense photos use far more ink than text pages.

• Which printers use this cyan cartridge?

  It fits Canon PIXMA MG5720, Canon PIXMA MG5721, Canon PIXMA MG5722, Canon PIXMA MG6820 and 7 more. You will find the complete verified list in the Compatible Printers section on this page — check your model there before ordering.

• Do I have to switch all my tanks to compatibles at the same time?

  No. Each slot is read on its own, so this tank prints normally beside genuine Canon tanks, and the reverse works too. You can switch a single color at a time and leave the rest as they are.

• What does the XL in the name stand for?

  XL is the high-yield fill — the singles we list for this family are all XL. Canon also sold a standard fill under the same family numbers; the XL tanks hold more ink and cost less per page.

• Is this cartridge made by Canon?

  No. It is a Clever Supplies compatible cartridge built to the CLI-271XL specification and covered by our lifetime warranty. It is not manufactured by Canon; the Canon name appears only to identify the printers it fits.

• If it leaks or prints poorly, what coverage do I have?

  Stop and contact us — do not keep printing on a faulty cartridge. Recognition failures, leaks and print-quality defects all fall under the lifetime warranty: we replace the cartridge or refund you, and returns are free for the first year.

• How should I store a spare cyan tank for this family?

  Keep it sealed in its original packaging, in a cool, dry spot out of direct sunlight, and do not open it until the day it goes into the printer. The seal protects the ink, and a tank stored that way waits patiently for months without any attention. When the low-ink warning appears on the installed CLI-271XL Cyan, the spare comes off the shelf, the swap takes a moment, and printing continues — order the next shelf spare the same day so the cycle never breaks.