If you want to save money but don't care about the overall quality of the print, then the substitute inks are good enough. If you want the print to look like what you see on the monitor, then you need to spend the bucks and bite the bullet and all the other cliches and get the Canon ink set. I had some prints that I did with the original inks but then replaced the inks with the substitutes. For some prints it was fine, but where the color cast really was important, the whole print came out with a red tinge and cast. So, I calibrated the monitor again, tweaked the settings, used different papers (all Canon papers) and nothing helped. Still red. Then I read the reviews, one of them talked about the red cast, and I decided to spend the money one time to see if it made a difference. It did. The prints came out without the red cast and look like they do on the monitor. So, try it once- buy the expensive ink and see if there is a difference. If so, use the Canon ink. If not, well you still have all those replacement inks that you bought so use them. FYI- I have a Canon Pixma 100 Pro printer. It's all Canon stuff and that seems to make a difference.Good products, reliable colors, work right out of the box. See picture I printed for my presentation. Sharp and cleanDon't like to use third party ink. This is reasonably priced, normally in stock and delivered promptly.Big value for me included all eight inksFirst of all, this is not a paid review - I have written maybe 2 amazon reviews ever, but I'm hoping this one will be helpful. I got a Canon Pixma Pro 100 about a year ago, and it was given to me slightly used - with Canon ink. I have a side business where I made collages, photograph them, and then make greeting cards out of the photographs, so this printer is essential to that business. When the original ink ran out, I bought the $37 off-brand replacement ink off Amazon and thought nothing of it - a couple of times. But then my prints started looking terrible, even when I did everything I could to enhance my photos. After some online searching, I realized for the first time that the off-brand ink might be the problem, so I reluctantly spent $115 on the real deal. As you can see from my photos, the Canon ink made a world of difference - the offbrand ink was producing unexplained stripes in the artwork, and certain colors like blue or yellow would randomly not come through even though the ink was full. With the Canon ink, I love the printer as much as I did on day one because the stripes and color issues are gone. So, long story short, this ink is expensive, which sucks. However, buying the cheaper version is the same thing as throwing your money away if you have any interest in printing high quality images on your printer. After a couple of months of stress and disappointment, the Canon ink solved all my problems, and I'll never be able to go back to the offbrand despite the expense. TRUST ME, DONT SKIMP AND BUY THE REAL DEAL!This set is great. I’ve ordered several times and will continue to do so.As advertisedSo I got the Pro-100 printer about 2 years ago, and knowing I would print a lot, I immediately shopped for spare ink. I decided to try a generic ink refill kit, not wanting to give into Canon's notorious ink prices. (we all know they make $$$ on ink). Anyway, the original printer cartridges actually lasted a lot longer than I expected, printing whatever I wanted, in sizes of 5x7, 8x10 and quite a few 13x19. I never felt rushed. But after not using the printer few several months after a house move, several tanks were erroring as empty. I tried the refill kit. It's ink as far as I can tell from naive eyes looks legit. The problem with the generics was I had ink smears on my paper, failing Nozzle Test print pages, and mysterious spots of ink on the paper. I tried all cleanings. After getting an almost perfect test page with the generic refills, I finally I printed out a 5x7 with the generic printer. It was streaked and had ink pools on it. I gave up knowing the sloppy refills seemed to be giving out too much ink. I don't blame the ink or color qaulity, I blame the faulty cartridges that remain after refill. I threw away those cartridges and the refill ink. I bought these genuine canon cartridges which were installed in minutes. I cleaned once. Did a single perfect test sheet, and printed a perfect 5x7 minutes after install. Yes, these cartridges are expensive and I hate Canon for it. But honestly for avoiding the huge hassle of failed refills, I'll take it for the cost.Price point could be better. It is very expensive but quality of prints is uncompromised!! If you value your expensive printer put these in BUT be aware, you cannot use these without thinking about what you are printing. Print the best and forget the rest!!Product appears to be OEM manufacturer and packaging. Newly installed ink cartridges have not been used enough to properly rate print quality and longevity.It is amazing how good the original ink cartridges are as compared to the cheaper ones because they don't work with a good printer and definitely not with a photo printer.Original is always the way to go!ink lasts a long timeCanon product works as described.