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8 Tips to Save Printer Ink

8 Tips to Save Printer Ink

22nd Apr 2015

If you tend to have a constant concern for how much you’re spending on printer ink, just know that you’re not alone. The cost of ink needed for our printers these days is surely just as expensive as you and many others believe it to be. If you are someone who has a high print volume demand, you are going to feel the costs of printing more than others. Here, we’re providing you with eight tips that will help you to save your printer ink and therefore save some hard-earned money. If some of these tips come across as being super obvious to you, just feel comforted that you’re already on the right track.

1. Choose printers that can print more pages cheaper.

Just because a printer costs less, doesn't mean it is actually cost-efficient. Sometimes, you have to realize that the cheapest may not necessarily be the best for the long term. You may have to invest a little more than the cost of the cheapest printer on the market from the start.

Therefore, asking questions regarding the cost to print per page and researching your printers online can help tremendously when it comes to saving ink and money over time.

2. Send less printing jobs to outside printing services.

While it may seem more convenient to have your brochures and flyers printed someplace else, it’s definitely not always the best way to save money. These days, you’re more likely to be able to purchase (if you haven’t done so unknowingly already) printers that can do all of the same things at home that you are paying so much more for at other places. The convenience of using printers at other businesses may seem to be a great option for some. However, having even more convenience with printing from home any time of day you need to can prove to be a far greater benefit.

3. Choose a printer that has a duplexing feature and take advantage of it.

Majority of the printers that are on the market now, especially those for businesses, have an automatic duplexing feature. This feature will allow you to print on both sides of a page and therefore cut your costs of paper in half if it is taken advantage of. When looking for the best printer, making sure to choose one with this feature will help to save you even more money to perhaps buy more ink and other office items. Another great thing is that duplexing (double sided printing) is actually eco-friendly as well. So, while this tip may not necessarily save on ink unless you use draft settings (discussed later in #5), saving paper and being eco-friendly is a great tip as well.

4. Consider what you are printing and be sure to proofread documents.

Sometimes hard copies are needed while other times they can just be a waste of both ink and paper. Also, making sure to proofread and insure that there aren’t any unnecessary gaps on pages will help to print on fewer pages. Do you really need to print that 50 page document, or can the recipient just read it on their screen? Do you need to print an entire pdf file just so you can sign and upload the last page of it to send in?

5. Check into the driver and software settings for your printer.

In case you don’t already know, most times you can adjust your settings to help save ink and toner. While printing in black and white until the final color copy is needed is just the beginning. Printing documents that aren’t for presentation in draft mode is one option many people don’t seem to consider, but will definitely help to print while using less ink. Adjusting these settings can be done by visiting the control panel and/or devices and printers area on your laptop or cpu. Then, by right clicking your printer and choosing the printing preferences tab, you should see your options there.

6. Third party ink cartridges may or may not really save you money.

The crazy thing about purchasing ink cartridges that are far cheaper than those provided by your brand of printer is they may not be really helping you. This is not to say that all third party ink brands are bad, you just need to do a bit of homework on them before buying them. Our generic toners are all carefully chosen to ensure that we offer the best generic products on the market, read more about our generic cartridges here.

7. Think twice when you get a low-ink warning from your printer.

When you get that warning from your printer that the ink is running low, it usually happens a bit early. Over time, you’ll be able to notice just how long it really takes for your ink to be depleted. Replacing your ink far too early is just another way that printer ink gets wasted and costs you more. Therefore, waiting until you can begin to see evidence that your printing quality is changing on paper is the best way to know it’s time to replace your cartridges.

8. Be careful with your ink and toner.

Be careful not to overstock on ink and toner. Being prepared is always a great thing as long as your cartridges don’t expire. Be careful to buy only enough cartridges that you can use before their expiration dates. This will ensure that you save even more money and ink while only using cartridges while they are at their best.

Starting with these eight tips will place you on the right path at least to saving ink, paper and even time in your printing processes. Making the best of what you have can allow you to do more in the long term. Therefore, always strive to maximize your printer, ink cartridges/toner and you’ll gain so much more over time because of it.