9 Tips To Save Printer Ink

Printers are inexpensive, but printer ink is costly. Therefore, every business or home printer user wants to save a penny from these expensive consumables. Even they opt to change printer settings from time to time. This is really a fruitful job to save ink, but there are many other ways to reduce printer ink consumption. Using them will help you to release the burden of increasing printing costs. Let’s know the amazing 7 tips to save printer ink:

1. Buy Low Printing Cost Printer

While Buying a printer, you will see a number of models with the least cost stickers. But considering their after buying cost or recurring cost is the most important determinant. So, whether you are buying inkjet printers or laser printers cost always works in inverse proportion. Means higher the initial cost, lower will be maintaining cost. Therefore, if you need to spend some extra bucks to buy a printer, do not hesitate. It will save you from the hassle of replacing ink or toner cartridges frequently.

Make your printer research better by searching for all brands and models. Find out the most economical printer that consumes less ink compared to other models then buy. This will be your first and essential step toward saving printer ink cost.

2. Use Draft Mode While Printing

Changing the printer by default settings and setting draft mode helps to reduce printer ink consumption. This mode automatically changes printer resolution to 300dpi from 1200 or more! Now, whatever you will print will come in an economy mode which is perfect for day to day printing needs. If you need something important to print, change the printer settings and then go with higher resolution.

The draft mode can be under the “Toner Save” or “Economy” in printer properties. Implementing this tip will help you to bring noticeable printer ink and printing cost savings. Using draft mode means, you can also take printouts at a much higher speed than usual.

3. Ignore Low Ink Warnings

Modern printers are designed from the latest techniques. They keep on warning the user with low ink pop up notifications when ink reaches a minimum level. This is a warning signal that it's time to replace the ink cartridge. Indeed, these are alarming signals and alerts for the replacement but not an actual call to change cartridges now. As there is still some ink lies in the printer cartridge. Replacing means you are going to dump that leftover ink. Therefore, it is best to advise you to use the printer until it starts printing faded results. This is an actual call for replacement.

Keep in mind, even after first alert some printers print 20 to 200 printouts depending on the cartridge size and print requirements. So, do not miss a chance to print from the last drop of printer ink.

4. Change Font Type And Size

Font type and size are two important elements of increasing or decreasing ink usage. Therefore, it is essential to give importance to both these terms. For this, try to use EcoFont for printing text documents. This text contains small dots that are hard to see but saves ink. If you increase the size to 24 or more, you can easily see these microdots. This is a paid font style. But if you are looking for a budget-friendly font, choose Times New Roman or Arial. Both these are the best fonts to save ink and paper.

Font size has its significance. Therefore, set your text font size between 10 to 12, which is easily readable. Larger the font size means you need more space on paper and ink to print. Therefore, check your printing purpose and then choose the most readable font.

5. Inspect Document Twice Before You Print

If you want to cut printing costs, print only what is important. This will save ink, paper and time. Therefore it is essential to double-check your document before sending for printouts. Remove all bold fonts or replace them with regular ones. Check out, whether you need images or graphs mentioned in the documents or not. Previewing the documents before printing helps you to save printer ink.

If you are taking printout directly from the web, there will be a number of ads that come along with your command. All these printed pages are nothing more than a waste of time, money, paper and of course ink.

6. Check Software And Driver’s Settings

Most modern printers come with a user-friendly interface that allows you to access the printer from the system. This is called a printer driver. You either want to set specific commands or want to change printer settings, use these drives. Even you can set a specific format to recognize. Hence, we can also say this is a direct way of changing settings.

In the printer driver, you will see several options like page setting features, printing preference, ink saver mode, black and white printing and many more!! All will help you to achieve a low printer ink consumption target.

7. Use Relevant Paper As Per Print Quality

There are many paper types available in the market. One can choose from 60gsm to 160gsm. But all these papers are not to fulfill common printing needs. All have the specific purpose of printing. So, first of all, know about your printing purpose. Like if you need paper for regular printing to go with standard A4 size sheets. And if you want to print images, choose a glossy sheet to print attractive results.

Remember, the right use of paper helps you to save up to 47% of the paper compared to choosing the wrong paper according to weight. Therefore, ask your employees to check the printer manual to find the best paper.

8. Perform Weekly or Monthly Cleaning Functions

The cleaning printing machine is an important step to save printer ink. As per experts’ opinion, it will be good to clean weekly or bi-weekly your machine based on usage. This will improve ink circulation and clear all the clogged ink from nozzles. Cleaning also provides you with smooth colors on the print head.

In some latest printer models, there is an automatic cleaning function available. One just needs to give command and ink will be automatically removed. Of course, this will consume a little high ink ratio compared to manual but saves ink from clogging.

9. Print More In Black and White

If you need regular black and white text to print to meet day to day printing needs, it will be good to choose either monochrome printers or change printer settings. When you print in black, it will surely save ink. For example, if you give the command to colored ink cartridges to taking black and white printouts. Colored cartridges will surely consume more ink compared to single cartridges. So, always set your printer setting to draft or black ink mode. It will consume less ink and print more.

The above information helps you to save ink and toner cartridge. If you found this article useful, do not hesitate to share it with others. These tips will help them to reduce their printing cost.

About the Author:

Jack William is a marketing specialist from Wellington, New Zealand. He works as a Digital Marketer for Printzone, which is the biggest warehouse of Cheap Printer Cartridges, Hp Toner & Printer Inks. He also writes articles on technology and business for several online magazines and websites.