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Tips for saving ink!

Posted on June 30, 2014 | Posted under printer, saving ink | 64 Comments

We often hear from our customers that they cannot believe the cost of printer ink. We do our best to keep the prices as low as possible, but unfortunately there is no getting around the fact that ink and and toner cartridges are expensive. But not all is lost - What we can do is give you some helpful tips on what to do to save on your ink consumption.

1) The best ink saver is not to print at all. This might sound odd coming form a company that sells ink but we suggest you be selective about your printing needs. If you can proof read a document on the screen rather than on a print out, it saves ink. Also, if you only need 1 page of a 20 page document, don't print all 20 pages! Just select the 1 page you need and print that. this may sound silly to some but a lot of people waste ink and print ours that they do not require.

2) One of the best ink savers is to print in "draft" mode. If you are not concerned about the quality of a print out this can be a great way to save printer ink. It will be slightly lighter in colour and less accurate. But as an added bonus it will print faster!

3) Select black and white printing. Even when you are printing a black and white document, some printers may add in colour ink, even though you are not printing anything with colour. So the easy way to fix this is to choose black and white print from the properties.

4) Some people suggest to turn your printer off when it's not in use to save printer ink - and in some cases this is true! But not always. A recent british study tested the cost of printing 50 pages of coloured documents continuously, over a few weeks turning the printer off and over a few weeks leaving the printer on. There were dramatic differences depending on what printer you have. Basically the message is, if your printer sounds like its cleaning its heads each time it is turned on, it may be cheaper to have the printer put itself to sleep than turn it on and off.

5) When your ink starts to get low, take the cartridge out and give it a very gentle shake. This allows the last ink to be redistirbuted within the cartridge and may give you some extra life from your cartridge.

6) This isn't a ink saving tip, but it is a paper saving tip! If your printer has duplex mode - Use It! Duplex mode allows you to print on both sides of the page saving on paper. Not only will you save paper but also helping the environment at the same time!

Well there are a couple of tips that might help. Does anyone else have any suggestions?