It’s a hard fact of life: printer ink is expensive. It’s the one thing you are constantly reminded of whenever you have to replace your ink or toner for the printer.
The good news is that there are many things you can do to save on your printing costs, and these include the following:
Tweak Your Font
One of the easiest and simplest ways to save ink that might not be as obvious and you might even find surprising is changing your font. Tests reveal that you can save more ink if you switch to Times New Roman from Arial.
Maintain the Cleanliness of Your Inkjet Printer Nozzles
The printer ink nozzles in your inkjet printer can get clogged over time because of dried ink. Printers with automatic head cleaners can clean their nozzles with no need for you to open or remove the unit. But if not and you’re using your printer a lot, don’t forget to check and clean the printheads every 2 to 3 weeks.
Remove every printer cartridge to clean the nozzle heads. Wipe the bottom part where the ink comes out using a lint-free cloth or damp paper towel.
Choose a Printer with a Lower Cost Per Page
Compare the running costs if you’re still unsure what printer to buy while saving money on the ink or toner for the printer.
Check the specs of every printer and ensure that you opt for one with a low cost per page. In case the specs don’t indicate the cost per page, check the details for the printer cartridges used by the printer and consider the page yield. The cost per page refers to the cost of printer cartridges divided by the anticipated page yield.
Never allow the low sticker price to fool you. Check the specifications for cost per page for white and black output and colour. The running costs such as the prices for ink and toner cartridges can significantly vary even amongst laser and inkjet prints that otherwise come with similar prices.
Keep an eye out for cheap printers that continue to use colour cartridges. It’s because the entire cartridge should be replaced even after exhausting just a single colour.
If you print lots of colour documents regularly, such as 300 pages monthly or more, you might want to opt for an ink tank printer. Often describes as bulk-in printers, super tank printers, or continuous ink tank printers, there are many brands you can choose from today.
The ink tank printers flip the conventional business model on its head. Instead of purchasing a low-cost printer and spending more on your toner and ink, you will be paying more for the upfront purchase cost of the printer and saving on the running costs.
These ink tank printers feature a single high-capacity cartridge with several ink tanks inside. Instead of replacing the tanks every time you need more ink, all you have to do is refill them from the ink bags or bottles yourself which are often cheaper than the standard ink cartridges.
While inkjet printers often require using three inks, yellow, magenta, and cyan, ink tank printers let you use one colour and then refill it with a similar colour instead of replacing all three. You also don’t need to refill them with something of the similar frequency you need for replacing ink cartridges. Just one refill is sufficient for printing 6,000 pages or more.
Print in Economy or Draft Mode
If you will print black and white text documents for personal use without presenting them to a client or customer, you might be wondering if you even need high quality in the first place. Maybe you can just stick with draft mode or also known as economy or fast mode.
Refer to the printer settings if you like to use the lower-cost ink mode. A draft mode lets you use as little as just half the ink you will use during normal printing. Your pages will also print faster, which is a bonus if your patience is a bit limited.
Print Only What’s Needed
Is printing the entire document necessary? If you will print from a webpage, will you also be printing all the readers’ feedback, images, and ads?
Reading things on the screen and taking down a few notes is sometimes good enough. Or instead of printing out all the pages, you can also print a PDF document you can just save in the cloud or on your drive for easy and quick access whenever necessary.
Make sure you also preview the document first before printing it. In particular, webpages usually print differently compared to how they look on the screen. You can also save on both the toner for the printer and paper if you chose Printer-Friendly mode and choose the exact pages you will print and won’t be printing.
Be Mindful of Printing Text Colours
You can lessen the amount of ink you’re using and save more money if you print in grayscale, especially if your printer is something that produces black by mixing ink from the colour cartridges. To print in black and white instead of colour, head over to settings and choose black ink only or grayscale. Make it the default setting if you don’t often print in colour.
Use Up All the Ink or Toner for the Printer
Those alerts telling you that you’re running out of toner or ink are nothing but a suggestion. Check the toner and ink levels and use the prompts for ordering new printer cartridges when needed. However, most of the time, you don’t require immediate placements.
Just shake the printer cartridges gently and carefully to redistribute the toner or ink, and you can often produce more prints before needing new ones.
Saving ink or toner for the printer doesn’t take rocket science. All you have to do is to follow the tips and tricks above so that you can make the most out of your toner and printer.
