A Helpful Guide to Make Your Printer’s Ink Last Longer

Although printers have become more affordable, printer ink prices have skyrocketed; they often feature in lists of the most expensive liquids in the world, beating out human blood, fine champagnes, and most perfumes.  These suggestions from Discount Copier Supply will help you get the most out of this expensive liquid, your printer’s ink.  These tips will guide you on how to make printer ink cartridges last longer. The best way to make your ink last longer is by making some simple settings changes, and most importantly, thinking and printing smart.

Choose the Right Printer for You

Every printer manufacturer uses their own proprietary technology, which means there are a lot of choices. In general, the more expensive printers use ink more efficiently. Laser printers are far more efficient than Inkjet printers.  So if you print a lot, in the long run, buying a higher-end printer would be more cost-effective and will save you money.

Ignore the Low Ink Warning

Manufacturers tend to err on the side of caution; since it’s better to be safe than sued. You’ve probably noticed that even after a ‘low ink’ warning appears, you can still get quite a few pages out of your printer. Studies have found that ink cartridges are still 20% to 30% full when the “Low Ink” notification appears. There are variations depending on the manufacturer and the model, but you can safely print until you notice the signs of low ink, like faint printing or white lines through the words.

Manage Your Printer Settings

These are a few necessary and easy changes that will make your ink cartridge last longer:

• Print in “Grayscale” instead of color for black and white documents.
• Set your print quality to “Draft Mode” which lowers the quality and less ink is used.
• When possible, print multiple pages per sheet of paper.

Use Ink Friendly Fonts

These are a few more easy changes that will make your ink cartridge last longer:

• Avoid the thick fonts and using boldface type.
• Reduce your font size when printing.
• For the thriftiest, download “Ecofont”, a free font that uses 20% less ink.

You’ll be surprised how quickly these small things will add up.

Use Print Preview

Every computer has a print preview setting that allows you to check your file before printing. Double-check for any errors, so that you don’t have to reprint just for a misplaced comma.

Consider How You Use Your Printer

Every time a printer is turned on, it runs a maintenance cycle that uses ink. Try and print in batches so that you avoid the ink wastage.

Printers that are left on, but not in use, consume very little electricity, so if you print regularly, consider leaving your printer on most of the time.

Take Care of Your Cartridges

Proper cartridge storage is vital to extending the ink cartridge’s lifespan. Improperly stored cartridges can lead to the ink drying out or evaporating:

• Never open fresh cartridges until they are ready to be used and store them at room temperature.
• Store used cartridges in plastic bags, if you know the printer won’t be in use for some time.

Manage Your Ink Cartridges

Though not recommended by the original equipment manufacturer’s (OEMs), there are a few ways of getting more from your ink cartridges:

• Carefully remove the ink cartridge and slowly swirl to release any stuck or clogged ink.
• In moments of desperation, when there is no replacement cartridge, heat the cartridge with a blow dryer for 2 minutes and it will get you enough ink to print a few more pages.

Manually Clean the Printer Nozzles

The “Clean Printer Nozzles” setting uses quite a lot of ink, manually cleaning the nozzles saves ink and actually is far more thorough.

• Bits of dried ink, dust and other debris will clog up your printer cartridge nozzles, causing faint images and broken lines. To fix this, carefully soak the cartridge nozzles in warm, soapy water until the dried ink starts to dissolve, then wipe dry, and reinstall.
• Then run a “Nozzle Check” through your printer’s maintenance settings to clear the printheads.

Change the Resolution

Resolution can be thought of as the number of dots per inch (DPI) in an image. Most printers print at 200 to 300 DPI, but reducing the DPI can drastically lessen ink usage while still presenting a clear image.  This can easily be accomplished by printing in the “Draft Mode”.

Save the Doc Instead of Printing

Saving the doc on the cloud, not only reduces paper use, but it also saves ink. In today’s digital era, consider saving and sending files rather than printing and distributing paper.

Print Only What You Need

Websites like www.printwhatyoulike.com allows you to print only the relevant parts of webpages while ignoring ads and images.

Third-Party Ink Sellers

The printer manufacturers (OEM) spend staggering amounts of money on research and development; at least, this is one of the justifications they give for the high ink prices. Actually the high ink prices have nothing to do with research and development.  The high prices are a clever marketing decision, make very little on the printer itself, but the printer manufacturers have you captive for the ink cartridges. It is similar to the razor blade marketing, the razor is cheap and the blade cartridges are expensive.

There is no doubt that a printer works best with its complementary cartridges, but cheaper options do exist. Discount Copier Supply (www.dicountcopier.com) is a third-party ink seller that produced this blog.  We guarantee the print quality and the cartridge cost is only 20% – 30% of the printer manufacturer’s price!

 

 

Sources:

Consumer Reports. The High Cost of Wasted Printer Ink. https://www.consumerreports.org/printers/the-high-cost-of-wasted-printer-ink/

The Wall Street Journal. Think Gas is Expensive? Try Scorpion Venom. https://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2007/05/16/think-gas-is-expensive-try-scorpion-venom/

How Stuff Works. How Printer Ink Works. https://computer.howstuffworks.com/printer-ink4.htm