Inkjet Ink Saving Tips

Tips for Saving Ink

Use economy mode. Most printers allow you to select the "economy" or "draft" mode in the properties section of your printer. This means you will have a slightly lighter, less precise copy, but it will save ink. Use the economy mode any time you are printing a draft or a document, such as an informal letter, that does not need to be "presentation ready." As a side benefit the document will also print faster and dry quicker.

Print only the portions you need. Be careful not to print an entire, multi-page document when you only need one or two pages. Word processing and other programs allow you to select a print range for your documents. This is especially important when printing pages from the Internet. Often if you print a webpage, you will receive a lot of needless links, logos, and advertisements at the end of the webpage, and these often end up printing out on a completely separate sheet of paper. To avoid this, do a print preview to see which pages have extraneous information, and cut those out of your print range.

Sway it. When your printer warns you that your ink cartridge is running low, it's not yet time to replace it! Remove the ink cartridge from the printer and sway it softly from side to side, and then reinsert it. This will redistribute the last little bit of ink in the cartridge and often get you several more printed pages. You may even be able to repeat the process more than once to get some additional pages.

Don't turn off your printer in mid-cycle. Never switch off your printer until it completes its cycle. If you turn it off while the cartridge is still moving, the printer's head will be forced to stop in the precise place where you turned it off. This may cause the printer nozzle to dry out and the ink to leak.

Leave your printer on. If you think you will be using your printer soon, it's better to leave it on than to repeatedly turn it on and off. Your printer uses a tiny bit of ink during the initialization phase every time it is turned on.

Use the black-only mode. If you have a printer that uses both a black cartridge and a color cartridge, and you're printing a black and white document, remember to change your printer properties to the black-only mode. Why? Even if you only have a black and white document, some printers automatically mix some of the color cartridge with the black to print the document. Over time, it's possible to use up a color cartridge even if you never print a colored document!

Consider ink saving software. Several companies produce ink saving software, and some of these programs can be downloaded for free online. These programs generally work by optimizing printer data so that your printer uses less ink even while printing at high resolution.

Earl Wilson once said, "Money in the bank is like toothpaste in the tube: easy to take out, hard to put back." Don't keep taking money out of the bank to spend on wasted ink!

Tips for Making an Ink Cartridge Last Longer

1. Print only what you absolutely need:

 In short, you should print only those things that you may actually need to save consumption of considerable amounts of ink.

Additionally, these days you can find free programs online such as CutePDF that will allow you to turn almost anything into a PDF. uploaded to an online cloud storage service such as Dropbox, Box.comor Google Drive

2. Use Print Preview: 

 Print Preview is a useful function that shows you how the document will look after it has been printed. It can help you adjust spaces and decide which pages to print. Consider turning off the color ink cartridges, selecting only the text you require and only the pages you need - especially that last page with the footer that comes out with each print job. 

3. Print text over graphics: 

If you are printing documents only for later reference, print only the essential text and any related images or graphics that are required. Avoid printing images or colorful graphics if having a hard copy is not essential to the purpose of the document. 

4. Print in Draft mode as often as possible:

 Use draft print quality whenever you can. Go to File - Print to open the box that lists the settings for your printer. Click 'Properties' to bring up the various options available. You'll probably find different choices under the heading 'Paper/Quality' that allow you to select draft quality printing. Your document will print at a lower resolution but that may not matter for reference material that you will likely discard later. You can always switch to a higher resolution for a final version of a document. 

5. Print text in black ink only:

 Print documents that are in black and white with a black ink cartridge. Choose black and white printing over color whenever possible. Depending on your printer, you may have the option to select grayscale printing using the black ink cartridge only. If you print black with a color ink cartridge, various colors are mixed to create the black ink. This depletes your color ink cartridge a lot faster than it would deplete a black ink cartridge. If you're not doing presentation quality work, or if you're printing text only, chances are you won't need the other colors. 

6. Use color ink only when needed:

 If you want your refilled ink to run longer, then make use of color printing only when it is required. Otherwise, for general and regular use, it is wiser to use black and white printing that helps in saving your money on buying additional refills.

Modern personal printers can produce high quality photographs, particularly if you use specialty photo paper. But printing high quality digital shots can use a lot of ink, so if you print a large number of photos you might want to outsource your photo printing to a local print center. Many services allow you to order your prints online. You can also have your photos printed on calendars, mouse pads or greeting cards if you wish. 

7. Keep your printer nozzles clean:

 Perhaps the easiest change you can make to your printing habits is to keep an eye on your printer heads. The printer ink nozzles that dispense the actual ink use a spray function to get the ink onto the paper. As such, these nozzles can experience a build-up of dried ink and become clogged. Clean the nozzle heads every few weeks or more often if you're a heavy printer.

If a color cartridge isn't printing all the colors, remove the cartridge and wipe the bottom of it where the ink comes out firmly with a damp paper towel or lint-free cloth to unclog the nozzle. This will help the ink flow more freely from the cartridge. 

8. Use all the ink in the cartridge: 

 Continue to print even when your printer light comes on or you get a warning saying that your ink is low. Check the ink level in the cartridge and if it appears that there is some ink left, keep using it instead of changing the cartridge immediately. There is likely quite a bit of ink left in the cartridge; remember that the ink comes out in a spray so it doesn't take much per page. Use it all and then shake the ink cartridge to break up any ink clogs (especially in humid climates). You may get hundreds of extra pages out of a cartridge by doing this. Keep printing until the ink is almost completely gone (but be careful that you don't run the printer with an empty cartridge).

9. Select "Printer-Friendly" Pages when printing from the Web:

 You would be surprised how much ink is wasted by printing pages directly as they appear from a website. One Web page can have multiple pictures or graphics...not to mention several pages worth of printing because Web pages are typically much longer than a regular document. Opt for the printer-friendly option if you need to print something from the Web. This eliminates all the unnecessary images, and will save your ink cartridges as well as your printing paper. 

10. Use the printer regularly:

 If you don't print very often, you can stretch the life of your inkjet cartridges by keeping the printer moving. Print a page or two at least once a week using both your color and black ink cartridges. You can print something small (even a printer diagnostic test) to prevent the ink from drying up.

Another ink-saving tip is to power down your printer the right way after each use. Don't merely switch it off or unplug it, but allow your printer to power down slowly and shut itself down. The print heads need to be in the right position while the printer is turned off to prevent the ink from drying up prematurely. The printer should also be covered when not in use.