Are you tired of forking out big bucks for your printer ink? Most people would say yes to this question but have not much of an idea of how to remedy it.
By purchasing the right printer, using good quality generic cartridges and learning to use your printer correctly can stop it from guzzling your valuable ink can save you a fortune in printing costs. By following our advice you could easily cut your printing costs by as much as 300% without compromising on print quality. So lets take a look at the best ways to start saving you money.
1. Make sure you buy the right printer
This is without doubt the best place to start as choosing the correct printer to begin with will not only save you a fortune but also will save you a load of frustration. While there are a huge variety of printers to choose from don’t be conned by the sales person as most of them know little about the techy side of printers and they may even unknowingly lead you to a bad choice.
When shopping for a new printer always look for a printer which uses individual cartridges for each colour. Never make the mistake of buying a printer which uses only 2 cartridges as they are always expensive to replace. Canon Inkjet Printers are by far the best choice when it comes to choosing a new printer.
2. Print using Draft Mode
If you change your printer from whatever mode it is in to “Draft Mode” then it will instantly start to save you ink every time you print. This is because draft mode is a lower resolution to all other modes which in turn means that every time you print only a portion of the nozzles squirt out ink.
Although draft mode will output a lower quality print you will find that it is still fine for invoices or general document printing. By switching to draft mode you could save a whopping 50% of ink immediately.
3. Switch your printer to Grayscale
If you are wanting to print mainly black and white documents then changing the printing mode to grayscale can save your valuable coloured inks by only using the black. Not all inkjet printers however will use only the black as many of them mix colours to produce their own version of black.
Often inkjet printers will use all of the colours for grayscale as it keeps ink flowing through the printhead nozzles which in turn prevents old ink from drying and blocking the nozzles. Try checking your printer manual to see which mode will achieve your desired preferences.
4. Switch to Generic Ink Cartridges or Toner
Ten years ago the quality of non genuine cartridges was very poor. The ink would leak everywhere, often cartridges wouldn’t fit properly or they would Jam up the internals of the printer, toner would leak all through the printer or the ink would dry in the printhead and prints would have lines through them or even complete colours missing.
These days high quality compatible cartridges are equal to the genuine OEM cartridges if purchased from a reputable dealer. The price saving is amazing and the print quality and page yields are equal or greater than the more expensive brand name cartridges.
5. Switch to an Ecofont
An ecofont is simply a font with holes along the centre of each letter. By inserting these small holes into each letter it can actually save you around 50% of your ink use. Not everyone likes the look of the ecofont however when printed in small font sizes there is little difference visually.
I personally wouldn’t bother using the ecofont however if you really want to penny pinch and you do large amounts of document printing then it will definitely save you a heap of ink. You can download the ecofont here.
