Q: When do you run out of ink?
A: When you need it most.
Ink in a cartridge should be treated like a savings account you will really need one day – spend indiscriminately and nothing is left when you need it. Spend wisely with your eye to the future, there will be enough there WHEN you need it.
Yes this is yet another ‘simple ways to save your ink for a rainy day’, yet it is incredible how many people overlook it. It not only saves ink when you are spending your hard earned dollars on it, but even when it’s on someone else’s bill. In that case, spending/printing like crazy may not cost you real money, but it does have a higher negative impact on the environment. So just because someone else is paying for it, sadly, due to the accumulative affect these actions amount to, future generations will pay for it as well.
When you hit the ‘print’ button there is a pop up screen that shows all kinds of options. It usually starts with a selection of what printer – that is usually defaulted to the printer you use the most. Beside that is a button that says ‘PROPERTIES’. It is after hitting the Properties button that the ink and environment saving options are presented. From the size of paper, and, in fact, what cartridge to use, and how much ink to print with.
1. PRINT QUALITY
These settings tell the printer how much ink to put on a page. It is usually a combination of these settings:
High, Standard, Fast, Custom are usually options, but depending on the software, Draft Mode, Economy Mode, Toner Saver, etc may be options. They are fairly easy to interpret, however you would be surprised at what little difference there is between the modes in print quality.
Standard, Draft quality is more than enough for even presentation papers like essays or any other type of non-commercial report. Fast or Economy quality is for really anything else, any type of print, even homework for the kids, etc (unless there are pictures, and Standard will usually suffice there as well).
2. PRINT GRAYSCALE, unless you are printing pictures of course
Grayscale is a ‘checkbox’ that is an option when you hit ‘PROPERTIES’. When printing anything black and white, use the grayscale to use a lot less ink. It’s just a checkbox, and you can never ‘set’ it, so it has to be checked every time. Surprising how many people don’t.
3. EVERY PIECE OF PAPER HAS TWO SIDES – USE THEM
In the spirit of lowering output, it doesn’t only have to be ink. Paper is not only a way to save money, but it will do more for the ENVIRONMENT than any real savings that can add to the bottom line. It’s so simple, and so easy, and frankly people and companies appreciate it. If your printer has this option (and not all do) – PLEASE use it. Alternatively, you can manually print on both sides of a sheet. Not so easy when printing out a report or homework, but in other situations when available, this is an option that everyone should use.
4. PRINT IT LIKE A BOOK
Did you know that almost every printer driver can print two pages’ worth of a document on a single sheet of paper? Each page gets reduced in size and rotated 90 degrees, so that two pages land side-by-side on one sheet, kind of looks like a book.
MS Word and Adobe Reader have this option right in the Print menu. In programs that don’t (like Firefox, yes a browser), you can select the properties menu to select your printer and look for a “page layout” or “page scaling” option.
5. PDF IS THE BEST ELECTRONIC PRINTER
Well, not really a printer, but it’s easy to have a solid format, consistent theme and layout in a PDF that you can email or display to anyone. In this case, the best way to save paper and ink is to bypass them entirely. Whenever possible, “print” your documents to PDF files you can store on your computer or e-mail to others. PDFCreator (this is the place to download it) allows anyone to easily convert almost any document into a pdf. It’s easy and free, a nifty program.
6. BUY LOWER COST SUPPLIES (Non Brand/OEM Name)
OKAY, there are 6 WAYS TO SAVE ON YOUR INK OR TONER. This is the bonus…
The reality is there are some incredible quality compatible, and more important for the environment – recycled and remanufactured cartridges and options out there. This industry is getting more and more quality conscious every minute. Higher standards, ISO certifications, product testing, the list goes on. The bottom line is that buying lower cost remanufactured or compatible cartridges is your best choice for quality printing without any difference in purchasing or the mechanics of installing a cartridge. Except for the savings. There are options for almost all brands and makes of printers including Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, Xerox
