A printer is one of the most important computer accessories and should be chosen carefully. Not only should you take into consideration the actual cost of the printer, but how much it is going to cost you for actual printing. Depending upon how much you use your printer, you may end up paying quite a bit for ink costs over the year.
Here are a few useful tips to help get the most from your printer and ink.
1) Look At Cost Per Page
Before buying a printer, compare per page costs at PCMag.com. Sometimes more expensive cartridges are cheaper in the long run because you get more printed pages for the price. Determine the cost per printed page and the amount of printing that you typically do. Compare costs between both inkjets an toner cartridges to determine which type will be most economical for you.
2) Do Your Printing At Home If Cost Effective
If you typically have print jobs you send to a print shop, consider the financial aspects of using your own printer and ink at home. You may find that you can save money by using your own printer, Brother printer cartridges, and additional equipment for brochures and other print jobs, making your printer virtually pay for itself over time.
3) Choose The Automatic Duplexer Feature
Business printers, as well as some consumer printers now come with the duplexer features that allows both sides of the paper to be printed. This can save you a lot of money on paper during the course of a year by economically using both sides. These printers also have a setting you can switch to if you choose one-sided printing.
4) Decide If You Really Need To Print A Page
Before you print something, check to see how many pages the document will use. You may find that a small amount of material you wish to print is only printable within another ten pages of content. If you can copy/paste the part you wish to print, you can save a lot of paper and ink that would otherwise be wasted on the excess pages you don’t need. For example, when printing driving directions from a map website, if you don’t desire the map to be printed, choose the text only option to get straight to the directions without wasting expensive ink and paper.
5) Adjust Printer’s Driver And Software Settings For More Economical Printing
Go into your printer’s setting by accessing the Control Panel, finding your printer, and opening the printing preferences tab. You will find various settings for print quality options. Unless you are printing something that requires professional quality, choosing options such as quick printing can make your ink last much longer. Print in Draft mode when possible, and avoid printing in color unless you really need the color option.
6) Try A Reputable Third Party Ink Cartridge
Manufacturer’s ink cartridges can be quite expensive, so sometimes you can save money by going with a refurbished ink cartridge or third party ink source. However, sometimes these cartridges tend to be of lesser quality and can really clog the nozzles on the printer. Do your research on third party cartridges by checking out reviews left by others who have purchased and used the product. Finding a quality third party ink and taking good care of your printer by cleaning the nozzles should alleviate the problem of clogging.
7) Other Issues
Don’t buy too much ink or toner at once, as once they age past their “use by” date you may have issues with clogging. Keep only fresh ink on hand and only buy a lot when doing high volume printing. Also, don’t prematurely change your ink cartridges just because you have a low ink warning. Many times the printer will continue to print just fine for some time after the warnings start, so just pay attention to see if the colors are beginning to look strange, or if the printed page is otherwise not correct before changing. Changing cartridges too soon can end up wasting a lot of ink and costing a lot of money.
When shopping for a printer, you should choose the right printer for your personal needs and use these tips to help conserve ink, paper, and money. Get the most from your ink cartridges and printer by following these simple tips.
I’m a big advocate of your suggestion to do your printing from home. I feel like the returns on investment of doing so are rather high. If you don’t do so, you’re simply wasting time driving to a place with a printer. You’re also going to be spending money on gas, as well as a high cost per print job. It may only be ten or fifteen cents per page, but that adds up when you print often or in large quantities.
I didn’t know that printer ink had a “use by” date. I’ve always been one to buy in bulk, but I guess I won’t be doing that with ink from now on. Even if buying printer ink in bulk seems cost effective, it’s not going to be worth it if some of the ink can’t be used. Thanks for the article.
Hi Peter,
Thank you for such an informative post. I am really troubled with the increasing costs of the cartridges available in the market. This is what made me land at your post.
I didn’t know about third party ink cartridges until I read here. I just searched them on web now and I am amazed to see the Compatible Cartridges being offered at amazingly low costs with a great number of deals too.
Thank you again for this.
Regards,
Ryan