There are few things as frustrating as running out of printer ink in the middle of a job. Buying new ink is about the last thing anyone wants to spend money on, however it is inevitable. Fortunately, there are things you can do to squeeze out as many prints as possible from each milliliter of ink. Some of these may be old news to you, but many are likely novel and may save you time and money.
1. Try changing the font or reducing the font size of your document.
This makes sense once you think about it, but most people probably have never considered that some fonts use more ink than others. Brown recommends using Century Gothic, Eco font, or Times New Roman to keep your ink cartridges fuller, longer. Arial is a particularly bad one, apparently.
2. Change your settings to reduce paper and ink usage.
When possible, print double-sided documents and widen your margins to squeeze more text onto the page. This may not directly save ink, but saving paper is also important – especially for documents that may not be needed long-term, like memos and notes.
3. Use print preview.
Have you ever printed a web page only to find you’ve wasted ink by printing the ads at the bottom of the page? Always open your document in print preview to ensure no pages are wasted.
4. Print only portions of a web page.
If print preview does show lots of adds or other unwanted content, the free HP Smart Print app can help. It reduces paper and ink usage by removing headers, footers, and ads from web pages, leaving you with just the content you want to print. The app isn’t exclusive to HP printers.
5. Print in black and white.
Wasting color ink on documents that don’t need it will only lead to headaches down the road. Ensure you only print in color when necessary by changing your default setting to print in black and white only. This will extend the life of your color ink cartridges.
6. For times when the best quality is not needed, print in draft mode.
Not only does this use less ink than the “normal” setting, it also prints faster. The results won’t be as high quality, with slightly lighter text, but there are many applications where this is a good tradeoff.
7. Replace ink cartridges only when they are empty.
Your printer will alert you when ink is running low, but Brown cautions that this is just a warning; there’s no need to panic (yet). Your printer may continue working normally for some time to come, so keep using those cartridges until they are completely empty.
Our team at Freo Cartridges works to save Perth’s landfills from ink cartridges for all printers and fax machines. We are an environmentally friendly ink company. We will recycle your empty ink cartridge rather than throw it away. Our green refilling philosophy has made our retail store a popular place for customers to stop in and purchase ink for their printers and fax machines.
If you are in the market for a new printer, give Freo Cartridges a call. Our Certified Print Specialists will help you decide not only which printer is best for your printing needs, but which will deliver the best print quality & lowest annual cost of printing. We love helping our customers, so just stop in to our Freo Cartridges store and we’ll be glad to assist you in making a smart printer purchase decision!