Printer Ink

Printer ink is one of the most ridiculously high priced technological necessities on the planet. If you filled an Olympic swimming pool with printer ink it would cost you more than 5 Billion dollars. Now that’s obviously not the true cost of producing printer ink, it is the result of massive margin markups by printer manufacturers who practically give their ink jet printers and laser printers away so that they can rake in massive profits from sales of printer ink.

But consumers are not at the mercy of printer manufacturers, there are many printer ink conservation tips and tricks one can use to lessen ink cartridge replacement costs.

Here are 10 Money Saving Printer Ink Conservation Tips To Help Reduce Ink Costs in your household.

One of the best ways to reduce printer ink usage is to use the ‘Draft Quality’ setting on your printer. This will print your document at a lower resolution and save a lot of ink. This simple method of printer ink conservation could easily save you hundreds of dollars every year. It is good to use this when printing most of your documents unless you really need a high quality print for presentations or photos. Its easy to adjust your printer to print in draft quality; just go to ‘File’ – ‘Print’ to open the box that lists the settings for your printer. Next, click ‘Properties’ to bring up the various options available. You'll find different choices under the 'Paper/Quality' heading that allows you to select ‘Draft Quality’ printing.

Another great way to save on printer ink is to adjust your printer to print in black and white or ‘gray scale’ printing only. Most printers have the option today to select grayscale printing using the black ink cartridge only. If you don’t need presentation quality work, chances are you won't need the other colors anyway. Replacing black printer ink cartridges are less expensive so you should try to print in grayscale whenever possible.

If you really want to save a small fortune on printer ink, change the kids’ printers over to grey scale and printing too, here is how: go to ‘File’ – ‘Print’ to open the box that lists the settings for your printer. Next, click ‘Properties’ to bring up the various options available. You'll find different choices under the 'Color Adjustments' heading that allows you to select ‘Black and White’ or ‘Grey Scale’ printing.

Excess printer ink can be wasted if you are using the wrong kind of printer paper. Most printers are designed to run the most efficiently with a certain weight or even brand of paper. Check your user manual to see if you could be saving printerr ink by switching which type if paper you are using.

Here are a few photo related printer ink tips: When using a photo printer, print a draft copy first just to make sure the placement is correct before printing the final, high resolution photograph.

Another good printer ink saving tip when printing photos is; to check the printers manual to make sure you are using the recommended resolution settings for optimal photo printing, this way you won’t have a bunch of wasted copies while trying to get the perfect print style and resolution.

You can save buckets of printer ink just by using the wrong paper when printing photos too, your photo printer was specifically designed to use name brand photo paper and printer ink to produce the best quality results. So, if you are trying to save money by using inexpensive paper and printer ink for your photos, you should check it out and see if you are really saving in the long run.

When your printer ink finally runs out, you could buy replacement cartridges in bulk. If your printer uses both a black cartridges and a color, you likely use more of one than the other. If you're going to buy them in bulk, just buy the one you use most. The original manufacturer's printer ink cartridges will usually give you the best quality prints out of any of the alternatives. They are the most expensive, however. Also, if you buy them in bulk keep in mind that they do dry out. Most ink cartridges have a "best before" date on the box.

Another money saving printer ink replacement alternative is to purchase an ink refill kit. The kit comes with step-by-step instructions, the tools and printer ink you need to refill your ink cartridge in just a few minutes. On the average, you can refill an inkjet cartridge ten times, so this could save you quite a bit of money in the long run. But beware; if you choose to refill your printer ink rather buying the recommended brand, you could void the warranty on your printer.

Another cost effective way to refill your printer ink is to buy a remanufactured printer ink cartridge. These are basically refilled OEM cartridges, but without the hassle and mess of doing the refilling yourself. The companies that refill them also usually do a more thorough job of cleaning and testing them than you can do yourself, so they tend to be more reliable. Remanufactured printer ink cartridges are much like the original brand of ink - they will dry out if they sit too long. Don't buy more than you need to last you for a couple of months, otherwise they may not work by the time you use them.

Or, you could purchase a compatible inkjet printer ink cartridge. These are cartridges made from new parts and manufactured to meet or exceed the OEM specifications for your exact printer. Compatible printer ink replacements will save you at least half of what you would pay for the name brand ink cartridge, but be sure to shop around and find a reputable store to purchase your printer ink from.