12 Top Tips to Save Money on Printer Supplies

How to Decrease Your Monthly Printing Cost?
The cost of ink cartridges can make your multifunction printer an expensive asset to maintain. Here are 12 useful tips to help save you money on your monthly printing bill.

1. Print only what you need
Before you start printing, look at what you are about to print and decide its importance so that you do not end up printing unnecessary documents.

2. Proofread what you are about to print
Double check all documents before you print. This will save time and ink that you would have wasted otherwise.

3. Grayscale Printing: Print text in black ink only
Print documents that are in black and white with a black ink cartridge. Choose black and white printing over colour whenever possible. Depending on your printer, you may have the option to select grayscale printing using the black ink cartridge only. What is grayscale printing? It’s simply printing using your black ink cartridge to produce print that is a combination of gray tones between black and white only. If you print black with a colour ink cartridge, various colours are mixed to create the black ink. Not using grayscale depletes your colour ink cartridge a lot faster than it would deplete a black ink cartridge. If you’re not doing presentation quality work, or if you’re printing text only, chances are you won’t need the other colours.

4. Use Print Preview
Print Preview is a useful function that shows you how the document will look after it has been printed. It can help you adjust spaces and decide which pages to print. Consider turning off the colour ink cartridges, selecting only the text you require and only the pages you need – especially that last page with the footer that comes out with each print job. This can significantly reduce your printer ink usage as well as your paper usage.

5. Print only portions you need when printing from the web
Often web pages have multiple graphics, logos and advertisements. Always do a print preview to see what pages have unnecessary information and cut them from your print collection.

6. Change your font
Printing in smaller fonts can save you ink. Enlarge fonts only when needed.

7. Print in Draft mode as often as possible
Use draft print quality whenever you can. Go to File – Print to open the box that lists the settings for your printer. Click ‘Properties’ to bring up the various options available. You’ll probably find different choices under the heading ‘Paper/Quality’ that allow you to select draft quality printing. Your document will print at a lower resolution but that may not matter for reference material that you will likely discard later. You can always switch to a higher resolution for a final version of a document.

8. Use all the ink in the cartridge
Keep using the cartridge even when the printer warns you that it is running low in ink. Continue using the ink cartridge until the printer tells you that it’s empty.

9. Keep the ink flowing
Make sure you print something at least once a week using both your colour and black in to prevent the ink from drying.

10. Check for clogs
The printer uses tiny little spray nozzles to get ink onto the paper. These nozzles can become clogged. Cleaning the nozzles every few weeks will ensure the printer will spray out ink more freely resulting in less reprints.

11. Use the correct printer
Buy a printer that is suited for your needs. For instance if you need moderate printing in black only, buy a monochrome printer as it will be cost effective.

12. Use genuine cartridge for your printer.
The best way to ensure that your printer stays in perfect condition is using genuine Inks and Toners.