Flying through your ink and toner stock is all too easy when you have a job or lifestyle that requires a lot of hard copies. The current lowest cost of ink in America is $13 per ounce, and the most expensive is $75 an ounce (more than Chanel perfume!), so having to make an ink run is usually a costly errand. The good news is that there are ways to reduce your ink and toner consumption, and they’re all incredibly easy! Like recycling your ink cartridges, lowering your ink and toner use is both cost-friendly and great for the environment.
- Save Coloring For The Kids!
As tempting as it is to use color printing for all of your documents, using it too frequently will cost you a lot in the long run. Color-coding documents or spreadsheets can be a useful tool for many, but using anything other than black and white will greatly reduce the lifespan of your ink cartridges. Don’t worry, we would never ask you to cut color out completely – we just recommend saving it for the final draft! Your presentation won’t suffer by having the first few versions in black and white, and your wallet will thank you.
- Lower Your Resolution
Most modern laser printers offer an option to alter your resolution when printing. Laser printers work by dropping small toner particles onto your document and burning them to create an image; when you have a higher resolution set on a document, more toner needs to be used to get the same image. For photos and artwork, a higher resolution (typically 600 or even 1200 DPI, which means ‘dots per inch’) makes sense, but for text documents you’ll be plenty safe to lower that number to 300 DPI. A few modern printers even have an option called ‘Toner Save’ built in to automatically lower the resolution, so if you don’t see the option to manually change the DPI on your printer, look for a ‘Toner Save’ button.
- Make It A Draft
No matter what you’re working on, you’ll have revisions. For each draft of your work, we recommend using the ‘Draft’ function on your inkjet printer. Similar to how laser printers use more dust for higher-resolution versions of an image or document, inkjet printers use more ink for better-looking finished products. For most daily printer needs, the ‘Draft’ feature of your inkjet printer will be an ink-saver. Using the ‘Draft’ feature on a document will let your printer know that it doesn’t need to be top quality, and your inkjet printer will use less ink to print it. Words might come out slightly lighter than you see on your computer, but the human eye won’t even register the difference.
Of course, these tips won’t get you very far if you’re not using the correct ink or toner for your particular printer. Many printers are able to accept different ink and toner cartridges, so we’d recommend giving us a call before you decide to purchase. Our experts are able to help you with all of your needs, from choosing a cartridge that will get you the most bang for your buck, to selecting a printer that will fit your lifestyle, and even making sure it stays in excellent shape with one of our maintenance programs.
