How to Save Money on Ink Cartridges
By Denise Resendez
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| Image via Daniel Foster |
If you’ve been keeping track of our blog you probably know already that printer ink is among the most expensive fluids in the world. It’s more expensive than fine French champagne and even perfume! So it follows that we all want to save on our toner and ink cartridge purchases. We look at how to save money on your purchases of printing consumables.
Compatible Cartridges
Now this has to be the most obvious way to save money on ink cartridges; that you could save up to 80% when you buy our compatible ink and toner cartridges. It is a well known fact that original equipment manufacturers make their money not by selling printers but by selling ink cartridges. The prices of printers, which are a onetime expense, are kept deliberately low while the prices of cartridges, a recurring expense, are inflated. However a quick look at the comparison between the prices of OEM and compatible cartridges will reveal just how much a difference compatible inks can make to your bottom line.
Smart Printing
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| via SmallBiz |
Don’t print unless you have to. Send an email, share documents on the Cloud or use any one of the many digital options available so you don’t have to take a print out.
Also unless you need to have a high quality printout, use the draft setting to do your printing. This setting saves ink and gets you quicker printouts; both of which will help you save money. Print in grayscale or black and white – this also helps you save because black ink is typically cheaper than color ink.
Check the font type and size before hitting the print command. Some fonts use less ink than others and some fonts use up less space on a printed page, fitting more words on a single page so that you need fewer printed pages in all.
When the printer tells you it’s out of ink, don’t believe it implicitly. The accuracy of these warnings tends to wary significantly; there may actually be a lot of ink left in the cartridge when the indicator shows “low”. Keep printing until you actually find that the print quality isn’t as good as it should be.
Buy the Right Printer
Buy a printer with an Energy Star rating – this indicates that the printer is made to be efficient in terms of energy consumption. Also pick a printer that has an auto duplex setting so that the printer prints both sides of the page to save you money on printing paper.
Service and Maintenance of Your Printer
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| Via ThingiVerse |
Ensure that your printer is in good working order. Use it regularly and take printouts at least once each week.
This prevents the print nozzles from getting clogged up. Performing regular maintenance checks on your printer will also ensure that you get the best out of your printer and ink cartridges, with less wastage and less money spent on repairs and so on.
Other Ways to Save Money on Ink Cartridges
Using remanufactured cartridges is another way to save money on your print consumables. This is also an eco friendly option which recycles and upcycles used cartridges to create new ones.
Buy in ink bulk. Check out some of your great bulk ink options to save big on your printing expenditure. This can make a lot of sense, particularly if you have a lot of printing requirements and if you print large volumes regularly.
Do you have any money saving printing tips to share with us? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below. To get regular special deals on ink cartridges and toner, subscribe to our newsletter or ‘Like’ us on Facebook.