WANT TO MAKE INK CARTRIDGES GO FURTHER?

The cost today for ink is more expensive than Moet champagne, so how do you get the most from your cartridge.

Ink printers today have many purposes. Not only are they used for text, but applications such as Photoshop and Coral or Windows Paint application allow for the use of graphics, and then there is always the camera photos, which thanks to mobile phones, are more popular than ever before.

So not only is the demand for black ink increasing, but so too are the colours.

The suppliers of genuine ink cartridges are looking to make their margins not from the printers themselves, but from the ink cartridges, which at times can cost almost as much as the printer itself. Indded there are stories of consumers buying a new printer when their cartridge runs out, because along with the cartridge that comes with the printer , it is cheaper than buying a genuine ink cartridge. 

So there are a number of ways to reduce the quantity of ink you use per print exercise, and thereby reduce the cost to you by not needing to purchase a replacement ink cartridge..

• An important feature to take advantage of when your computer is in printing mode is to make sure that you use draft mode whenever possible, such as for recipes, invoices from suppliers, or a trial run for a graphic, etc. Sometimes the quality of print might not be acceptable. Then you can choose a low or medium quality of print, rather than the expensive high quality.
• If you do not require colour, such as for text printing, then check that you are only using the black cartridge. Often users are not aware that upon printing black text or black & white notices with images, that the printer will call in the cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges, or the tri colour-cartidge,  to create the black.On your computer, if using Microsoft Windows, you can call up grey scale under preferences. You can also make this the default mode, so that you will always use just the black cartridge unless you specifically require colour.
• When you are printing from a web-page, there is often a lot of blurb, advertisements, pictures etc that you don't really need on the finished product. There are two ways to save on ink here. Firstly look for a 'print this' indicator somewhere on the page. It will usually show you what will be printed, eliminating a lot of the unnecessary stuff. Or secondly you can copy & past to Microsoft word or any similiar user software, and print just that instead.
• Compare the yields between genuine and compatible cartridges for your printer. In spit of what the brand name cartridge suppliers tell you, compatible cartridges do not ruin your print heads, unless supplied by a very dodgy dealer. (refer previous article here). But if you buy directly from a web page supplier, who guarantees their product, you should'nt have those problems. The advantage can be, aside from a lower price, a higher yield from the compatible supplier.

So by applying any/all of the above suggestions, you will achieve savings that will make you happier when you do need to buy  that replacement cartridge.

We thank our sponsor, ABC Print Supplies, for their support