Save on Printer Toner and Ink
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http://live.pirillo.com/ – My round table gang and I came up with a few tips to help you save on expensive ink for your printers.
Three of my friends joined me for this discussion: Kat, SC_Thor, and Wirelesspacket.
Wirelesspacket works in the commercial printing industry. He definitely is against using off brand cartridges, or refill kits. The ink just isn’t as good, and honestly doesn’t last as long. I’ve noticed that as well, and always recommend using the manufacturer’s brand for your particular printer.
Another thing you can do is to change your print layout. Print using Economy mode, instead of the default basic mode. This will save you a lot of ink in the long run, and you won’t really notice any difference in the quality.
When it comes to “practice” printing for color brochures and documents, always print your tests out in black and white. Of course you’re going to want at least one test run in full color. But when you’re just checking the layout and things, use black and white. Colored ink is not cheap!
Lastly, make sure to buy a printer with separate cartridges for color and black ink. This will save you a lot of money, as well.
What other tips and tricks do you have for saving ink cartridges and toners? How do you save money?
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6 Comments
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Chris Pirillo »Save on Printer Toner and InkPosted 12 minutes ago
bayoujim
October 9th, 2007
at 6:54am
I disagree about refilling your ink cartridges, for home use I buy a quart of black ink at a time, it so far has lasted me over 2 years and is very cheap. I keep it wrapped in a gallon ziplock in the fridge. I am happy with the results.
For black ink only printing I use a cheap Lexmark from Walmart. Lexmark makes it easy for you to refill your own cartridges.
I bought two printers in 1984 and have been using printers ever since. Over the years I find this method works best for my home use and budget.
Tom Buckley
October 9th, 2007
at 7:37am
Chris – The best way to print is to use FinePrint (www.fineprint.com), It is a graphical printer driver. You print to it, and it shows you the output on the screen. You can combine pages, resize anything, put 2, 4 or even 8 pages per sheet, remove graphics to save ink, resize margins, etc. You can make it look exactly how you want it to look before you send it to an actual printer. Turns even the cheapest printer into a high-end output device, and saves you from wasting printouts trying to get the look you want.
I found this program a couple of years back and I wonder how I managed for so long without it. Costs about $50, but well worth every penny.
Tom Buckley
warpwiz
October 13th, 2007
at 6:29am
One of the ways to save on printing is don’t! A lot of prints are just to capture information for future use. Some are to verify formatting against the shape and position on a page.
Using a .pdf converter can do both of these. Yes, you still view them on the screen, but in the context that the print has gone through what it thinks is a print driver and usually any changes in positioning or sizing will take place then.
Ink invested = 0 – what’s to lose?
Haxale
February 29th, 2008
at 11:39pm
Warpwiz dose have a good point, I my self use PDF or XPS for most things vs printing them off, but there will always be a need to print.
I my self used to be a sales rep for one of the printer companies (Lexmark… yea I know)
If your looking to save money on ink refilling will go a long way but don’t bother trying to fill any of the HP or Lexmark cartridges. The print heads on both brands are not as good as the ones you will find on Epson or Cannon… you can get maybe 2 refills out of them.
I my self would buy a Cannon. Unlike the Epson you won’t, as last I checked, need a chip re-setter and you can also buy replacement print heads.