20 Ways to Save Time and Money on Printer Ink and Toner
From the days of dot matrix to today, ink has been expensive. Here are 20 ways to save time and money dealing with ink or toner, whether you’re using inkjet, laser, large network, multifunction or portable printers. Many of these saving techniques apply equally well to other purchases tracked by Gnivas.
- comparison shop
- buy before you need something to avoid time crunches and use less expensive shipping
- find the total cost delivered to your door
- buy in bulk
- stock up when you find a real deal
Use these common thrift strategies when printing and these twenty ink money tips fall into three saving strategies:
A. Use less ink;
B. Use someone else’s ink;
C. Use less expensive ink.
In a previous story about cheap ink, we used one cartridge to price shop across several sites for a total cost per cartridge delivered to your door. In the Ink Savings Chart below, we’ve expanded the number of stores and arranged additional information for faster and easier use. You’ll find the company location (good to know when considering whether or not you will be charged sales tax on your purchase), standard mail charge for small orders, free shipping price point, where the store ships to, and when available, a discount code for more savings.
A. USE LESS INK
1. Print less, PDF more. If you have Adobe Acrobat and can save as a PDF, save a copy as a PDF rather than a printed version. If your Adobe is a reader only, pdf995 lets you save documents ad PDFs for free. There is also a paid version of pdf995. As with all free and paid tandems, the free one has fewer features.
2. Print only what you need. If you’re looking for a hard copy of two pages of a five page document, don’t choose the “print all” button.
3. Print only the pieces of web pages that you need. Printing web information is not an “all or nothing” proposition. Select what you want printed and omit what you want left out. In Mozilla, a nice feature is Nuke Anything Enhanced, a Firefox enhancement that allows hiding almost any text. Just want the body of the information and not the side ads or site index adding pages to the printout? Nuke has you covered. For a free browser neutral solution along the lines of Nuke, printwhatyoulike is an online editor that lets you decide what you want to print. Once again, if you don’t want the ads that go with the story, just print the story. A third solution is GreenPrint. This download software highlights and removes web pages, provides easy text and image removal, and lets users create PDFs of the modified pages rather than have to print out copies. The company also promises the free version can track how much you are saving in pages, money, and greenhouse gases. The full home version is $29 and comes with with the added functionality of upgrades and support.
4. Embrace the draft mode. Reduce your resolution. Most printers default setting is 600 dots per inch (dpi). Choose draft quality, which usually prints at 300 dpi. While not presentation quality, draft prints faster with less ink.
5. Use black whenever possible and color ink sparingly. Black cartridges are less expensive than color cartridges. In printer settings, find the option of printing in grayscale or black and white. Choose Preferences, then Color, then Black print cartridge only.
6. Now that you have black only as your default printer setting, don’t abandon the color cartridge. Use color ink at least once a week. Without getting too deep or too small describing the size of the openings of printer ink heads, without regular use, these openings can dry out or otherwise clog up. If you don’t have any color printing you need to do, run a test page to keep the color ports open.
7. Adjust your volume. Yes, you can adjust the volume of ink used by your printer, at least in XP. Click on the Print tab, then Preferences, then Basics, then Advanced features (yes, there is an advanced button after you get into Basics). You’ll see a slide control bar to adjust the amount of ink.
8. Adjust your font. Depending on the presentation you’re making, the Dutch developed and aptly named Ecofont is available as a free download here. Its creators claim it uses 20 percent less ink. Take a good look at Ecofont before you try it out–this has the possibility of being the early 21st century version of the 1970s Shotgun typeface.
9. You are about to print. Choose Print Preview. While ink is expensive, paper is not cheap, either. It’s cheaper on both ink and paper to see how the printed pages will look before you print. Before printing, get rid of hanging words on one page, half a line of a long paragraph, and no one numerical point standing alone on one page after you’ve just read seven or eight on the previous page.
Now you are ready to print. Naturally, you get a “low-on-ink” message. Take a deep breath and if you have time, read this 2008 PC World story by Jeff Bertolucci, How Much Ink Is Left in That Dead Cartridge?. If you don’t have the time, here are some of the findings: there’s a lot of ink left in a supposedly empty cartridge. PC World found the “still in there” ink ran from 8 percent left in an OEM Epson cartridge through a Canon at 24 percent and on to a Kodak at 43 percent full. According to the article, Hewlett Packard cartridges print until the cartridge is dry. Unlike most manufacturers, the print heads are part of HP’s cartridge. Not having ink does not damage other HP printer parts. The How Much story also found aftermarket cartridges (with one exception) had more ink in the cartridge when they stopped working than OEM cartridges.
If and when you get the “low-on-ink” message, here are three more things you can do before you need to start looking for more ink outside the printer.
10. Take out the cartridge and reinsert it. If this is a toner, it’s accepted wisdom to take it out, put it back in, and try it again.
11. Take out the cartridge, shake it, and reinsert back in its slot. Don’t shake too much. Ink that seems to come off so easily from paper tends to become permanent on anything other than paper.
12. If you have a printer that has not been used in a while and none of the above suggestions get ink onto paper it could be time to clean the print head. This Smart Computing article about print head cleaning does not come down on either side of the isopropyl alcohol versus water as the best cleaning agent discussion, but it does show how to clean a print head with software as well as manually and why a dirty print head could be your problem.
B. USE SOMEONE ELSE’S INK
13. If you have access to a printer that is less expensive to operate, use that printer. This suggestion is more applicable to the workplace, where there is more likely to be a toner printer or laser in addtion to an inkjet. If you have a lot of copies or you’re making a particular type of presentation, consider a copy center.
14. When it comes to color ink for pictures, send your digital photos out for printing. Your inkjet printer cannot compete with the cost of a 4×6 inch print from Costco at 13 cents each or Walgreens 15 cents per print when picked up at a store. If you are not a Costco member (annual fee $50) and do not want to drive by Walgreens, Photoworks.com from American Greetings has 220 prepaid prints available for 14 cents each and an online offer for free shipping on any order of more than $10 for a first time purchaser.
We are more than half way through this list of ways to save money on ink, and we still haven’t had to spend any money on new printer ink.
If you find you really are out of ink, or at least a cartridge has stopped working even with ink still in it, it is now time to buy ink.
C. USE LESS EXPENSIVE INK
15. No discussion of buying over the Internet should be complete without a mention of the Internet Sales Tax, or lack of sales tax. For states that have sales taxes, buying over the web from a store that does not charge sales tax amounts to an unseen coupon discount from 4 percent up to almost 10 percent with every purchase. According to this article from Nolo about Internet sales taxes, unless a company has a physical presence in a state, a retailer is not obligated to collect sales taxes on purchases shipped to that state. For companies with brick and mortar locations across the United States, national reach stores collect sales taxes on taxable Internet purchases because they have sites in the “ship to” states. About 1,100 online companies voluntarily collect other states’ sales taxes. For most stores located in only one state though, the Carrot Ink policy is the rule. Based in the Dallas suburb of Addison, the Carrot Ink About Us page states, “No sales tax on orders shipped outside Texas.” According to this Find Law story, consumers are technically required to pay to their state any sales tax not collected where a tax would be levided if the item was purchased in-state. At this point, it is called a use tax. The amounts of these taxes are usually so small, state revenue agencies have made little effort to find individuals not paying purchase (use) taxes. While there are efforts to create a nationwide system of collection under the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, there is no mandated legislation currently in effect.
16. Comparison shop. Whether you’re buying OEM, compatibles or remanufactured cartridges, using your old cartridge for a refill, buying refill kits for a do-it-yourself project, or shopping on EBay, comparison shop for the best deal. Since there are thousands of printers and even more cartridges, find what works best for you. The Ink Savings Chart below will help with online purchases. Your local relationships with area vendors will help here as well.
17. The case for compatible and remanufactured cartridges. In Tip Number 9, we referenced the PC World story that found aftermarket cartridges usually had more ink in them when they quit than OEM cartridges. If you think this finding would lead to the logical conclusion that OEM cartridges would print more pages than third party cartridges, you would be wrong. In another PC World story from 2008, testers found third party ink cartridges print more and cost less than OEM ink cartridges. The tests also found print quality and longevity are better with OEM supplies. These tests do not boil down the decision to quality vs. quantity. You decide how much quality you need, then buy accordingly.
18. Buy in bulk. Volume discounts apply to volume purchases. You also eliminate shipping costs when volume orders get you over the minimum order charge. Buying in bulk also frees up your time and reduces stress–you spend less time ordering and know you have product in reserve.
19. Refill cartridges online through Jetpak or locally from Walgreens, Cartridge World, and other locations. The Jetpak service is a specially designed mailer. Put the spent cartridge in the mailer and ship to the refiller. A few days later the filled cartridge comes back to you. Postage charge to and from the refiller included in the price of the envelope. Service runs $15-$18 for black or color cartridge. Available through 123refills.net, 123inkjets.com, and other suppliers. The Walgreens’ list price for refilling cartridges in the store is $10 for black and $15 for color. Cartridge World is a North America franchise. Use the store locator and call to get a price. On all the refill services, check first to make sure your cartridge can be refilled.
20. Buy refill kits. Finally, there are refill kits, ink you add yourself. This is usually the least expensive way to get more ink (unless you find a good deal for cartridges on Ebay, and there are a lot of ink sellers on Ebay), but I’ve never had much luck with refill kits. There are a lot of “how to” instructions, online wave files, and other guides to make it less of a pain to add your own ink. Inkgrabber has good video instructions for refilling down to the particular type of cartridge, and you can find refilling instructions here for hundreds of cartridges. Prior to these online instructionals, in a previous attempt to refill a cartridge, I succeeded in getting ink stains on running shoes, turning a dog’s white paw black, then watching as ink ran over a test page and into the printer.
INK SAVINGS CHART
About this Chart We realize these companies are not the only ones selling ink and printer products. We limited the size of this chart to make it easier to manage as information changes, coupons expire, and as businesses change. Comments appreciated.
Legend
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COMPANY – Name of Company
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HQ – State or Country headquarters location
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SHIP/FREE AT — This entry shows the regular shipping charge and minimum order needed for free shipping within the continental United States.
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SHIPS TO – Areas where company ships products US=all 50 states CAN=Canada PR=Puerto Rico APO (includes FPO) =military addresses TERR=US territories AE=American Embassies
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DISCOUNT CODES – Links for free shipping or other discounts
