Make your printer last longer, a snap with these practical tips! Consume sustainably at home and at work.
Planned obsolescence spares no market. While smartphones are the first targets, electrical devices, electronic objects, and household appliances are no exception. Printers are also in the crosshairs of affected consumers. However, there are a few smart tips to increase their lifespan and not change them.
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How to make printer ink last longer
Table of Contents
1. Clean your printer’s ink cartridges to make them last
If your printer has removable printheads, it is in your best interest to rid them of their impurities. Clean them regularly with a little isopropyl alcohol, for example, to remove residue. You can also consult the advice of 123refill to clean a laser printer properly.
2. Put your ink cartridges in the fridge in summer
An unusual trick to prolong the life of your inkjet and by extension, of your printer: place your cartridges in the refrigerator during your summer vacation to keep them!
3. Print a document at least once a month to prevent the ink from drying out
Printing less is fine, but printing every six months may cause the black ink in your cartridge to dry out. A word of advice: don’t buy a printer if you don’t have a regular need! Making a few prints on recycled paper once a month will help prevent your printer’s inks from drying out. Double-sided printing will be the best way to save money.
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4.Disable the cartridge level in your PC settings or remove the associated chip
You can try to turn off the ink levels in your printer settings. Thus, you will only have to see for yourself on paper the state of the ink without being constantly harassed to change your cartridges when they are not even finished. Another solution exists: temporarily remove the chip in charge of monitoring the ink levels of the printer. Please note that this chip must be replaced after replacing the cartridges.
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5.Print your documents in black and white
Choose black and white prints rather than printing everything in color. You do not need a specific colorimetry to present your cinema ticket to the opener! Be aware in any case that colored ink costs ten times more expensive than black ink. Savings in anticipation and a more functional printer! The print quality will still be good.
6. Print only what is important
Before printing anything, make sure you have read the print preview and only print the pages and parts that you really need. If your printer is placed in a company, then one person should be responsible for printing. If it is at home, do not leave the printer accessible to children. This practice may be obvious, but many people ignore it and continue to print documents or images found everywhere on the internet.
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7.Avoid unnecessary styles and images
Not many people know that some fonts and writing styles use more ink than others when it comes to printing text. Yet we all know that images consume a lot of ink. For this, you can easily save some printing costs by adjusting the writing style, using standard fonts, and minimizing images with strong colors. Avoiding fonts with large letters and thick lines can reduce printing costs by up to 30%. On the other hand, if you are going to print a large number of infographics or charts, be sure not to fill the insides of the boxes unnecessarily with colors, if it is not really necessary.
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8. Use draft mode
The printer simply uses less ink or toner in draft mode. You can therefore use this setting for test prints or documents for internal use. If, however, you need both high-quality prints and multiple copies, it is recommended that you use the appropriate settings for each printing purpose.
In some cases, you should print at a lower resolution. The printer uses an economy mode which reduces the print resolution which in turn saves ink.
Every printer usually has different printing programs with which you can save ink and toner. So change the settings according to your printing goals and activate the ink-saving mode if necessary.
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9. Keep ink cartridges in stock
Smartly storing ink cartridges should become part of your routine. Last-minute orders are often stressful and expensive. To do this, buying a good number of cartridges (according to your needs) in advance and keeping them in stock contributes to the continuity of your activities, without being interrupted by unnecessary delays. Breakdowns of this kind can indeed lead to considerable losses, particularly in the case of businesses and professional activities.
It is best to keep ink cartridges in their original boxes and store them in the shade at room temperature or slightly cooler, to prevent the ink from drying out. Note that the original packaging protects the ink from evaporation and drying out.
With toners, you don’t have to worry about durability because they’re filled with a dry powder, not a liquid.
Also Read: How to keep printer ink from drying out
10.Print in “monochrome” mode
Before you start printing, consider whether each page really requires color printing. If this is not the case, opt for printing in monochrome mode to save as much ink as possible. Monochrome printing refers to the use of a single color (black, red, green, blue, etc.) and is not limited to black and white.
Thus, by printing in black and white, you save money by not having to buy new color cartridges every time. The latter is often more expensive than black cartridges.
Take advantage of this option by playing on the levels of titles, bulleted lists, and tables without filling so that your documents are readable without using too many colors.
In addition, many printers offer the option of printing in gray color. Please note that this option does not save colored ink. Namely that the gray color is produced from a mixture of all the colors and not from an economical formula of the black color.
11. Reduce printing costs when printing photos
Most manufacturers, such as HP and Canon, have a long history of selling printers that are particularly suitable for photography.
We all know that image sharpness and color depth are important criteria for printing photos. For this, the paper specially designed for this purpose has a smooth surface and a low absorption capacity. So less ink is needed.
This is because if a large amount of ink is applied to the paper, it does not necessarily create good image quality, but prolongs the drying time and may even result in surface blurring.
The best way to achieve beautiful photos while saving ink is therefore to combine high-quality photo paper with the right printer configurations by setting photo print settings for low ink consumption.
Tips for saving ink in a printer cartridge
Selecting the text box to print is the surest way to save ink cartridges by removing unnecessary parts, drawings, and other unnecessary graphics. If this manipulation turns out to be impossible, in the event of printing an Internet page, for example, you must select the entire zone, copy it to a word processor, then make the desired selection. Before printing, check the selection with the “Print preview” button.
Print when adjustments are made. In addition, keeping the printer permanently electrically powered continuously exposes the print heads to air, which dries the ink.
In addition, the Internet offers a range of software allowing the reduction of ink consumption, guaranteeing a similar quality, even a high resolution. In case a printer is not used regularly, print at least once a week a few letters of the 4 initial colors, to prevent the cartridge from drying out from the top: this will increase the life of the ink cartridge.
A printer should not be exposed to extreme temperatures or large temperature fluctuations to prevent the cartridges from running dry. As the price of printers has fallen, manufacturers are increasing the price of ink cartridges to catch up. Therefore, prefer printers that accept refill cartridges, even if the printer is more expensive.
This was all about “How to make printer ink last longer” , I hope you like my tips. Feel free to ask any question in the comment box below.
