You probably already know that printing out college papers, grocery lists, or images is not cheap. Many people never realize this until the ink has run out and you’re faced with the exorbitant expense of purchasing more. If you are concerned about wasting paper and ink or if you are simply concerned about spending too much money that you are unable to afford, then perhaps you should consider the following tips. For example, changing your printer’s technical settings could help you save a lot of ink and a lot of printer. Continue reading for important tips on how to make your printer ink last longer.

Tip One: Creating Your Documents

As you may have noticed while you were typing up important documents, some fonts are smaller than other fonts. These fonts are considered as friendly to the environment. If you are looking for fonts that are great for your printer and your ink, you may want to try going to the SPRANQ Web site. SPRANQ currently offers a product that is known as Eco Font. Eco Font saves at least twenty percent of the ink that you would use up if you were to use standard Times New Roman font. SPRANQ offers Eco Font as a free download. The font works perfectly on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux.

You can also do more to save ink. For example, you could potentially save even more ink by doing things such as using smaller fonts and avoiding the use of bolded text. You can also save your printer’s ink by only writing what is important in the document. It may also help if you were to check the document for mistakes before printing it out.

Tip Two: Choosing What You Need to Print Out

It is very important for you to print out only what you need if you wish to make your printer ink last longer. For example, if you wish to print only text, you will have no need to print out any graphics. This goes the same if you only wish to print out pictures. If you are only printing out a document strictly for proof reading, then you will not need pictures to go along with the document.

You may also want to use the “draft output” option in Microsoft Word. The “draft output” option in Microsoft Word prints low quality content at a very fast rate. This is also known as printing a draft copy of the selection. You can do this by opening Microsoft Word and clicking on file. Go to the print menu. At the bottom left of the print menu you can click on “options” and then check “draft output”.

Tip Three: Fine Tuning Your Printer Settings

This tip will help you understand how to change the settings on the technical side of your printer. This is one of the most important tips mainly because the right settings could potentially save you the most money and make your printer ink last the longest. If you want to make your printer ink last longer, you may want to try making the “low quality settings” on the computer the default printing option. This will save you a lot of time in case you forget to manually set these options every time that you print. By making it the default printing option, you will only set the “high quality” settings whenever you actually need high quality printing work done.

It may also really help your printer ink’s lifetime if you were to check out your layout options. Pay close attention to this. You may notice that you can print out two or three pages on one sheet of paper. You may also be able to print on both sides of the paper. If you wish to save a lot of ink and money, then you may want to print only in black and white. This is usually cheaper than printing in color.

Tip Four: Handling Your Printer

Many people handle printers improperly. It is important for you to check out your printer’s manual before you change anything about it. Make sure that you understand what the printer’s manufacturer recommends as far as the settings go.

After you have read your printer’s manual, you may want to try turning the printer off and on manually. When you do this, you save a lot of energy by only cutting it on when you need to print out a document. You may also want to try cutting the printer off manually. This is because it will keep the ink from drying out. When you simply unplug the machine, it is unable to park the ink cartridges to keep it from drying.

Tip Five: When Should Empty Your Ink?

Many people throw out ink as soon as they receive a notice from the printer saying that the ink has run out. This is usually the wrong thing to do. You may want to try printing paper until it stops printing ink. When you receive a notice, you usually have between ten percent and thirty percent of ink lifetime left.

James writes for Cartridge Save, one of the top suppliers of Kodak supplies in the UK, where he analyses technology and also posts to their blog about design and advertising.

Tags | Business, Hardware, Howto, Print, Tips and Tricks