Printer ink can be a frustrating expense whether you operate a large business or are self-employed. Interrupting work to refill ink cartridges can inconvenience customers and hijack productivity. It can be particularly exasperating to watch the office supply budget dwindle as expensive cartridges are replaced. New printer cartridges contain very little ink. The fact is that printer ink ends up costing over a thousand pounds per litre. Employing some basic strategies can help to reduce amount of printer ink that is used.

Ignore any warnings that your printer is out of ink. Studies have shown that this warning light will go off when almost half the ink is still remaining in a cartridge. Wait until you see a reduction in print quality before you actually change the cartridge.

When a printer does seem to be running out of ink it may merely be clogged. The nozzle on an ink cartridge is quite narrow and often becomes clogged with the ink powder. This happens more frequently in humid environments. Try taking the cartridge out and tapping it lightly on a hard surface. Then wipe the nozzle opening with a damp cloth. Return the cartridge to the printer and try printing again.

Use an ink-saving font such as Arial or New Courier. These fonts have slimmer lines and a simple construction that reduces the surface area of each character. Ecofont is a downloadable font that is designed expressly to save on ink. Avoid thick graphic fonts and excessive use of bold characters. Use italics or underlining to highlight words.

Be careful before you print. Use spell and grammar checks that come with your word processor. Proofread at least twice before you actually print a document. It helps to take a short break before proofreading and look at your work with fresh eyes. Often mistakes will become more noticeable after a break. It is better to notice your mistakes before printing rather than to reprint an entire document because of a single misspelled word.

Use the print preview option in your word processor to review what your work will look like on the printed page. Adjust margins and page breaks before sending the document to the printer.

If you do high volumes of printing then it may be worth adjusting your printer settings. In Windows computers you can change your printer’s default settings to reduce ink usage. From the Start menu, right click on Printers and then select the Printer Preferences. Set the colour to “print in grey scale” and change the printer quality to “draft”. This will substantially reduce the amount of ink that is used without a great difference in quality.

Be choosy about what you print. If you are printing a page from the internet then select only the content you need. When you print an entire page from a website you are often printing ink-guzzling banners and advertisements. Copy what you need into a blank word processor page before printing.

By using some of these simple strategies you can save money on printer ink and reduce the number of times you need to stop and refill ink cartridges.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Cartridge World, the UK\’s leading specialist in printer cartridges, including toner cartridges and ink cartridges.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Cartridge World (http://www.cartridgeworld.co.uk), the UK\’s leading specialist in printer cartridges.

Author Bio: Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Cartridge World, the UK\’s leading specialist in printer cartridges, including toner cartridges and ink cartridges.

Category: Advice
Keywords: cheap ink, ink cartridges, toner cartridges