In today’s tight financial environment, it is only natural that businesses are looking to cut costs. Whilst many try to do this by cutting jobs and selling assets, many are also increasingly realising the significant savings that can be made on a much smaller scale, but right across the company.

A good example of this is the use of printer ink cartridges. Of course, we have all heard of the ‘paperless office’, the idea that everything would be stored digitally and there wouldn’t be a single sheet of paper used at all. Well, a quick look at the numerous rows of files around any office will tell you that this did not happen. In fact, since the digital age, there has been a great increase in the number of sheets of paper printed in most offices. This, of course, also means an increase in the cost of ink, and in a large company, this can come to several thousands of pounds spent on ink over a period of time.

So how can these costs be reduced? Well, the obvious answer would be to store more documentation on a hard drive, but this is not appropriate in many situations and a printed version may well be necessary. This means that we have to look for a more economical way of using ink in our printers. There are two key ways in which this can be done.

If your current printers are quite old, they are also likely to be inefficient. This means that they will use a great deal more ink than many modern printers. However, it does pay to do some research when sourcing new printers. Many printers may appear cheap, and indeed many are quite reasonably priced. The drawback to this however, is that they tend to use more ink which is where they prove less economical. As the makers of the printers also recommend the use of their own brand ink, they more than make up for the loss of any profit on the printers themselves.

There are several environmentally friendly printers on the market, however, and whilst these may appear a little more expensive initially, their economical use of ink makes them a better buy in the medium to long term. By purchasing this type of printer, you should expect to make some savings on your ink usage.

If you, however, already have reasonably modern printers, then the main way that you can reduce the cost of the ink cartridges that you use, is to replace your used cartridges with refillable ones. The cheapest of these will allow you to do them yourself and usually come in a kit form. However, these can be extremely difficult to do and are very likely to cause a great deal of mess and are therefore not recommended. It is better to use a reliable company that provides refilled cartridges and has a good reputation. They will most probably also pay you for your empty cartridges.

Another option is to ignore the printer manufacturer’s recommendation to use their own ink brand and, instead, use a substitute brand. Many of these are made to be exact duplicates of the brand recommended by the printer manufacturer. These are sold at a significantly reduced cost compared to the original.

Whilst very significant savings can be made by all of these methods, it is important to note that in the case of the refillable cartridges and the budget ones, that it is important to do your research. The promised savings may not materialise if the products are of poor quality and cause problems with the printer. Whilst this is fairly unusual, it does indeed happen, and a bit of research before hand, reading customer reviews can save you not only money, but potentially a very disappointing experience.

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: Computers and Technology
Keywords: inkjet cartridges, toner cartridges, printer cartridges