Minimizing the Cost of Home Printing
Most people own and use a home printer. Despite the dawn of the digital age, sometimes you still need to print things off. Running a home printer can work out to be quite expensive, especially if you use it a lot. Fortunately, there are ways to keep those costs down. Here are our favorite economical printing tips for home users.
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Shop around for the best printer and ink cartridge deals
Home printers are not crazy expensive. However, it still makes sense to shop around for the best price and read the reviews before buying one. When you do that, please pay particular attention to how much ink it uses. Over a year, the cost of the ink jet cartridges can add up to a significant amount. So, it is sensible to avoid those makes and models that eat the ink or require you to buy super expensive replacement cartridges.
Even if you buy one that does not use a lot of ink, shop around to get the best replacement ink cartridge deals. You will be amazed by how much you can save when you do this. Just make sure that you double-check how much ink is in the cartridge before you buy. It is all too easy to think that you have grabbed yourself a bargain only to discover that you can’t print much before it runs out.
Use remanufactured ink cartridges
If you can find them for your printer, give remanufactured ink cartridges a try. They are usually cheaper and are typically a more eco-friendly way to print.
Cut out the ink!
Buying an inkless printer can save you money by no longer having to buy expensive (and toxic) ink cartridges!
View things in print mode or preview first
The best way to save money on home printing is to reduce the number of pages you print. To do this, get into the habit of viewing everything in print mode or preview to double-check that it looks right. This reduces the chances of your having to print something more than once.
Use the draft mode
If you are printing off something you will use only briefly or once, consider doing it in draft mode. When you use this setting, a light copy is printed off, a kind of test page. Usually, it is perfectly legible. It is just that the text is not as dark as normal, which is perfectly fine for personal use.
Learn to maintain your printer properly
Most printers do not need much maintenance. But it is wise to turn it on at least once a week and print off a page. Doing this helps to reduce the chances of ink drying on the printheads. You will need to sign into maintenance mode and run the print head cleaning program when that happens. Every time you do that, you will end up wasting quite a bit of ink—a lot more than when you print out a page of text per week. If you want more printer maintenance tips, click here.
As you can see, keeping the cost of your home printing down is not hard to do. However, provided you are conscious of the costs, you will usually print what you need for far less than you would pay if you were to use a printing shop.
