Save Printer Ink or Toner

[paylesstoners]

Hi Guys, I am looking to write an ebook and/or make a video on the topic of saving printer ink or toner (leading to less sales for me hehehe). I wanted to make this book so that people can reduce their spend on inks and toners.

I would like to ask fellow soloists for your tips or tricks in saving printer ink. if i think it is a great tip, i will share it in the ebook with your name + a link to your site in return for your awesome tip.

cheers
Jenish

Happy Holidays.

[gossipism]

if its a laser toner cartridge. shake the crap out of it!

honestly i dont think there are too many tips you can provide, especially with the smarter printers that monitor levels. cant fool em as easy anymore.

but i know of:

* shake the crap out of your "almost empty" laser toner cartridge
* use draft mode in your everyday printing (laser + inkjet)
- this can be achieved through your printer driver as well as some printers
* reduce the resolution in your everyday printing (laser + inkjet)
- this can be achieved through your printer driver as well as some printers
* use black and white mode as a default if you have a colour printer (laser + inkjet)
* use better paper to compensate for the lighter printouts (laser + inkjet)
* print 2 to 1 pages for huge runs (ie, scale down A4 pages to A5 and print 2 pages on the one A4 sheet)
* buy a mono laser printer for everyday and leave the colour for presentations
* buy your next printer based on consumable pricing and yield.

i think im spent.

can i have 8 backlinks now?

dEx

[King]

Go paperless office.
I get 2 years from one ream of paper. Cartridge go dry before they get used up.

[JohnSheppard]

Originally Posted by King

Go paperless office.
I get 2 years from one ream of paper. Cartridge go dry before they get used up.

Maybe add a section on this....how to stop them drying out?

I have heard of such things as ziplock bagging them and putting them in the fridge? I'm suss on weather that would be of any help tho...

[paylesstoners]

gossipism - those are real good tips. i will surely include them and put up gossipism's site in as well. ps. can u send me a one liner for your site/business. i will try to include it as well.

king -going paperless is a very good idea, is it possible you can share some tips on that. how do u actually manage paperless business.

john- regards ink drying out or so. it is recommended that you atleast print once in a month or so which will make sure the flow of the ink is maintained. regards putting them in the fridge i doubt that would do any good probably more harm (have heard about putting a broken harddrive in a fridge not about a toner before)

everyone else - you can still write out your tips even if they have already been mentioned, its a chance of free advertisement you dont want to miss out.

cheers
Jenish

[AngelaGirl]

Hi Jenish

Most of my ink saving tips are already well covered by King and dexter.. but I'm a sucker for a free backlink

1. Only print out if you absolutely have to.
2. Avoid printing drafts - try to perfect your work on screen.
3. Set your printer defaults to b & w and draft quality.
4. Ignore your computer when it tells you the ink is low.
5. When your printouts are faded due to low ink, shake the cartridges.
5. Change the 'paper type' settings to match your paper so you get the right amount of ink on your page.. (especially important when printing on high gloss paper).
6. If certain colours are different on screen compared to on paper, make a note of these to avoid errors and wasted print outs.

Cheers
Angela

[JaneB]

Originally Posted by gossipism

* buy your next printer based on consumable pricing and yield.

What does this mean? (I'm in the market for an el cheapo B&W copier).

Jane

[gossipism]

Originally Posted by JaneB

What does this mean? (I'm in the market for an el cheapo B&W copier).

Jane

it means to not only just look at the price of the printer, but the cost of the replacement toners (and maybe drums) and how much you get (print outs) from each toner.

eg: i would look at spending more upfront for a printer if the toners were only $100 but gave me 5000 prints as opposed to buy a cheapo printer where toners are $200 but only give me 3000 prints.

if youre in the market, also consider a network printer and one that has automatic duplexing (2 sided printing)

[onsiteTECHS]

All the tips given so far are great.

My biggest tip would be: Consider whether printing that document is required at all.

I avoid printing as much as I can by:

1. Emailing instead of sending a letter
2. Save records and receipts electronically instead of on paper
3. Use evernote to file away copies of text snippets or entire pages to the cloud - this has the added benefit of being able to search for anything quickly and easitly
4. Change to an electronic fax service and throw away your fax machine.
5. Use professional printing services when you need to either print larger quantities or you want good quality photographs - they have much better machines that are far more economical to run than a $100 inkjet!
6. Throw away your inkjet and get a colour laser printer. Inkjets aren't really good for much - you can get your photos printed onto real photographic paper for $0.15c at the local store. Laser printers have come down in price recently and are much more economical to run than inkjet and provide far better quality for documents.
7. Get an iPad or other tablet PC for reading and you can avoid having to print off documents for reading on the couch or in bed
8. If you're a business who sends out vouchers / tickets for events etc - start including a QR code on the voucher and encourage your customers to just bring it on their smartphone - there's no need to have a paper voucher! I wish cinemas would cotton on to this.

Hope that helps.


Cheers,
John

[paylesstoners]

Hi,

Angela,
love those tips, especially number 6. never thought of that. would you please let me know what site address you wanted to be added and also a one line descriptor of it.

onsiteTechs,
lovely tips, like how they are considering the current environment (cloud, ipad etc). would you please let me know what site address you wanted to be added and also a one line descriptor of it.

Jane,
gossipism is right and he has well explained it. my recommendation would be the brother 2242d is 100 bucks. also you can consider buying compatibles to save on the toner costs.

gossipism,
cheers for the advice given to jane.would you please let me know what site address you wanted to be added and also a one line descriptor of it.