Another thing you can do is to set your printer to print in
Grayscale. Go to your Control Panel and then depending on your computer go to devices or printers. From there you want to look for “printing preferences”. (Sorry, I don’t know the settings for Mac)
I’ve set my computer to print in Grayscale and I’ve told it to only use the black ink cartridge. Black is cheaper than color and if I do need to print in color I can just temporarily change it back. If you don’t change to “Black Ink Only” it can still be using ink from your color ink cartridge even if you are only printing black.
You can also set your printer to print Fast Draft. It prints at a lower resolution but still looks great for everyday printing. If you are doing an important project or printing photos you can go back in and temporarily change it back to Normal or Best quality. Changing to Fast Draft saves a ton of ink. You’ll be amazed how much longer your ink cartridge lasts.
Try changing your default font to a font that uses less ink, some fonts are fatter and have more details so it uses more ink to print. I don’t know exactly how much ink you save. I haven’t been able to tell a difference in how long my ink cartridge lasts but you could try it, every little bit helps right?
A few fonts that use less ink:
Arial
Calibri
Century Gothic
Times New Roman
Another option is to download a free font called
Ecofont, it was created by a company that wanted to reduce the amount of ink used. By using less ink you have fewer empty cartridges that end up in landfills. Check
Ecofont to see if the download is compatible with your computer.
A great way to reduce ink cartridges in the landfills and save money is to get your cartridges refilled. Costco used to offer this service but that has been discontinued as of February of 2021. You would have to look online to see if someplace in your area offers a refill service.
If you want to find deals on Ink Cartridges you’ll want to check eBay. I’ve been able to score some good buys, read the listing closely to make sure that the cartridge you are looking at isn’t expired. Check back often because the inventory changes constantly.
Check your office supply stores for sales and rebates, I know some stores offer a discount on the new cartridge if you bring your empties in.
The last ink/money saving hack that I use is to keep my printer maintained. There is an option on my printer to clean print nozzles. I run that every few weeks so that dried ink and gunk doesn’t build up on the nozzle heads and simply just using your printer regularly helps to keep the ink from drying up.
I’d like to know what other hacks and tricks people are using to save ink, let me know in the comments below what you do.
