How to Save Money on Printing
The last time I went in to buy new printer ink I about had a heart attack. For many years, I did next to no printing. After all, I have a tablet like just about every other person in the US. I also have a smartphone and plenty of apps that allow its use. Which means everything from communication to coupons was done digitally. There was just no need for me to print things out on paper.
Recently, that changed. So I started to prepare my printer for use once again, blowing off the dust and realizing that my cartridge had long since dried out and become ineffective. I was going to need some new supplies, and headed cheerfully down to the local electronics store.
Printer ink was always fairly costly, but never to this degree. Knowing how much I was going to be printing for the foreseeable future, and checking out the estimated pages-per-cartridge listed on the box, I began to despair. How was I going to get through the coming months without my bank account taking a major hit?
If this is starting to sound familiar, I am here to tell you: there is hope. You can minimize your printing costs, both in ink and paper, with just a few helpful tips.
Get A Printing Tool
There are plenty of pieces of software out there, most free, that allow you to create a more efficient printing process. Mostly by cutting out the unnecessary images, side bars and extras that aren't needed for a good print. My favorite is CleanPrint, a FireFox add-on that not only removes extras, but also utilizes as much space as possible. It saves on both paper and ink, and it is aimed at eco-friendly printing. If you don't want to install anything, you can use PrintFriendly. It lets you put in the URL, then remove or keep images, change the text size and print or create PDF's.
Get Your Ink Carts Refilled
Guess what? You don't need to buy new ink cartridges at all! You can actually get them refilled at any photo place, such as from a store like Walgreens, Costo, Sears or Walmart. The prices vary depending on where you go, but they are generally under $15 per refill. Which is half or less of the usual cost of full replacement.
Recycling cartridges is another thing to keep in mind. CartridgeInk has some good info on that.
Recycle Your Paper
I don't mean taking it to a recycling center, though that is a good idea as well. I mean that you can use any paper that hasn't been covered for certain things. When I download activity or coloring pages for my kids, I print them on the back of used paper all the time. When printing out coupons that have to be physically presented, I will use a scrap paper with a bit of space and format it to only print on the clean section. If the content of a page is light enough, you might even be able to just print right over it.
Use Draft Printing
If you don't need anything too high quality or dark, you can select "draft" or "gray scale" on the printing preview page. This will create a lighter version that uses less ink and won't use any colored ink. This won't work for anything, but even just using it some of the time will make a big difference.
Double Up Your Pages
Does what you need not require that much paper space? Reset the format in the printing preview to double it up, cutting it down the middle. You can also print on both sides of the paper, just customizing what goes where.
Only Print When You Have To
Face it, you print during times when it isn't totally necessary. Whenever possible, go paperless. Try finding digital versions of things, such as apps that let you use coupons through your smartphone. Open up shared documents and try programs like Dropbox to share versions of files without having to print them out. Even schools are using this process, with online programs such as Skyward.
Do you have a tip, tool or suggestion for saving money on printing? Let us know in the comments!
Tom Peters
Reader Comments