Printer cartridge hints with these 5 tips

Many of us need to print out materials at home, such as emails, bills, and work or study materials. Whether you use your home printer regularly or just occasionally, running out of ink or toner cartridges can be incredibly frustrating. In this blog we tell you how to extend the life of your printer cartridges with these 5 tips.

You may not be “out of ink”

Although it is unwise to operate your printer on empty cartridges, you need not always pay attention to your printer’s “out of ink” warnings, as often these warnings are premature.  But hey, don’t ignore them!  Instead, judge how much ink or toner is left in your printing cartridges by the quality of your print outs, as there is often a fair amount of ink left even after the “out of ink” warning has been displayed. When the printing quality starts to deteriorate, it’s time definitely time to replace your printer cartridges!  A good practice is to keep one black cartridge in the cupboard as this is the most obvious choice that will run out first.

Choose your fonts wisely

If you print a lot of text, your font choice can have a big impact on how much ink you use. Be mindful of large, thick font types as they tend to use a lot of ink, and ensure you print using the smallest readable font size in a thinner typeface where possible. It’s also a good idea to avoid using too much bold in your documents, as this will also drain your ink quickly.

Avoid double printing

There’s nothing worse than printing out a large document only to find its riddled with mistakes and needs to be reprinted. Save ink by thoroughly proof-reading your documents before printing, and remember not to rely solely on spell-check as it can often miss grammatical errors.

Change your printer settings

If you’re not too worried about print quality (i.e. you’re printing mostly text documents, not images or photographs), a great way to extend the life of your ink cartridges or toner cartridges changing your print quality settings to draft. This can be done via your computer, along with colour settings, and will help you to get more out of your printer cartridges.

Choose the right cartridges for your needs

Whether you should buy brand name/original cartridges or top up with generic/compatible cartridges will depend largely on your printing needs. If you tend to print quite frequently, compatibles are probably the best choice as they contain a lot of ink and retail for considerably less than original cartridges.  If you print fairly rarely, however, you will be better off with original cartridges as they contain special chemicals to prevent drying, making it unlikely that they will dry up before running out.

TonerInk stock a large range of printer cartridges, including genuine cartridges and compatible printer cartridges, as well as a huge range of efficient printers to suit all printing requirements. Get the most out of your printer and check out our range today.