Save Money On Printing

Posted on 21. Feb, 2010 by in Saving Money & Finances

My Dollar Plan recently sent a mail out for saving money and it had two quick tips to help save money on printing. It got me thinking that this area is a big money area that we can all significantly save on. My Dollar Plans Tips were the same as tip numbers 4 and 5.

We all want to know how to save money on everything. So looking at the small thing like saving money on printing is vital in racking up the savings.

I went without a printer for quite a while and when I finally settled here in Cairo I purchased a cool HP / Scanner All In One device. I was finding absolutely any reason to print. In fact I spent some time scanning random objects and having the printer print them straight out…. The result, money down the drain!

Printer cartridge prices are ridiculous, sometimes replacing both inks (or up to 8 in some home printers!) will cost much more than the printer itself.

So here are some tips to save yourself from having to buy new catridges too often…. Hopefully they will save you a lot of cash over time.

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1. Use a pen and paper for small details such as flight details or directions.
If you look at an email and you can write the details out on a scrap of paper then do. You will save using a new sheet of paper and ink. A common example, often when checking into a flight you simply need you booking reference.

2. Read on your computer or portable device.
If it’s only 1-5 pages of text then you may be able to read it without too much extra eye strain on your computer. Even better if you have device like an Amazon Kindle, iphone or ipad you may be able to read your documents on the go. Don’t print it unless you need the hard copy.

3. Use an ink catridge from a generic company.
Generic cartridges are often much much cheaper. The manufacturer always advises against this but I have never had a problem (although we have to advise we are not responsible if you do have an issue!). You can get great priced cartridges at 123 Inkjets.

4. Get an ink refill.
You may find you have a local cartridge shop that will refill your catridge or you could purchase a refill and do it yourself (can be very messy!). We refilled a cartridge 3 times before the HP printer decided it didn’t want to recognize it anymore!

5. Use Eco Font to print.
Eco Font is awesome! They offer a free download of a simple Helvertica / Arial type font that is basically full of little holes…. What does this do? It uses about half the ink of conventional fonts with no detrimental effects on readability. They also have some software with options for more font types. I have not used the software but i do now use the free font.

6. Print on the lowest quality possible.
If I do have to print out text or images / text where quality is not important then I print on the lowest quality setting. It prints very quickly and although often a bit light, is normally more than readable.

7. Delete Unneeded pages.
When you are printing a document whisk through it for unneeded pages such as title pages, appendixes, end pages and sometimes image pages.

8. Use Email Print View.
Most email clients (Gmail, Yahoo etc) offer a view for print button. This gets rid of a lot of clutter and gives you a cleaner page. Cleaner often means less ink…

9. Get a new printer!
This is a last resort but your printer may eat up ink and that is just the way it is! In this case it may be worth investing in a new one. Especially as printers are often cheaper than new cartridges these days! I don’t advise on dumping any working items but this may be a good option for you.

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8 Responses to “Save Money On Printing”

  1. simply stephen

    21. Feb, 2010

    Forest…great little article. A couple resources and tips to add that will dramatically decrease the impact.

    There are many tools that you can use online to jot down notes, save information, bookmark and even annotate websites and save them to your computer, reducing the need to print. Grabbing pdf’s is one option but using a bookmark service like Delicious or a Diigo is simple and effective. I also use http://www.evernote.com to make any notes, thus saving the need to print.

    Desktop tools and calendars also help.

    Low quality printing in draft is good as mentioned but print in Black and White too!

    If you want another print tool that optimizes your printing you can try Green Print Software at http://www.printgreener.com with various versions available.

    Hope this helps reduce our impact on the planet and thank you for caring.
    .-= simply stephen´s last blog ..eco friendly shipping and delivery choices =-.

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  2. Ruth - Web Career Girl

    21. Feb, 2010

    Great tips! Printing is necessary for so many of us, though thankfully this is one area where I have cut down a lot. I try my best not to really print much at all. When I do I usually use my printer’s ‘draft’ quality mode and also purchase those generic cartridges. They work fine for me but the ink is not great quality – you can see it if you print things like photos and they fade more quickly but generally they are fine.
    .-= Ruth – Web Career Girl´s last blog ..Away for the Week =-.

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  3. Daddy Paul

    21. Feb, 2010

    Good tips. Ink will eat you alive. I find Ebay is getting up their in price even on refurbished cartridges. Since my wife’s work requires a bit of printing I am looking for a lower cost alternative.
    .-= Daddy Paul´s last blog ..Why I time the markets part 2. How I did over 10 years. =-.

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  4. Len Gutman

    22. Feb, 2010

    A better way to save money on printing is to use ink savings software, the best of which is PretonSaver Home, available for free trial at http://www.halftheink.com.

    PretonSaver uses a mathematical algorithm to eliminate duplicate pixels that overlap. Users can save up to 70% of their ink use, and unlike Ecofont and other so-called savings devices the print quality with PretonSaver is great.

    Check it out.

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  5. Forest

    22. Feb, 2010

    @Steven, Stephen, it’s always awesome when you pop by and comment. Thanks for the extra resources.

    @Ruth, If you need to print photos for long term use then it pays to keep some good quality cartridges to hand and some nice paper…. Every now and then splashing out is worth it as you won’t have to print the images again in a year.

    @Daddy Paul, yes ebay is an excellent resource as are most of the cheap printer sites (like 123 Inks mentioned)… They are cheap cartridges so sometimes they are not the best but generally you can read the writing…. As for the software mentioned in the article and comments they are well worth looking at trying.

    @Len, I guess this is your company or is it an affiliate site for Preten? The software looks excellent. Shame it isn’t available on Mac…. That is the main reason the EcoFont works best for me right now.

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  6. simply stephen

    22. Feb, 2010

    Forest…I always make sure I read all your articles in my feed, instead of just the standard scan. When I have time or thoughts to share I love making comments that contribute to a community, not for self promo (as you probably know). Appreciate your kind words.

    You come up with some great ideas and cover topics that really can make a difference on one’s budget and the environment.
    .-= simply stephen´s last blog ..eco friendly shipping and delivery choices =-.

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  7. Forest

    23. Feb, 2010

    Hey Stephen, thanks a million :) .

    I did just realise I have not been getting emails from your blog…. turns out I wasn’t subscribed but I am now so expect some comments from time to time.

    Self promo is fine here as you write great content :) .

    EVERYONE, visit Stephen’s blog http://www.simplystephen.ca/

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