6 Ways to get more prints per rupee from your printer

Steps to Maximize Your Printer Cartridge Yield

“My cartridge is empty and I printed only 20 pages” – If you are an inkjet printer user and have been giving this type of feedback to your cartridge supplier frequently, you might need to check why it runs out sooner than expected. The page yield mentioned on the back of the cartridge pack needs to be taken with a pinch of salt (maybe several pinches). These manufacturers mention the yield as calculated by the  ISO standard for measuring ink cartridge yields - ISO/IEC 24711 which indicates the best possible yield from a cartridge under ‘ideal’ circumstances.

Printer inks are one of the most expensive liquids on the face of the earth. In case you are oblivious to this fact and the razor-blade business model of the ink cartridge industry, please watch the below video from Business Insider:

Let’s find out what we can do to make these super expensive inks give you more prints per rupee spent on the purchase of ink cartridges. We are excluding ink tank printers from this analysis as they don’t come under the razor-blade business model and use inexpensive ink bottles. Also, if you are a laser printer user, you can skip ahead to the last two reasons listed here.

1. Leave printer on

Do you like to turn on the printer, print a document, and immediately switch off the device only to realize that you need another print soon? This habit could be costing you a lot of money. This is because the printer when turned on must check the ink cartridges and prepare them to shoot ink onto the paper. This process of preparation consumes ink, as succinctly described by HP:

“In the printing process, some ink is used to prepare the printer for use”

An ideal thumb rule is to leave the printer on for the day once it is turned on.

2. Print frequently

In case you forget about your printer since the last print job, when your next printing requirements come up most likely your printer will experience ink clogging the print head nozzles (minute holes through which the ink flows out of the cartridge). Now your printer will embark itself on an elaborate service cycle to restore the nozzle condition while consuming (you guessed it) more ink along the way.

 

Please print a single page each week, whether you need it or not.

3. Refill soon

If you are regularly refilling your empty ink cartridges with a professional cartridge refill service provider, then it would be a good practice to get the cartridges over to the refill center soon as it gets empty and start spitting out blank prints (at least within a couple of days). This will help to vastly improve the number of cycles of refill per cartridge and postponing your next purchase of OEM cartridges.

 

Usually, an ink cartridge can be refilled a couple of times before the print head or the memory circuit starts getting worn out. We at Ctrl E have refilled some of the ink cartridges for our clients over 10 times with up to 60% cost savings when compared with buying a new OEM cartridge each time.

4. Lock ink system when not in use

This one is for the ink tank printer users – when not in use for a long period (usually during school holidays at households), please lock the ink system if your printer has a similar mechanism shown below:

This is most helpful while changing the destination of the printer. Other ink tank printers without such a knob, has to print frequently and should be very carefully transported to avoid ink spillage.

5. Use Print Preview

If you shoot prints of research papers or recipes directly from websites, chances are the ads also will get printed, using up precious drops of inks. While some websites offer ad-free printing options, most do not. Using Print Preview diligently and printing only necessary content helps avoid unnecessary ink (or toner) consumption.

6. Choose font wisely

The type of font used in documents will also determine how much ink is consumed per print. If you like using Calibri or Arial font types, you might be consuming more ink per print inadvertently. According to this research, Courier New is one of the most economical fonts to use while printing; consuming around 40% lesser ink when compared with Calibri and Century Gothic. Large font sizes in bold, in general, will use up a lot of ink. Remarkably, even staple usage font like Calibri consumes a lot. Keep it simple and save money by selecting the right font.

While it is necessary to be mindful of ways in which ink usage can be reduced, going for cheaper inks in itself will help printer users save a whole bunch of money. Refilling empty ink cartridges with us can be a winning strategy for the long term in reducing the total cost of prints. Our experienced team will understand your printer type and make recommendations for the best ink or toner supplies for you or your business.

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Our top picks of printer & paper:
Ink tank printer - Canon G670
Laser printer - Canon MF244dw
Paper - Rescript Recycled A4 Paper