It can cost you a great amount of money for you to continue purchasing replacement HP ink cartridges every time that you run out of ink. This expense can be even greater for those who print out digital photos on a regular basis. The solution to this problem is to exercise some basic ink saving tips and tricks that work to increase your ink economy. Here are 5 ways to make your HP ink last longer!
1. Only Print When Absolutely Necessary
Before sending a document to the printer, you should take a look at the reason behind the document that is being printed. Do you actually need to print that out, in other words? If the document is one that you only plan on referencing a single time, it may be easier to leave it on your computer. If you are printing out a confirmation code for a reservation or a recipe for a special occasion, consider writing the information out on paper rather than printing it out and wasting your HP inks. These cases are examples of when you can instead jot a hand note and save the ink for more important uses.
2. Avoid Extreme Temperatures
Avoid temperatures that are too extreme, as a large variation of temperature will affect the performance of your ink cartridges. If you want to conserve your ink, make sure that your printer is kept in moderate temperatures at all times.
3. Only Use Colour Printing When You Have To
Turn on the colour printing only when you actually need it. Colour ink can cost two to three times as much as black ink can. Couple this with the fact that most printers will use all three colours to print anything that isn’t considered to be perfect black (especially when it comes to diagrams, figures and photos), and it should become relatively clear that when you need black and white printouts, you should turn off colour printing and rely on black ink alone.
4. Choose a Print Quality Suitable for What You’re Printing
Going back to tip 1, if you are going to print out a document, then you should choose a quality suited for the purpose of the document in question. The draft printer setting is the best printing setting for you to use for all non-presentation quality documents.
5. Keep the Printer Ink from Drying Out
Printers that are in regular use have less of a chance of ink drying up as those used only once in a while. If you will only use the printer irregularly, you should strive to print the test page or a small body of text with three colour squares every once in a while as part of your ongoing printer maintenance in order to get the best printing performance over time.
Tags: hp, ink cartridges, printing, tips