There are several ways on how to make ink cartridges last longer. Some may work on your printer cartridges, and some may not. Nevertheless, it’s good to know how to make use of your printer’s ink to its last drop for your printing needs.
Suppose you’re on the online hunt to making ink cartridges last longer. In that case, here are some tips you can follow that are known to increase the ink cartridge lifespan for your printer:
1. Choose ink-saving Printer Settings
As much as most printers have pre-installed settings for ink usage, you can also adjust it to save ink. If you’re on Windows, click on Start > Printers > Right-click your printer and click Preference. From here, you can adjust print quality, color setting, and even document options when printing lots of pages per sheet.
As with your document, you can steer clear from heavy colors, bold fonts, and even larger font sizes. As pictures take up a good portion of your printer’s ink usage, it’s best to reduce their sizes or set printing style to draft if you do not need the picture to stand out in the document. The best thing you can do is to proofread them to avoid multiple printing of the same document.
2. Take advantage of Print Preview
It’s all about proofreading your file and document before printing to ensure nothing is to be reprinted all over again. If there is anything wrong after printing a document, chances are you’ll be reprinting the document again.
Yet, Print Preview has been around for quite some time now. It leverages your printing capacity while saving ink on your cartridge. It’s highly suggested that, before printing, you check how your document will come out of the printing tray. This step saves you ink and increases usage longevity with any ink cartridge on any printer.
3. Clean Your Printer and Cartridge Nozzles
It all goes down to maintaining the cleanliness of your printer. Wiping your cartridge nozzle with a paper towel or using a hairdryer to remove ink blockage can increase ink vitality with any cartridge. You can also check printheads for any blockage or caked inks and wipe them with a clean paper towel or alcohol-damped cloth.
4. Do the Pull-out and/or Shake-up Method
This trick has saved a lot of printers and ink cartridges from being replaced simply because your printer alerts you of low ink capacity. As much as these alerts are to be ignored until the cartridge is empty, pulling out the cartridge and reinserting them will trick your printer into thinking a new cartridge is inserted. Gently shaking up the cartridge upside down also removes caked or stuck ink from the opening and lets the remaining ink flow freely again to the printhead.
5. Opt for High-capacity Ink Cartridges
While maintaining your ink cartridge helps make them last long, opting for better ink cartridges gets you more for your buck than constantly replacing cheaper variants. While inks are best stored in ambient temperatures, high-quality inks are known to last long.
How long do ink cartridges last if not used? Opened ink cartridges are storable for a maximum of six months and unopened ones for a maximum of two years. Better quality ink cartridges are also known to last for eight months to one year when opened and up to five years max when sealed.
6. Avoid Printing Documents with Too Many Colors
Unless you run a printing business that prints documents, files, and pictures with vibrant colors, you can keep your printing on grayscale. For the best printers that can print photos at high quality, you can try tweaking photo files on CMYK formats to check their vibrancy and adjust printer options to cater to CMYK-based photos. Raw, RGB-based pictures or files will eat up a lot of the ink, which you should watch out for if you’re saving up on ink cartridge usage.
7. Only Print What You Truly Need
It takes practicality to print only what is needed. If such documents aren’t required to be printed on paper, opt to print them as PDFs that can be distributed digitally. Also, emails and online articles are better accessed online than printed. You can also have these printed as PDF if you need offline access to these documents at a later time.
8. Do a Periodic Printer Cleaning and Maintenance
When you don’t seem to figure out how long do ink cartridges last on your printer, try to check whether your printer is chugging up wasted ink and caking them to printheads and rollers. A periodic check up will not just avoid ink wastage but also keep your printer working to your advantage. A clean, well-maintained printer will make your printing much cleaner but also helps you save on ink usage and increase longevity on ink cartridges.
9. Don’t Change Ink Cartridges Immediately after Warning
It could be annoying every time you print, but these warnings sometimes don’t mean what they show. Some printers can tell you of low ink capacity when, in fact, there is only blockage or caking of inks in nozzles, printheads, and even in cartridges. It’s best to do the pulling-out or shaking-up steps when you encounter these warnings. Better yet, retry printing once more. You can also do a test print to check whether or not your printer has low ink levels or is simply messed up because of unclean cartridges.
10. Choose Quality Printers
The best way to have long-lasting ink cartridges is to use the best printers. Print a lot of documents that involve colors, like pictures or colored fonts. You can take advantage of the best color laser printers available in the market. If you simply print text-based documents, especially when printing on long-form papers or fax papers, the best monochrome laser printer can help you save up on ink cartridge usage while maintaining the vibrancy of key color printing.
Conclusion
Making ink cartridges last longer is truly advantageous to you, no matter how your printers are used. With enough care and opting for better options, you can ensure your ink cartridges last longer than expected. It saves you money, time, and productivity when printing heavily while keeping printouts at their most pristine, presentable output.