Getting More From Office Printer Ink Cartridges

2010-12-31

Ask any office manager what the top three office expenses are, and they will most likely tell you that printer ink cartridges are among them. In some cases, office printer ink is the office manager's main concern when it comes to expenses and trying to save a company money.

Some office staff may make a game out of shaking printer ink cartridges so that their dry ink that has settled at the bottom can be used. While this may be more fun than effective, there are some other methods to get more from office printer ink.

One increasingly popular way to cut back not only on ink usage but on paper as well is to take advantage of electronic document maintenance. Sending emails and saving text and images to a hard drive saves energy and equipment wear and tear. Most importantly, it saves an office money and makes budgeting easier.

Another way to save ink is to reduce the ink resolution for every print job. The default, or factory-set, ink resolution is 600 dots per inch or DPI. Using this setting on an ongoing basis can mean having to replace printer ink cartridges often. Changing the resolution output is fairly easy as the printer properties can be changed to the 'Draft' or 'Economy' setting before a print job takes place. Or, the default setting can be changed by going into the Control Panel under the desktop 'Start' button. Doing the latter will always ensure that the minimal amount of printer ink is being used at all times. The changes can easily be reset when it comes time to print a final hard copy.

Office managers and supervisors can also encourage staff to only use office printer ink after a document has been edited and proofread, instead of using ink to print rough drafts. Documents that will need to be revised can be submitted as an email attachment or inline text if it involves the input of another party. This way, it saves ink as well as printer wear and tear. This is especially helpful to those that are likely to print charts and other images as one printout can use a lot of ink.

If buying brand name printer cartridges in bulk is still costing more money than a person would like to spend, then that person should try generic or retail store brand versions. Sometimes, the savings can be as much as 40 percent less than retail prices. For offices that tend to have large printing jobs, it would not hurt to have a printer ink refill kit nearby. When using these, it is important to read all instructions carefully before opening any liquid contents.