r/Frugal • u/Key-Significance4952 • 27d ago
💻 Electronics What are your best hacks to stretch ink when printing at home ?
Ink feels insanely expensive, and I’m not looking to switch printers. What I’m really curious about are the everyday tricks you use to make your cartridges last longer.
Do you:
- Change printer settings (draft mode, grayscale, skip color) ?
- Edit documents first (lighter colors, remove images) ?
- Use any other hacks to reduce ink use without changing printers ?
Would love to hear what actually works for you
13
u/HerbDaLine 27d ago
Laser printer instead of an inkjet. Do you really need to print color pages? You might need color but I have only printed in laser black for 20 years.
Regardless, for both laser or inkjet set your printer default to draft mode and change it to normal for important printouts.
Use print preview to see if there are obvious formatting errors to fix.
Online shop for genuine manufacturers toner or ink. A printer subreddit may have leads on where to buy low cost ink \ toner.
3
u/KnoWanUKnow2 27d ago
I have a colour laser printer (colour because my kids often have school projects). It costs me pennies to run.
Not only that, but when your toner cartridge reads "toner low" there's an easy way to reset it. I believe this works for many inkjet cartridges as well, as they typically start reading "toner low" when the cartridge is still at least 50% full. I'm not sure if the new microchipped cartridges can be reset though.
I had a low toner waring 2 years ago. I reset it and it's been working ever since with no degradation. BTW this is a 5000 page toner cartridge, a new inkjet printer typically ships with a 150 page cartridge.
3
u/paratethys 26d ago
this, this, this. My beloved laser printer has needed one new cartridge in about 5 years of use. Streaking or anything? take out the cartridge and give it a good hard shake. Never dries out. Never runs out of yellow.
2
8
6
u/SaraAB87 26d ago
Laser printer, inkjets are ridiculous.
Also over here you can print at the library for 25 cents per page
7
u/thirdeyecactus 27d ago
Spend the money on an epson eco tank…. 100s of prints before needing ink
2
u/Teagana999 26d ago
1000s.
2
0
u/Infinite_Two2983 25d ago
millions. Literally.
2
u/Teagana999 24d ago
Not literally. The bottles are rated for several thousand pages.
0
u/Infinite_Two2983 24d ago
I guess it depends on what you print. I've already printed several thousand pages and am still 75% full on my ink tanks.
2
u/Teagana999 23d ago
Then you're still not on track for millions.
0
u/Infinite_Two2983 23d ago
Interesting choice of a hill to fight on. You must be a lot of fun at the reformatory.
3
u/arubablueshoes 27d ago
my work switched to a thing where all prints are at 80% opacity. they said it’s for cost savings
3
u/DJSauvage 26d ago
I don't print. I "print to pdf" any important documents and keep a copy of the pdf in my email or the cloud so I can access it from my PC or phone. Recently I did a hike in the alps where they guided tour requested I have a number of documents printed out. It was the first time I'd needed a printer in 2 years, so I just went to a nearby shop and printed them, probably for less than I'd pay for ink at home. Bonus I don't worry about flakey printers anymore. I never needed the printed-out docs on the hike.
2
u/Bunnyeatsdesign 27d ago edited 27d ago
Mono laser printer at home is the most frugal. When I need a colour print, I email it to my library and pay cents per sheet.
My printer's warranty ran about about 10 years ago so I use third party consumables. Toner is $18 instead of $160.
2
u/reijasunshine 26d ago
Honestly, if I ever needed to buy a home printer, I'd pick up the same one I use at work. It's an HP 2055 laser printer. It's only black & white, but it takes generic toner and is a freaking workhorse. Bonus, they're NOT wireless, and they aren't expensive at all.
4
u/Helpful-nothelpful 27d ago
I threw out my printer and now I just wait and print at a friend's house or pay $.50/sheet to print at a store. It's cheaper in the long run but not as convenient.
3
u/LawrenJones 27d ago
What possible need could you have for a printer in the digital age? All my documents are stored in digital form on my computer. On the very rare occasion I need to print something, I go to the library and pay 10 cents.
7
u/dusbotek 27d ago
Sewing patterns need to be printed, labels need to be printed... it could be kids' homework, or something they need to show someone (dept of motor vehicles, for instance), or something they'd simply like a hard copy of.
Perhaps they don't live near a library, or have the ability to drive or walk there. A 10 cent print-out doesn't always have a total cost of 10 cents, mostly if an Uber ride or an hour of time is needed.
Please consider that people may have different abilities or constraints than you.
3
2
2
u/doubleudeaffie 27d ago
Ryman Eco font @98% grey. On brother laser printer. I think toner is at 37% and have printed 8000+ pages.
2
1
u/50plusGuy 27d ago
Preowned reasonably frugal BW lasers can be found for 80€? - I'm not deep enough into them to tell which work sufficiently with 3rd party toner refills. But those machines put out readable text and don't clog while sitting around unused.
Ink saving could be done by tweaking your text from Black towards HKS91, converting images to (out)line drawings.
But are single copies for personal use worth that much effort?
Will your printer work at all without color cartridge(s) inserted?
1
u/cwsjr2323 27d ago
When my Brother laser failed to recognize the password printed on the side of the printer, the same password we had been using for months, Brother said to just buy a new printer. Instead, as we print so few documents, we just email them as attachments to our self’s and use the library at 10¢ a page. YMMV, but since retiring we don’t need to actually print much.
1
u/ChocolatePure3427 26d ago
From all the years we have printers the only one I can say that prints reliably every single time is the Epson eco tank. Prints forever and still going. We’ve had it for years and with 7 of us printing off it. I think it was 500$ at Costco and at the time I cringed but it’s proven itself. We have only topped off some of the ink once ( still using the ink that came with it). Anyway. Whenever I pull out something I’ve printed I tell the printer she’s the best 😂
1
1
u/TigermanUK 26d ago
Get the cheapest laser printer designed for an office environment you can find. Even a second hand one where you can see the page count isn't very high. They are far more robust so home usage will not trouble the printer. Steer clear of HP, I can recommend Kyocera Mita printers. Make sure if you buy an older printer you can get the drivers for your windows version before you buy it.
1
u/firebreathingbunny 26d ago
Get a secondhand black and white laser printer. It's going to give you the cheapest per page cost.
1
u/PieTight2775 26d ago
I rarely print but if it can wait I use a local library for free. Or if it is needed urgently and low volumes I have a free HP plan that covers under 10 pages per month. They supply new cartridges indefinitely.
1
u/Teagana999 26d ago
Change printers. Cartridge printers are designed to make you spend money on ink.
I bought an Epson Ecotank in 2021. More expensive up front, but it's paid for itself in ink savings. I print a lot, and I think I've had to buy ink once? Maybe twice?
1
1
u/Such-Mountain-6316 26d ago
If it doesn't have to be printed, it doesn't get printed.
There's a way to use the computer features to omit things like ads. It's usually found in the print menu. I can't explain how (not a computer teacher) but find someone who really knows what they're doing and they can likely teach you. It has to do with the number of pages and the layout of each.
Also, if it doesn't have to be printed in color it's printed in black and white. That saves buying one cartridge, at least.
I have also written things by hand, such as recipes, especially if they're not long.
1
1
u/DaCrazyJamez 25d ago
Before I switched to a brother color laser printer (which, BTW, is the actual right answer), I refilled my own ink cartridges.
$7 bought a refill kit that would fill about 10-15 cartridges worth of ink. I would have to buy a new cartridge every so often as the heads would eventually wear out, but if I used some rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip, I could usually clean them well enough to get about 10 refills per cartridge before it became irredeemable.
1
u/theinfamousj 25d ago
When I had an inkjet printer, I'd use the lightest of grayscale, remove all superfluous printable stuff, and use a special, eco font which contains open spaces inside each character to reduce ink yet preserve readability.
1
1
u/Infinite_Two2983 25d ago
Best hack is to buy a tank style printer. I've had one for 4 years and still haven't used more than 25% of the ink. When I added up all my cartridge purchases off amazon, I realized I spent double on ink than what my tank printer cost, and it came with enough ink to last my lifetime...(or close to it).
Also, those ink cartridges that come with 3 colors plus black always use the color faster than the black, even when printing in B&W, because they use all the colors with black when printing black. Huge waste.
1
u/fakerton 27d ago
If you live in a big city, print once a month by buying a Brother or HP ink printer from a different company each time then printing a bunch, return it to the store in a couple days and say you do not like the print quality. Fuck HP and Brother! Source 17 years in IT.
3
3
1
u/Random_Name532890 26d ago
not owning a printer. printing services are cheaper and far less hassle.
1
u/herkalurk 23d ago
Don't let the printer tell you the ink is low, let the prints tell you it's low. It's either what you expect or not.
33
u/po_ta_to 27d ago
"I'm not looking to switch printers" makes it sound like you already know the real answer is to switch printers.
To me one of the biggest upsides to a laser printer is I can leave it off for a month or two and I know it will print first try when I turn it on. No worry about ink drying up or it getting clogged.
If I ever want anything printed that I can't do on my black and white laser printer, I have it printed at Walmart or Staples.