There are many printer models and types available in the market which can suit your pocket, but purchasing a printer is not all, as every printer would require timely refill of its cartridges. If you have a dot-matrix printer, you need to buy new ribbons regularly, if you have an inkjet printer then you would need new ink cartridges time to time, and if you are using a laser printer then you will need to refill the toner after regular intervals. Inkjet cartridges are inexpensive but are capable of printing very less volumes. On the other hand laser printer’s toner is quite expensive but it averages its cost by printing high number of copies. Laser printer’s toner is special powder which is sensitive to electromagnetic charge and this is how the printing works in a laser printer. Because laser printer’s toner is quite heavy on pocket so it would be good if you can save it as much as possible so that it prints more copies per refill.
In this post I will mention several ways and tips to reduce the toner usage and enhance its life.
1. Use Draft Mode – Every printer has a printing mode called as draft. In this mode very minimal amount of toner is used for printing and thus increases the number of copies. In this mode the print out is not very dark but is more of gray color. Most of the times we do not actually require quality prints for our day to day print outs and it would be good if we use draft as the printing mode while casual printing. This can be changed as follows:
Step 1: Go to Control Panel and then Printers
Step 2: Right click on the desired printer and click on Properties
Step 3: Drop the print quality dropdown and then select Draft as the option. You can also set it to default.
2. Print Preview – We often waste many pages of printouts because of some or the other problems in it. It could be because of incorrect alignment, incorrect margins, incorrect fonts, or any mistake while creating the document. Avoid such wastage by previewing the document before actually printing it.
3. Keep it simple – Try avoiding too much of formatting, coloring, and shading in your documents. Shading and extra formatting demands high usage of toner and thus empties the cartridge soon. If it is really not required then do not use too much of formatting in your documents and keep it simple.
4. Shake well before use – If you are using your printer after a long time then it will be good if you shake the cartridge before using it. Shaking the cartridge evenly spreads the toner on the drum and results in evenly colored print pages. Also always try to keep your printer in dry space and not near damp walls.
