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Posts Tagged ‘draft mode’

With the sometimes exorbitant price tagged onto printer ink cartridges, it is no wonder that a lot of people would rather buy a new printer instead of a new cartridge.  Often times, it is more economical just throw the old printer away!

But then again, disposing of old printers that one does not use anymore can be another nightmare altogether.  Not all recycling centers take them, and it is always a shame to throw away old printers when they have been hardly used.

Not a lot of people know this, but if you want to cut around the costs of buying new printer ink and save a little money in the process, sometimes all you need to do is to know how to use your printer and take care of it.

Draft Print Mode

One neat trick that you can use when printing out documents is to use the draft printing mode on your machine.  Printing in draft mode makes your machine churn out documents a lot faster and uses a lot less ink than normal mode.

To do this, you would need to open the control panel of your computer and go to the printer folder.  Once you have opened that, click on the icon of your printer and select the settings.  From there, you can choose the option to print in draft mode.

Turn It Off

Another trick that you can use with your printer in order to save printer ink is to turn the machine on only when you are using it.  In other words, never leave your machine on when not in use.

Not only does leaving the printer on consume electricity unnecessarily, but it also leaves the heat on the printer ink cartridges.  The heat on the cartridges will cause the ink to clog the printer heads, and that is never a good thing as it damages your machine.

Test Print Every Week

You should also conduct a test print on your machine at least once every week.  This will make sure that the printer ink cartridges installed in your machine will not dry up, especially when you do not use your printer that often.

While it does save up on power when you do not use your machine that often, it does not necessarily mean that you can save up on printer ink.  The ink dries up when not in use, and this can clog up your printer head in a really nasty way.

Store the Machine Properly

Let us say that you got tired of the machine you are using and decided to buy a new one.  But then again, you are not entirely convinced about throwing out your old printer, and thus, you decide to put it in a box and keep it in storage.  This is good because you will never know when you would need an extra printer.

Before you store away your machine, you have to take out the printer ink cartridges first.  Whatever ink that is left inside the cartridges will dry up in storage after not being used and will, again, clog up your printer head.

Taking care of your printer can take you and your printer ink a long way.  So What are you waiting for?

If you’re looking for a fast, networkable and affordable printer, take a look at the HP Deskjet 6940. This printer has been around since 2006, but it’s still available and is a pretty good bargain. There is no need for a USB cable if you network it through its wired Ethernet port. It is 17.7″ x 14.4 x 5.7 and weighs in at just over 13.2 lbs.

The speed and print quality of this little machine are just short of amazing. In draft mode this little printer will pump out up to 36 pages per minute in black and up to 27 pages per minute in color. To be perfectly honest, in draft mode, the print looks great.  At it’s maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, don’t expect anywhere near those numbers though.

HP Deskjet 6940 Ink Cartridges – The HP Deskjet 6940 uses the HP C8767W #96 Black Cartridge and the HP #97 Color Cartridge. The #96 holds 21ml of ink and is rated at 800 pages at 5% coverage. At a price of 28.95 that works out to just about 3.6 cents per page. The #97 holds 14ml of ink and is rated at 450 pages at 15% density coverage. At a price of 34.95 that works out to about 7.8 cents per page. Not the best price per page ratio we’ve seen, but you could certainly do worse. The Deskjet 6940 also can use hp ink cartridges #99 and the HP #100. The HP #99 (C9369WN) ink cartridge is part of the HP Vivera line of ink cartridges. It prints true to live color and provides fade resistant prints. The HP #100 (C9368AN) Ink Cartridge is also a  Vivera ink cartridge that is used for professional quality black and white photos. Hp claims that photos printed with the HP 99 should last for 50 years or longer.

Overall, this is a nice little printer. Very good overall. It’s fast, networkable, and affordable. You can find this printer on Amazon.com for around 87.99.  Power users may want to opt for the additional 250 sheet paper tray, but for the standard user, this printer may fit your needs nicely.

I came across a blog post today on Random Thoughts By Mark Rohde titled “14 Ways To Be Greener, More Productive and Cost Efficient With Your Printer“. Mark’s Post added added 7 additional steps to the post on Stepcase Lifehack titled “7 Ways to Be Greener and More Productive with your Printer”.

Here is their list so far:

1. Keep Supplies at the point of use
2. Print in “draft” mode to save ink
3. Keep a scratch paper tray
4. Make your printed documents come out in the proper order
5. Use scratch paper by default and print on new paper only when necessary
6. Label your printer’s particularities
7. Just don’t print
8. Set your printer to default to multiple pages per side
9. Invest in a printer capable of duplexing
10. Use a Laser Printer
11. Choose a Multifunction Device
12. Pause Your Print Que
13. Take your print off the printer
14. Just Don’t Print

Naturally, I have a few more tricks and hints that I would like to add to their lists!

15. Proofread your Documents - If you carefully proofread before you print, you can catch mistakes before any ink is wasted. Imagine printing out a giant batch only to go back and find out you misspelled a word. Run your spell checker and save yourself some time and ink.

16. Use your Print Preview Mode – Before you print, choose the “print preview” function on your printer. this will allow you to view the formatting and verify that the document looks the way it should.

17. Draft Mode – Set your printer default to Draft Mode. The documents will not look as crisp, but they are perfect for everyday use, or for printing out versions of a document as you refine it.

18. Print a Test Page – Before you send that giant. lengthy document to the printer, print one test page to make sure everything looks as it should. Print it on your scratch paper first, THEN print the whole document.

19. Make sure you’ve used your ENTIRE cartridge before you replace it with a new one – When your printouts become faded, or you see lines in your printing, run your printers cleaning cycle or maintenance utilities. You cartridge may not be empty. You may be amazed just how much life is still in it.

20. Use Remanufactured or Compatible Printer Cartridges – Buy Remanufactured or Compatible printer cartridges from a reputable online store and save up to 75% each time you replace your cartridges.

21. Avoid “Economy Cartridges” – The cartridge that came with your printer might not be the best value when it comes time to replace it. Printer Manufactures often ship a 1/2 full or economy cartridge with your new printer. Assuming that this is the only model number of cartridge that you can use in your printer can cost you BIG TIME. Be sure to check your manual. You may find that you can use another cartridge with as much as 300% more ink for just a few dollars more than that “economy” cartridge.

Follow these steps and put a little “green” in your green.