If for whatever reason, you print lots of documents on your inkjet printer. Then, you are no stranger to the fact that over time, the costs of ink and paper are simply ridiculous – even exceeding the price of your entire computer. Below is a list of the cheapest ways to print documents on your inkjet printer and save money on printing costs.

1. Use your printer’s economy mode

It is a fact that not all pages you print needs to be a perfect “fit for framing” quality. Most of the time, what we print are drafts for a business presentation or school paper. Printing these types in standard quality or high quality is simply a waste of money.

So before you print, locate and open your printer’s preferences settings from within the program’s Print dialog box. Look for the “Draft Mode” setting and select. Draft mode might vary in some preference settings, but names like Toner Saver, Fast Quality, Economy Mode and the like all points to the same thing. Printouts from this setting might not be of stellar quality but are still readable and clear. You can make the switch to standard (or high-quality) mode when you are ready to print documents that need to look their best.

2. Print More than One Page Per Sheet

Printing more than one page per sheet is the easiest way to save money, paper and ink wise. This works out particularly well for presentations in PowerPoint, as the bullet points are easily read even in smaller view. To do this,

1. a) Open the print dialog
2. b) From the “print what” drop-down, select Handouts
3. c) And then choose the number of slides you want per page.

3. Use Print Preview and Shrink to Fit

A lot of times, we neglect using the Print Preview option in our word program. We directly click Print thinking we are getting a one-page document only to end up with two pages – where the second page contains only a line or two. When this happens, we normally adjust the document to fit one page and reprint. This causes additional costs since ink and paper are wasted. However, this can be avoided if we practice using Print Preview before printing.

4. If you use Microsoft Word, use its “Shrink one page” option

Microsoft Word has an option called “Shrink One Page” where word attempts to shrink the document to a single page. This is achieved by reducing the spacing and size of the texts.

5. Use Less Ink

You can save money by using less ink. Using less ink refers to changing a few settings to reduce ink usage like changing the current font to one that consumes ink a little less. Printing only when absolutely necessary helps too. And as mentioned above, using the draft printing option for drafts. All of these actions limit the consumption of printer ink, thereby extending the usage of the ink cartridge and prolonging the need to buy a new one.

6. Buy remanufactured ink cartridges

Printer users can freely choose the consumables for their machines. So you can go for pricey name-brand ink for your inkjet printer or uncostly remanufactured ink cartridges. But since saving money is on the forefront of this article, then your best option is the latter. Buying remanufactured cartridges can save up to half of your total printing costs. Besides, it has been discovered that inexpensive third-party and remanufactured cartridges often yield more pages than their new, branded counterparts. Though they do not always deliver the same quality and fade-resistance, if the bulk of what you print is text and not photos, then there is absolutely no reason to choose the more expensive stuff. If you print photos too, but there is no emphasis on it being pristinely clear, then that is all the more reason to choose remanufactured cartridges.  The difference in quality is little and will not matter unless you do this professionally.

7. Perform Regular Maintenance

Implementing regular printer maintenance keeps the machine from performing well. Do know that a lot of errors can occur that would waste ink if not adequately addressed. Performing maintenance is quite easy though so this does not pose a problem. Your printer will most likely come with instructions on how to carry out such procedures, and it is simply a matter of choosing a few options in a menu.

Of course the most obvious way to save money on printing is simply NOT TO PRINT. And with the electronic age, printer abstinence is more possible than ever. However, when printing cannot be avoided for circumstances beyond your control, then keep these tips in mind.