HOWTO: Save Money on Printing Costs - Comments Page 2

I use a continuous inking system for all document printing. Available here in Australia,.
If you do not know this system an external reservoir is connected via soft tubing to printing catridges that are reprogrammed.
Cost for my Canon printer 5 cartridges and 100 mls of ink and all tubing Aus$119 and you can buy a bottle of 1000mls of ink for Aus$19.
I print over 5000 pages a month so to buy OEM cartridges would be expensive.
Available for many printers, canon, Epsom,HP,Brother etc.
A separate printer is used for photographs.
I am still hundreds of dollars ahead using two printers one for documents and one for photos.

"Ultra Gamut" has great ink for refilling your own cartridges. I have a Canon Pixma 620 and have been refilling the cartridges for for the last 3 years. Thirty or forty dollars for the kit and voila three years later I still have ink left. You cant beat it for everyday printing, especially if you have children who always seem to have something to print!

I have read a post by an Amazon reviewer who stated that the printer manufacturers have now implanted a chip that will not let you use anything but their brand name ink.

I belong to a Computer/Technology club and the president has been trying to replace the ink on a cheap HP printer. He goes to a place that will refill cartridges for a much lower cost than the brand name. Each time, there is an error message that the black is empty and it refuses to print no matter what.

We have a Canon Pixma at home. Same error messages even when we have just replaced the cartridges with store brand ones. I did get it to work for a while by holding down the "Start" button for 5 seconds but after just a little while it stopped printing for good.

We needed to print a letter in a hurry and finally rushed out and bought the Canon brand. They installed and printed flawlessly. Cost for the color/black bundle came to $53 with tax. Considering all the driving we were doing and wasted time and effort, it was a pleasure to just start printing without problems.

I agree, this is how the printer companies make money. In a lot of cases, the ink is more than a new printer. This is absurd, but they have us by the you know what, don't they?

We are looking into laser printers since the prices have dropped quite a bit. It's a real shame that consumers have to put up with this cute little trick by the big name companies.

Bob this is a good article. I have been using laser printing technology since 1998, back when the latest and greatest was an HP 4L (back in 1994). I used one at work for one law firm, it printed well for government and court filings, and then my boss at another firm several years later had one at home she replaced, and she gave me her (lightly used) 4L. I used it for producing my church newsletter for several years (producing camera-ready copy for the print shop) and then for production printing when I started working from home for the same law firm. It finally gave up the ghost in 2006!!

Now the point of this post is -- BUY A HP B&W laser. Don't get the color inkjet that comes cheap or free with a computer package. Use it for your basic printing. It's faster and cheaper. Second choice would be Brother. Both manufacturers' laser cartridges can be refilled by vendors such as Cartridge world, and they LAST AND LAST. Even when you forget to change the setting on the print command (in Word and pdf documents, under "properties," "finishing" and select "econo mode."

Bob, I think your idea to use Century Gothic rather than Arial is a GOOD one that I will immediately implement for my business correspondence.

I will post another comment with some tips for all to save ink and paper.

Here's some other ways to save on paper and ink or toner:

1) Don't print everything! Get a bigger viewing screen if you're having problems reading the text! It will pay for itself quickly. You'll wonder why you didn't do this a long time ago. I use a 24" diameter lcd 16:9 screen, myself.

2) Use "print preview." Especially if you're printing webpages. Many times the print preview will show that there's orphaned pages (those with only the url and page number and maybe the footer of the web page) and then you can select the page range and print only what you need.

3) If you only want the info on the webpage and not all the graphics, copy and paste the text you need into a Word document with narrow margins. You can then reformat to your liking. I do this all the time with recipes. You can also save or copy some images on the web if they will be of help in using the info you're wanting to save.

4) Get a pdf converter program. NOT Adobe Acrobat. ($$$!!) There are PDF converters by several companies, I use one from Nuance, the "professional" version was around $90, the lower-end ones less than that. Then you can save your printouts to pdf and email or view on your tablet or smart phone, rather than printing and using paper and ink/toner.

5) Use both sides of the paper especially for printing you don't need for distribution, such as for shipping airbills, drafts etc. Just make sure there's no confidential info on the back. I have a stack of "reprint" paper that's about a foot high saved just for this!

Got to agree with PhotoSci

Sure, everyone has heard of refilling actually working, but as a Professional Engineer, I can tell you :
1) Using 3rd-party ink voids your printer warranty
2) Manufacturers invest a huge amount in ink formulations that work with their own printers and cartridges. Go to your refiller and ask to see his ink bottles. It's like asking to see the logo on the oil when you change the oil in your car; any reputable shop will display it proudly. Your refiller will likely refuse, because he has only one bottle for each colour, not hp black or Epson cyan, etc. What you'll get is no-name print quality.
You'll also get ink jams or ink smears, because they're using generic ink with generic viscosity for all different print heads. You will almost certainly shorten the life of your printer.
3) With most manufacturers these days, the print head is built into the cartridge, and they are engineered for a single usage, with their own ink. It will likely work for one refill, and possibly two, but unlikely for any more.
4) Don't compare the number of pages you get from a refill to what you get from the cartridges included with the printer. The cartridges that come "for free" with the printer are only half-filled, compared to their own brand name replacements. They'll be labeled exactly the same as the replacement cartridges, but they're not identical.

I'm sure many will live with all the downside risk for home use, but some people fill their tank with unknown gasoline and wonder why their car keeps breaking down. Ask yourself what your time and frustration is worth, and compare that against how much you save. How many times do you want to throw out your prints, get ink all over you hands and clothes, go get a new printer, or not, because its the middle of the night and your local retailer doesn't care if you need your prints NOW.

You wouldn't want your boss inflicting this grief on you at work to save a few crummy bucks, so why inflict it on yourself at home?

Good article, Bob. I have used generic ink cartridges for years. I simply, can NOT afford to pay the prices for OEM cartridges. I am retired, on a fixed income, so, my budget can only handle so much.

Since, my printing is for personal business or reasons, I really don't need to have the "high quality" cartridges that many companies, must have for their documents. However, I bet that most of those companies use generic ink cartridges, to save on their budgets, as well.

Again, thank you for the great article. It certainly has generated lots of comments ... That's a good thing. :)

Hi Bob I have been refilling my own cartridges for about 3 years now. Refilling the cartridges from HP worked but not well.
Then I bought Refillable Cartridges from Inkproducts Inc. and now refilling works without a hitch. If they sell the Refillable cartridges for your printer try them.
My experience with their Ink has been very good the quality seems good to me.

I use a CISS from Rihac.com.au saves $100's in my printing costs, Brother printers seem to work best