Spill the beans... on cheap printing

tony6403

Most , if not all, current printers give excellent results. Even those that can be had for £30.
With that in mind , and the fact that replacement ink costs more than the price of one printer which I bought, I bought my last printer based on the price of compatible replacement inks rather than the price/make of the printer.
So I bought an Epson which rattles out documents, colouring pages for the children and copies of receipts etc.. It also makes a remarkable job of scanning and improving photographs.
The cartridges , which contain more ink than the manufacturer's , cost £12 for a full set compared to the appropriately named "Cheetah" Epson pack from PC World at £34.99.
I buy the cartridges from a small local shop. The bloke who runs it knows his stuff and I can take back any problematic inks which he will replace on the spot.

airgead

cheerful wrote: »

Draft or economy mode can save a lot of ink. Often the difference from "normal quality" is hardly, if at all, noticeable.

If you need to print an email or web page don't just click the "Print" button as this will usually give you loads of unwanted extraneous stuff. Highlight the information you need and copy it to a word processing document then print that.

I agree, plus you can choose to print in "greyscale" (black and white only) so if there's colour pics in a document and you don't need them to be in colour, save the coloured ink.

I am a graphic artist and sometimes I use my PC to resize images that I will then copy and complete freehand. If I do this, I try to remember not to print the image in full black, but use an image programme (Paint ot photoshop) to change the colour and print it in grey.

A lot of companies are sending out email documents - like car insurance. Make sure you save a copy of these on a back-up drive or disc, but there's no need to print them all off.

I naively bought my present printer thinking I would be able to print lots of nice photos of my kids to share with the extended family - but no, its crazily expensive! Far cheaper to do it online and have them posted out. I think they're better quality too, even though my printer is supposed to be designed for photo printing (HP Photosmart).

Paper - reuse if you've only printed on one side.

Steve_xx

I'm reading here some excellent suggestions on saving ink and toner by making text smaller, printing pictures in mono etc. This all works very well, especially with ink-based cartridges. However, I believe that with some toner based products that the machine will take a prescribed amount of toner per print and then any that is unused for that print is promptly dumped in a waste toner container.

Does anyone have experience of this and perhaps give us model names and numbers of machines that employ a waste toner container?

Inkjet products often have a cleaning cycle which is supposedly designed to keep the printheads primed. But of course it does use up ink to do this and so I would say it's best to switch the machine off if you use it infrequently, rather than leaving in standby mode.

tellmeplease

I have a Epson SX610FW & used compatible cartridges once. Once these cartridges run out my machine would not take anymore or even the genuines until it had been into the menders. Anyone with a solution to this?

computamad

I buy non branded inks for my 3 in 1 Epson. I have never had any trouble. I find the cheap inks on the net. I also always use draft when printing, saves on ink. If it is something really important then of course I have to print it out properly. My printer is about 3yrs old now and I have only replaced 1 black cartridge and no any colour ones. Still using the ones the printer came with. My last inks i got from Amazon, very cheap. Like some of the other people here I reuse paper by printing on the back of letters etc un less it is an important document.

RobinHoodwink

Try 7dayshop.com Despite VAT loophole closure, this firm, based in the Channel Islands, is very competitive on price and delivers speedily.

podoman

I use branded ink until warranty expires then switch to cheapest compatible.
Only print what I really need to, keep lots of docs in a well designed folder system including receipts, invoices etc.
Print on both sides of paper using autoduplex mode on my canon, halved paper costs immediately, also use cheapest 80gsm paper.
Use option to print 2 sides of document to 1 side of paper so 4 sheets of paper fit on 1 sheet and ink used is reduced as well.:beer:

Bazhawkeye

I have an OKI colour lazer printer which has been in use for about 7 years. I don't buy new cartridges but instead buy the toner kit from an online supplier. Its about £12 instead on £70 per refill. No noticable difference in output.:)

I would never buy an inkjet as the Epsons I used to own always blocked and used more ink cleaning than printing!:mad:

ironlady2022

alfielibby wrote: »

So why do you print it?

Sorry that was badly phrased, I meant I print out bus tickets and airplane tickets etc

antonbarac

Ihave just found a supplier for my Dell printer "All in one" V313W which is less than half the price than from Dell, and it works just as well. Try abacus24-7 online