How to get more ink out of a printer cartridge? Printer technology is improving day by day significantly. But it is very important to notice that a cartridge of the printer comes with how much ink and what procedures are necessary to get more ink out of cartridges. Today we will discuss some basic and proven methods as well as some strategies that can increase the life of your printer cartridges.
1- Printer Settings:
By adjusting your printer settings, you can get more ink out of your cartridge. If you have printing documents that do not need the most vibrant and dark black colors, then print them with low quality. For doing this, go to the browser from where you are printing something. Then right-click and select the print option. Now check the print dialogue box, a popup will open, and then search for your printer in the list and click “Preferences”. Choose the Paper/Quality tab and click on “EconoMode”. This process will print the documents in light settings. Therefore, with this method, you can increase the life of your ink cartridges.
2- Don’t use Bold and Large fonts:
Using Large and bold fonts will run out your ink cartridge quickly. Protect yourself from bold and large fonts or just use them when needed. Printing online content consumes more ink as they use thick bolded fonts. You can copy and paste this content onto Google docs and Microsoft Word, then change their fonts to Arial or something that cannot use more ink. To run your ink cartridges more, try to download Ecofont textual style, which can save 20% ink by including some white little circles in each character.
3- Black and white printing:
Whenever I print an online article from the web, I change my setting to black and white from color and this trick helps a lot in saving the ink. Most of the articles include a printer icon near the title of that article or somewhere around it to remove unwanted ads or banners. But some articles still don’t provide this feature. For this purpose, you have to select the text you want to print and right-click on it, select print, and change the color to black and white.
4- Ignore the printer warnings:
Do not trust your printer warnings as they are not proven to be 100% reliable. Many times it gives the wrong warning of changing the ink while there is a good amount of ink present in the cartridge for printing. So print your documents till there is none left in the cartridges.
Most of the cartridges have a circuit board built into them which contains a small memory that keeps track of the amount of ink within the cartridge itself. However, most of the time the memory is not accurate. So reset your memory to give a more accurate reading of the cartridge. Look for the small hole, just right above the circuit board. Press the hole with a paperclip and this way you can reset the memory. This should give you a more accurate reading. Place the ink back into your printer and reset it. Now you will see that the printer will show a full reading of the ink.
5- Shaking ink cartridges:
If you are printing something important and your printer has stopped working, then it is very frustrating. For its solution, try to shake the cartridge gently in order to squeeze the ink till the last drop. This method also works if you have not used your printer for some days or even a week. Ink dries quickly in cold areas. So shaking the cartridge will probably allow you to print some more pages. Because the small number of ink drops are stored at the sides and corners of the cartridges that you can release by using this method.
6- Clean the printheads:
Sometimes you think that the ink is finished when your printer gets streaky or prints dirty documents. It may be a message that your printheads want cleaning. It is possible that the ink has dried in printheads that causes the restriction of ink flow for a smooth printing process. You must clean your printer’s parts regularly to ensure a smooth flow of ink.
7- Image Resolution:
Nowadays, printers are coming with a greater resolution to print some quality photographs and documents. But these high-resolution printings can run out your ink very fast. Keep your settings on the normal mode of approximately 72 DPI, which is good for normal printing. Using photoshop or other high-resolution applications, these settings can easily be changed to a higher resolution.
8- Check for clogs:
An inkjet nozzle has a diameter of about 45 microns which is about half of the width of a human hair. When the cartridge becomes empty, the ink trapped in the nozzles is exposed to air from inside and outside. The ink begins to dry and forms a slug of solid material in the nozzles. As a result, you will see in the paper, skipping, banding, or no print at all. For solving this problem, apply these methods.
1- Remove the clogged cartridge from the printer.
2- Use a clean soft cloth and isopropyl alcohol to clean the electrical contacts inside the cartridge of the printer.
3- Search for the copper-colored electronic circuit strip on the cartridge. Wipe them with isopropyl alcohol.
4- Hold the printhead under a stream of hot water for some minutes. Then dry the ink cartridge and reinsert it into the printer.
5- Fill a saucer with hot water. If the printhead is badly clogged, you can add a small amount of ammonia, soap, or bleach. Put the cartridge in the solution for two hours or more. Make sure that the cartridge is put in it properly. Water should not be boiling. Now dry the cartridge and insert it back into the printer.
Conclusion:
We have discussed some of the procedures to increase the life of the printer cartridges. As a result of this, you can save money on expensive cartridges. Keeping your printer clean and neat will provide you the best printing results and also the toner of the cartridge will work longer. Follow these simple steps which are given above to get more ink out of your cartridge.
