When it comes to printers, it is of no surprise that the ink costs far more than the actual machine. In fact, it is a common practice to charge $10 or more for a couple of ounces of ink.

With prices like this, are there any ways to save money? Two common methods to save some cash include buying refilled cartridges or looking for deals on new cartridges. A lesser known method involves changing some settings and changing printing habits so that overall, less ink is consumed.

In Windows, to enable the ink-saving feature, follow these steps:

1. Open the control panel
2. Select the printer/fax setting panel
3. Open up the printer/fax setting panel
4. Select and open up your printer
5. Open up the preferences dialog box
6. This step varies for each printer, but look for a setting that enables a lower quality or quick print setting. Both of these settings force the printer to use less ink.

For Apple computers, follow these steps:

1. Go to System Preferences
2. Select the Printer & Fax panel
3. Select your printer
4. Go to the printer’s settings, and look for a lower quality or quick print setting (this step varies depending on the printer).

Other Ink Saving Tips

Another way to save ink when printing is to use the grayscale feature. This feature forces the printer to convert any color images into black & white, thus eliminating any color ink usage.

Another way to save ink when printing is to only select what you want to print. On the internet, for example, this is useful because web pages tend to have a lot of unwanted filler. Removing it can be difficult, since the methods vary by web browser.

In Firefox, the Nuke Anything Enhanced extension allows the user to select and hide various elements of a web page. These elements can range from pictures to blocks of text, etc. Once the elements are hidden, print the selected page, and you’ll get exactly what you want.