If you have a personal printer (either ink or toner) at home, I’m sure that like me, you hate replacing the cartridges on the thing. So much expense, just to have some Web site’s banner advertisement print on a separate page all by itself in full color. Argh!

Unless you do extremely high-quality, image-intense work, you may be able to get away with changing your printing settings to “draft output.”

I don’t need high-quality printouts since my uses are usually research (I often print some pages—double sided of course) and take them along with me to research and draft stories on the run.

To make this change, go into your printer settings and select “draft output” clicking OK will keep the change for the current document. Clicking “Apply” will change the setting semi-permanently (you’ll have to go change it back if you want the printer to use 100% printing again).

Using draft output will reduce the amount of ink put on the page, but in many cases it isn’t a very noticeable change. It should extend the life of your cartridges by 20-30%.

(A note on printer cartridge life—I buy remanufactured cartridges but the company I buy from does offer replacements or refunds if I find that they aren’t measuring up. Thus far, I’ve never had a problem). 10% Off Back to School Coupon – Inksmile.com

This post is part of a series I’ve entitled “Frugal August” and is inspired by (though not copied from) the book The Complete Tightwad Gazetteby Amy Dacyczyn. My tips are meant to build on hers, but generally are not duplications.

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