Tricks to reduce printer ink consumption?

[Geeyoff]

Hi. Is there a way to reduce the ink consumption of an inkjet printer? Even in draft mode, my printer seems to go through a lot of ink. I'm running Windows XP and I've got an HP Deskjet D4160. Using Windows' printing preferences, I can only get the resolution down to 300dpi. Is there any way to make it even less?

BTW, I've found some program called InkSaver, but it costs 35 bucks, and I'd rather not spend money in order to save money.

Thanks.

 

[jackschmittusa]

If you are talking about printing text, just buy a mono laser printer on one of those $50 AR deals. The savings are huge over inkjet.

 

[corkyg]

300 dpi is about as low as you can go with the HP Preferences control. I agree with Jack's comment about a laser. I have both, and for routine stuff and drafts, I use the laser. Ink is saved for final color requirements.

A lot of ink can be saved by simply not printing so much stuff in draft or throwaway mode. Use Print Preview on screen, and print to PDF files for sharing on CDRs or flash memory devices.

When doing drafts that contain illustrations, don't print the pictures, but use place markers until you are ready to go final.

 

[Zepper]

Cheap printer = small ink volume in cartridges (11ml black, says 5ml for color - I hope that's per color, not total volume!). First set is probably starter carts with even less volume. HP = not good plan for large volume printing except for maybe the K500. You'll need to learn how to refill the carts yourself to save money.

.bh.

 

[Peter]

Lower resolution doesn't mean less ink. What you actually need to do is choose a "draft" or "economy" mode. This makes the printer use less ink, regardless of resolution.

 

[corkyg]

Peter - draft in HP Deskjets is 300 dpi.

Draft

Normal is 600 dpi. Q.E.D.

 

[Geeyoff]

Thanks for the tips, everybody. I got this inkjet printer from a friend for free, so I'm not really interested in spending money on a laser printer right now. I've got the windows' printer settings defaulting to "fast draft" mode, which seems to be the most conservative setting available through that method.
I guess I'm hoping that there might be something like a registry hack that can reduce the ink consumption even more. Any ideas?
Also, Zepper, how does one go about refilling the cartridges? I've never heard of that before...

 

[corkyg]

Registry hacks don't overwrite printer drivers.

Do a Google for Ink Refill Kits and you cna name your own poison. Office Depot sells refilled carts that are pretty good. But you can do better.

HP carts can be refilled up to 3 times without the printhead degrading. The printhead in HP inkfets is in the cartridge,and they are "expendable."

 

[Zepper]

http://www.computerfriendsinc.com is one of the oldest refill kit suppliers. You should be able to get at least 3 but I'd say 5 is more typical out of a black cartridge. Maybe more out of color as the ink volume is so puny you'll have to do it frequently as one or other of the colors will run out first - another way HP gets you is the tri-color cartridge. When one color goes out (unless you're willing to refill) you have to replace the whole thing. Cha-ching! Real customer milkers those are.
. When you buy one for yourself, you want separate ink tanks for each color and passive ones if at all possible.

.bh.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Peter - draft in HP Deskjets is 300 dpi.
Normal is 600 dpi. Q.E.D.

This may be (coincidentally) true, but the ink reduction does not COME from the DPI reduction. Why not? Send a 600dpi printer data in 300dpi, and what it'll do is print each of your 300dpi pixels as a 2x2 square of 600dpi printer pixels.

What gets it into "draft/eco" mode is a specific configuration command that tells it to do just that - before the actual print data arrive.

Depending on what the particular printer can or cannot do, it'll then either produce smaller ink droplets, or apply a "white" dither mask to the printed image (e.g. print only every other pixel).

Some printers can't do any of that at all, and have the host driver implement "draft" mode. In that case, the driver does the dithering, and that kind of mandates that the image data are at a lower resolution than the printer engine. (Which gets us back to your example )

 

[corkyg]

"Depending on what the particular printer can or cannot do, it'll then either produce smaller ink droplets, or apply a "white" dither mask to the printed image (e.g. print only every other pixel). "

And that is exactly what happens in HP Deskjets. The Draft/Eco mode looks like spread out dots, ergo, it does save ink. The OP postulated HP.

What any other brand does is not part of my statements.

 

[Jolt2]

Here is a software product that does what you are asking for. You may be able to find something like it for free, I don't know, but here is a link to the software.

inksaver 2.0

There is a trial download at inksaver.com.