Print Dialogue Box – Force the printer to only use black ink

MS Word Print dialogue box – ‘Black and White option’

Print dialogue box with ‘Black and White’ option
There is another issue that can cause colour ink to be used instead of just black. Often when you bring up the print dialogue box, there is a tick box or a drop-down menu that allows you to select black and white. The reason for this is many documents, despite appearing black, are actually made up of all of the colours and the printer uses these to create the very dark looking print. To avoid using the colours on a black and white document, make sure to still check the print options and specify ‘black and white.
(Also, see last week’s blog article on the disadvantages of cheap printers)
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Have you considered draft mode?
Another way to avoid over-using ink in general is to select ‘draft mode’ when you print. If all you are printing are notes for reference to scribble on and not for aesthetic appeal, then printing in draft mode is a great option. It will reduce the print quality so that the printer will spray a lot less ink on the page, saving you on your printing costs.
Those handy tips should help you in reducing ink wastage, however, there is a more important question to be answered. How often do you print? Inkjet printers were made to be used on a relatively frequent basis. This way the ink is used and doesn’t have time to dry up. If you print every month or less, perhaps you should consider a laser printer which uses dry toner dust instead of liquid ink. A laser printer can happily sit there unused without needlessly wasting ink. They are not as good for printing photos and images and the cheaper laser printers typically only print in black and white. This might suit your purposes and save you from seeing your colour cartridge ink be flushed away each time you go to print something.
If you do need print in colour and want to find a way to spend less on cartridges, you may need to spend a little more on the printer and purchase a continuous ink printer which doesn’t use cartridges, but uses ink bottles instead. The bottles can be a bit messy, but the ink wells have a larger capacity for ink and therefore don’t run out as often. As the replacement ink bottles are just ink, you save on having to purchase new print heads with every cartridge. This is the most affordable way of printing in colour at home or the home office.
If you have experienced any of the above issues, perhaps you should take our 5 question survey? Fill out this quick questionnaire so we can guide you through the process. The questions will prompt you to consider the five most important things you value in a printer. After we ascertain your priorities, Rob will get back to you via email with his top picks to meet your specific printing needs.
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We hope you enjoyed this article: Why does my colour ink run out when I only print black? Stay tuned for our next topic in 2 weeks time.