Tuesday, April 16, 2013

How to Get the Most out of Your Toner Cartridge

By Edward Yatsko


Many people are hesitant to buy laser printers because of their often hefty price tag. Instead, they opt for the cheaper and lower quality inkjet printers, only to find that their cheaper accessories wear down quickly and require replacement. More and more people are realizing that only a laser printer can offer high quality images and documents to its users. Consumers are likely to discover that toner cartridges are quite expensive; what they don't know, however, is that you can easily maximize the amount of toner you get out of each individual cartridge.

If at all possible, you should avoid printing in color. Those of us who print high quality color images or documents from our laser printers are much more likely to run out of toner; the same is true for inkjet printers. One easy way to save is to print drafts in black and white. Once you are sure that your image is centered correctly and in the right size, go ahead and print in color. This will save you a lot of time and money.

Those of us who know our way around the computer should think about changing the settings on our printers. It is fairly easy to remember: the higher the quality, the more toner you use. You can lower the quality on certain prints, just as you cut back on the use of color. When you print out e-mails or directions, you may want to print low-quality and on both sides of the sheet. On the rare occasion that you have presentation materials to print, you can easily switch the settings back to high quality.

There are a few toner-saving tips that can be done far before you even turn the printer on. You can (and should) utilize the build-in print preview function on your image or word processor before you take the plunge and commit to using toner. This will enable you to view the document without having to wait for it to print. You will also be able to see how your fonts look; the larger or bolder they are, the more toner they will use. Minimize the use of these fonts whenever possible.

Once you understand how toner works, you'll have no problem conserving it. An inkjet printer simply cannot compare to a laser printer; once you see the quality, you will never go back. Toner may be expensive, but a little bit goes a long way; so go ahead and invest! A few dollars is nothing when you see the speed at which your laser printer creates high quality images and text.




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