A Brief Overview of the Printer Ink Price Status:
In today’s world of technology, printers play an essential role in graphic output and transferring information on paper. But why is it so crucial for people to extend ink cartridge life? Shopping for ink cartridges can be pretty depressing and frightening.
People are primarily concerned more to extend ink cartridge life than a printer and ask how to extend ink cartridge life. This is because of the price of ink. Do you know what the price of printer ink is? In 2013, a study by consumer reports reported that one ounce of ink cost between $13 and $75. By estimating this, we can conclude that one gallon costs almost $1,664 – $9,600.
Yes, this is astonishing. The ink is more costly than vintage champagne, human blood, or even the most delicate perfume globally. So, to ask how to extend ink cartridge life is justified. When the printer owners like you and me have to experience this frightening purchase, we wonder how to extend ink cartridge life, but before this, let us understand why printer ink is so expensive.
Why Is Printer Ink So Expensive?
The answer to this question, you may be surprised. We can discuss it in some unchallenging yet astonishing points:
- Razor-blade business:
- Branding
- Formulation.
- Quality and Priority
- Supply and demand
A razor is cheap because the manufacturer makes money retailing replacement razor blades to consumers. The same is the case with printers: the more affordable the printer, the more expensive the consumables.
For instance, HP-envy 4520 costs 120 dollars to build at the retail shop; you can buy it for 70 dollars. For each brand and company, specific toners and inks are formulated. If we consider HP, then it claims to spend 1 billion dollars on this research and development. These factors are heavily involved in replacement cartridge pricing.
The formulation process also plays a crucial role in pricing. The quality ink cartridge reduces the chances of malfunctioning. The piezoelectric process is used in its formulation in which an electrical field is used to change the shape of piezoelectric material.
However, this is a significantly expensive process. For printer owners, genuine OEM is the safest option for their printers. But don’t forget with quality comes prices. Indeed, people can use remanufactured cartridges, but quality work is not promised with these compatible cartridges. Supply and demand theory is a model that plays a role in a product’s price determination in the market. The demand for the ink is consistently high with minimal fluctuations in the supply, and the price of the OEM remains constantly high.
After this discussion, people often wonder what precautions they can use to extend ink cartridge life.
10 Ways to Extend Ink Cartridge Life:
If you are looking for some hacks to extend ink cartridges’ life, you are on the right platform. To extend the ink cartridge’s life, these are some of the precautions and hacks you can use.
- Adjust printer setting:
We can extend ink cartridges’ life by adjusting the printer setting concerning the use of the document. You can use the printer to draft mode, print in grayscale, and document options. This will use less ink and extend the ink cartridges’ life.
- Clean printer nozzle:
Cleaning the printer nozzle will enhance the print quality, but one should avoid it frequently to extend the ink cartridges’ life. The often cleaning process consumes quite a bit of ink.
- Check the low ink warning:
Low ink warnings are often displayed as an alert to tell you that you can replace cartridges and avoid printing delays. When your printer shows you this sign, do not panic. People often say that this is just a warning sign, and there is still enough ink in the printer to print 100 more pages.
- Less Large Fonts and Bolds:
To extend ink cartridges’ life fonts, and formatting plays a more significant role. Some fonts like times new roman, courier, etc., are well known for boosting the ink cartridge life by saving ink.
- Pay Attention to Resolution and Image Size:
Adjusting the DPI- will surely help to extend ink cartridges life. More specifically, decreasing the number of DPI will lower the number and thus can save ink.
- Preview Before You Print:
If you want to extend ink cartridges life, use the preview option in your printer before you print. If you print the document in the wrong direction or the wrong font etc., this will only waste your money. So for this, consider this option before printing.
- Fix streaky prints:
Streaky prints may seem like you are out of ink, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the ink may be clogged, and thus, by gently shaking it, we can get quality printouts again.
- Turn Off the Printer When It’s free:
Turing your printer on when it’s not in use may make the ink clogged, or the printer’s heat may cause the ink to dry. So if you want to extend ink cartridges life, you should turn them off when not in use.
- Maintain your cartridges:
To extend ink cartridges life, you should maintain it. Ink cartridges are very delicate to use. When left open, they may dry. For this, keep your cartridges in packing and save them.
- Use Compatible Ink Cartridges:
There are some non-OEM replacement inks in the market. To extend ink cartridge life with a tight budget, you can sacrifice a little on the printing quality and buy a reputable ink cartridge replacement.
Conclusion:
So, for the readers who ask how to extend ink cartridges life, adjust printer setting, clean the printer nozzle with correct time intervals, use a convenient writing style with little bold words. Make sure, when the printer runs out of ink, don’t let the streaky printing or low ink warning made you think that you need to refill, and lastly, maintain the cartridges and printer to avoid any drying out of ink.