There is no such thing as a business that isn’t looking to cut corners, at least in some capacity. This is thanks mostly due to the current wintry economic climate. Many American businesses are still struggling to shake off the detrimental effects of the global financial meltdown that started in September 2008. Businesses have to had to slash advertising costs, freeze payroll increases, and in worst case scenarios, lay off people who work for them. However, there are some costs that businesses need to maintain in order to function.

Business owners may have cut the budgets, sure, but obviously no business is in a position to thrive if they don’t continue to pay for some advertising, their payroll, and office supplies. In the case of purchasing office supplies, many businesses are looking for methods that will lead them to save money there as well.

It’s understandable, and there are indeed several ways to do so. One place businesses should look to cut costs is in the purchasing of ink. There are actually a few easy ways to reduce the use of ink while printing. This may not necessarily save your business from complete financial ruin, but every little bit helps, right?

A Genuine Draft Mode

Most printers will come with at least three modes, and usually more. No matter the printer, you will some variance on the following two modes: Normal and draft. Normal is the recommended setting for everyday use. Normal typically provides the best quality for the speed at which it runs, and is frequently the default mode. However, if you switch your printer to draft mode, you will save on the amount of ink that you use.

Normal mode will spray multiple coats of ink over the document you are printing, in order to embolden the text or image. If you feel that what you are printing is of little importance, and does not need to be distributed to customers or the general public at large, switch to draft mode.

On draft mode, the cartridge will only spray one coat of ink before moving onto the next line. Is it the most classy appearance? No, not really. But it will save you a surprising amount of ink. Save normal mode for when you need your print to have that special look; use draft mode the rest of the time.

A Lack of Color

Many businesses make the mistake of using only color cartridges for all printing. This is absolutely a mistake. Not only do color cartridges use more ink, but they cost more money to replace. Some things need to be printed in color; I’m not disputing that at all. Customers are frequently impressed by vivid colors. But let’s be honest: A large majority of what you print really doesn’t need to be colorful. Use black-and-white cartridges for documents and images that don’t need to be so eye-catching.

Or, Maybe Some Green Ink

I know this is contrary to what I just said, but using green ink is an effective way to save on ink usage. Correction: Using “green” ink is an effective way to save on ink usage. There is such a thing as eco-friendly ink. It’s called ecofont, and it is available for download.

When the ink is sprayed from the cartridge, there are small holes left in the letters. If the font is at size 11, a standard font size, these holes are invisible to the naked eye. But even though they can’t be spotted, these holes cut down on ink use by a staggering 20-25%. If, for whatever reason, you need to use larger font, this is clearly not the way to go. You’re print will not look at all professional. But the overwhelming amount of documents really don’t require font size over the standard, so why fill in all the holes?

So there really are interesting ways to cut down on the use of ink without interfering with the amount of things you need to print. This is surprising to most people. But as we well know, technology always has, and always will, have the capacity to surprise.