Tips For How To Save Money On Printer Toner

Posted on: 17 March 2020

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Having the ability to print on demand in your home or office is the great convenience of having a printer. However, having to buy toner for your printer is likely a pain point you would rather not have to deal with. Here are some tips for how to save money on printer toner.

Buy In Bulk

One of the great things about printer toner is that it is not going to go bad if you do not use it right away. Printer toner is quite different than printer ink, with toner being made out of a ground-up plastic. The toner will not dry up or not work as well because it was simply sitting on the shelf for too long. This means you can save money by purchasing printer toner in bulk. If you know you go through a lot of toner you can get a good deal by buying it in multiples

Buy From a Third Party 

You have some choices about where you can get your printer toner from. You can either buy cartridges made directly from the manufacturer or you can buy one that is made by a third party. You may find that the third party toner cartridges are much more affordable than the ones made by the manufacturer. Just make sure to test a third party cartridge before you buy in bulk. For example, if the quality of a printed image is important to you, it is a good idea to test the third party cartridge by printing some high quality photos. If the quality is good, then consider buying in bulk for next time. 

Reduce Print Quality

Your printer likely has some settings that control how much toner is used for printing. There should be high quality settings for photos and pages that need to look great, and a lower quality setting for drafts. If you value the quantity over the quality of the pages that are printed, consider switching the settings to the lower draft quality. You'll get results that are just as effective, but use less toner and save you money over time. 

Run the Cartridge Until Quality Drops

You should not immediately change a toner cartridge every time you get the low toner warning. Chances are that you can get quite a bit more out of those cartridges until they run out of toner. Take out the cartridge and give it a shake to see if that improves the print quality, even if it is a short while. Every page counts when it comes to saving money on toner.