Ideal Bite

I have been printing in draft mode for years. Not only does it help cut back on waste, it also saves green in your pocket! We recycle our cartridges to help raise money for a local school. I downloaded the GreenPrint software. I can't wait to try it, but I will wait until I HAVE to print something. Thanks for the great tips and for providing links to the software you recommend.

I love to learn, save and be eco-concious. This article did all three for me. I will be using the draft feature from now on. The most popular item I print are coupons, so I have been counter productive in my efforts to save. Learning this tip makes saving money, cartridges and time the perfect solution for me! Thanks Ideal Bite for another invaluable piece of information!

Thanks for the great tip! I am all for saving money when it comes to ink cartridges. I always end up printing pages that I don't need so I am looking forward to downloading the software and saving paper and ink. I recycle my cartridges- I don't have the heart not to!

I love this idea, our household has been printing double sided for about a year and a half now. I saw a dramatic drop in the amount of paper we were using. I wish I would have kept track to see how much we were saving. The low ink light is very deceiving, at first I would change the ink as soon as it came on wow what a mistake!! I decided to let it go as long as possible and found out I was able print an additional 50 pages before I noticed any fading from the ink.

One thing I did about a year ago, was to get rid of the printer that had come with my Dell computer. I had used a Hewlett-Packard printer previously (pretty much wore it out), and it did not take long to realize that the Dell printer guzzled ink like a Hummer drinks gas. I planned carefully and researched to find the HP printer I really wanted, and watched for sales. I finally got the Officejet Pro L7580, which does everything (copies, faxes, prints, scans) for $200 by getting a bargain at a local office supply store and using a coupon they had sent me. Even better, HP will send you postage paid envelopes to mail your empty cartridges to them, in order for HP to recycle. The ink cartridges last 2 - 3 times as long as the Dell ones, and cost considerably less.

For us novice computer users, what is draft mode on a printer?

I have always printed in draft mode and usually double side print. I often save the blank sides of junk mail that I get to print on as well if it is not something really important that I am printing. Another way to save is buy using a laser printer instead of inkjet. They are a little more expensive but totally make up for it in what you save for ink.

I'm the editor of a community newspaper that is mailed to 1500 homes. I will definitely be using this hint in one of our feature columns called "Did You Know?"). Thanks! K.

the guy who got rid of his dell printer and got a new printer. well if you gave the printer to someone else then the ink is still being wasted so the environment isn't helped. if you threw it away then think of the harm to the environment that went into making the discarded printer. the oil and factories producing it and the pollution in transporting it across the world to you. Everyone should stop kidding themselves. saving a little ink, recycling some stuff, is not really going to fix the world. its our disgusting consumerism and our whole way of life that needs to change.

I downloaded the free Greenprint software and love it! I intent to print to a pdf whenever possible, and this makes it easy.