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If 10,000 Biters print most documents in draft mode, we'll use 20,000 fewer ink cartridges per year.

COCKTAIL FACT

In 2003, a magazine found that an average ink cartridge costs 7 times more by volume than vintage Dom Perignon champagne.

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home › tip library › Draft Print Setup

What's a draft no one should dodge?

The Bite

The one on your printer. Unless you're printing something superimportant, save ink and paper by using draft mode and, if it's an option, printing double-sided. Who could conscientiously object to that?

The Benefits

Less waste. Each year, the world's discarded cartridges stacked end-to-end could circle the planet 3 times.
Cash savings. It's not rocket science: if you print double-sided, you'll buy half as much paper, plus if you print 100 pages in 50% draft mode instead of regular mode, you'll save as much as $2.
Faster printing. In a PC World test, a typical inkjet printed 12 ppm (pages per minute) in regular mode but cranked out 36 ppm in draft.

Personally Speaking

Cricket wishes she could use draft mode for her paw prints.

Wanna Try?

Set your printer (or print software) to draft and double-sided.
GreenPrint - software that weeds out pages you don't want to print. PC-only ($35).
WriteExpress InkSaver - software that lets you control the amount of ink your printer uses, helping you save up to 75% of your ink. PC-only ($35).
HP Deskjet 6940dt Color Inkjet Printer - does automatic 2-sided printing ($165).

May 17,2007

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All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.

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When Printing Feels Worse than Poison

In the strange litany of the many ways in which I contradict myself constantly, today's tip takes the cake. Inexplicably, I have an almost-miserly feeling about printers and printing. When Jen and I were raising money for Ideal Bite, and we had to print out fancy copies of charts and biz plans to give to people in powerful positions, I would have printed each copy in gray draft mode, if I'd been allowed to. I stealthily set friends' and family members' printers to default draft mode whenever I borrow their machines, and often wonder how long it takes for them to realize it. We all have our "things, and, well, print-efficiency is one of mine.

It's odd to me that the whole printing thing can affect me like a knife in the ribs, while I can sit through an occasional steak dinner without thinking too much about the ramifications of eating grain-fed red meat. I just moved into a new place, and all my lightbulbs aren't yet CFLs, but show me a piece of paper that has a clean back side (perfectly good for creating grocery lists or printing boarding passes) thrown into a recycle bin, and I react much as if I had found a thousand thermometers and 47 batteries in a bucket full of parabens sealed in plastic bags and tossed into a landfill. Give me a buggy printer spitting out multiple copies of the same page, and it incites a "small children are being murdered!!!" panic in me, and I can't scramble to the print feature or the power cord fast enough. (And it really annoys me that the printer doesn't actually STOP when you hit "cancel," taking its time shutting down, like a scalding shower cooling off after you scream and flip it to cold.)

Clearly, I need to switch out those bulbs to CFLs, and thankfully, I AM really lessening the frequency with which I eat meat.

In the meantime, just don't go tossing out any single-sided printing in front of me if you know what is good for you.

-Heather... off to enjoy a last day of meetings in LA...

Biter Comments...

I've been subscribing to your daily e-newsletter for several months and I've enjoyed everything you've written, but I have to send out special thanks for today's bite on printing. I'm a freelance writer and editor, and I sometimes churn out a LOT of printed matter on my computer. I'm fanatical about double-sided printing, and I shred everything possible to USE AS STUFFING FOR THE ECO-FRIENDLY MEDITATION CUSHIONS I CREATE, but honestly, I had never even HEARD of using draft mode when printing. Duh! Where have I been? Anyhow, thank you so much for this bite. It's going to save me a lot of $$$ on expensive ink... Michelle www.michellelynnegoodfellow.blogspot.com

Posted by: Michelle Lynne Goodfellow | May 17, 2007 at 04:43 AM

And it really annoys me that the printer doesn't actually STOP when you hit "cancel," taking its time shutting down... Ah, I know what you mean, and no amount of clicking on "Cancel printing" will do anything to make it stop!

Posted by: Lynn | May 17, 2007 at 04:52 AM

I found the whole Bite piece, and this blog post, WAY off the mark--no discussion of printing costs makes any sense unless it starts with a discussion of the difference between inkjets and laser printers! The cost of laser printing is one to three cents per page, whereas an inkjet print costs at least 15 cents and can easily get up to 50 cents PER PAGE. It doesn't take long to pay for the slightly higher cost of a laser printer.

Posted by: Fred Mindlin | May 17, 2007 at 06:32 AM

Michelle... what an excellent idea for shredded paper! Shredded paper is also great for compost bins. And check your yellow pages for stores that refill inkjet cartridges (look for stores that use machines to fill them, as you will get more for your money!!) or at least donate them to charity so that some good comes from them. I have taken a step back and looked at how wasteful we have been... I am becoming so green so fast that I think I may be frightening my family! Actually, to be honest, they are all really on board! My 11-y.o. has become a strict vegetarian and is our paper police. Nothing gets thrown away unless we are absolutely sure there is no alternative use for it! To others it may seem a bit neurotic, but green really is the right way to go!

Posted by: Lisa | May 17, 2007 at 06:43 AM

Heather mentioned it, but I thought I'd drive home the point of using "scrap" one-sided pages in your printer. I bring home from work piles of one-sided pages printed by mistake, and leave that paper in my printer. The only time I put in clean (and recycled) paper is when it's important. You'd be surprised at how long a ream of paper can last if you hardly use it! And about the printer not stopping when you hit cancel: just pull the paper out until it calms down :)

Posted by: Alison | May 17, 2007 at 07:32 AM

Please excuse my ignorance on this subject but what does draft mode actually mean? Is this something I can set my individual computer at work to do or does the printer itself need to be changed? Can you direct me to some more information? Thanks for all the great tips!

Posted by: Gretchen | May 17, 2007 at 08:03 AM

Thanks so much for this tip. I, too, had never heard of draft mode! You can change the mode by going to your printers folder from Control Panel, select your printer, go to Properties and select "Draft" from the Quality dropdown box. You can also do this individually from the application (Word, etc) when the print dialog box comes up; just go to Properties from there. Hope that helps.

Posted by: Holly | May 17, 2007 at 08:29 AM

Beside my fresh white paper drawer, I also keep a drawer of one side only used paper when printing up stuff I'll soon recycle. For example, directions or recipes off the net. Also, the kids are allowed to use that paper for their art. We always get paper in the mail only printed on one side, or I keep my son's work sheets. etc.etc Chekc out my green blog www.onedropofraincampaign.blogspot.com

Posted by: Monique | May 17, 2007 at 08:45 AM

or at home, when your printer runs out of ink, just NEVER bother to replace it. that saves SO much paper, ink and money. it's going on 2 years now. so if you really need to print something at home THAT desperately you'll do it at work, or at a friend's house. the point is, as far as the printer at home is concerned, unless you've got a business at home, there's very few things that need to be printed that badly.

Posted by: alma | May 17, 2007 at 10:26 AM

Hi, I use fineprint ... it allows you to take out unwanted pages before printing, allows 2-up printing and all the way to brochure, so 4up 8up also supported ... great way to save paper ...

Posted by: Alan Yoshioka | May 17, 2007 at 10:55 AM

I do this! I keep a tray next to my desk and whenever i print something (ALWAYS in draft 1st) i put it in the tray if I dont need it. Then, when doing another test, i flip it over and use the other side! Then, it ends up being a test for my scrapbooking as a template for cutting...then finally in the recycle bin. hey.. i try :)

Posted by: hillary | May 17, 2007 at 01:23 PM

As one of the HP people who actually worked to make the DJ 6940dt more green, I was psyched to see it linked to your tip of the day! I just wanted to say that this printer also has very low power consumption (it meets the new stricter Energy Star rules) so if you do need to print, it is a good choice. But don't print if you don't have to and defintely use draft mode and both sides of the paper for non-"superimportant" (i.e. most of what I print!) print jobs.

Posted by: erin | May 17, 2007 at 05:07 PM

Call me crazy, but Alma's comment doesn't make much sense: "...so if you really need to print something at home THAT desperately you’ll do it at work, or at a friend’s house." Either way, you're using paper and ink, you're just not using your own...

Posted by: the other JB | May 18, 2007 at 09:52 AM

I saw that tip and laughed because that's what i had just done (well not double sided, but on the back of MacBeth questions) and also what i complain loudly (loudly for me=not quite so quiet as usual) about in english class. The excuse is: The school doesn't have a very good photocopier. I wonder how my french teacher/the mayor of the city manages to photocopy things double sided then... for the grad polls i'm trying to get people i know to vote for me for "tree hugger" for female :)

Posted by: Laurel | May 18, 2007 at 04:37 PM

I think the point Alma is trying to get across is that if the printer is there, full of paper and ink, you will probably print more often. If you can only print at work or at a friend's house, you will only print what is necessary. (Kind of like not buying junk food so you're not tempted to eat it... but it's fair game at a party!)

Posted by: Lisa | May 19, 2007 at 05:32 PM

I am militant about double-sided and draft printing, and I have similar reactions to Heather when I see that other people aren't. I'm a grad student, so I have lots of articles to read all the time. I usually read them on my laptop so I waste no paper and no ink, but when I really do need to print one out, I print it on the one-sided paper my boyfriend brings home from his office or I bring home from the library's photocopiers and printers (I've got a big box of it that I will never get through at this rate), I fiddle with the settings until I get two .pdf pages on one actual page, and I print draft-style. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I do this, I'm doing such a good job, right? But then I see all these people at school who print one page per sheet of paper, quality setting, and one-sided! It is so frustrating! I have a hard time telling people that they shouldn't be printing the way they print. I feel so preachy.

Posted by: amy | May 22, 2007 at 07:46 AM

check this one, i think this may help you Inkjet Refills

Posted by: ches | August 07, 2008 at 12:41 AM