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Tips and Techniques | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A Few Tips for Printing |
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We are repeating a previously published Tips and Techniques page which offers some tips for printing, including how to conserve expensive inkjet printer ink and tree-killing paper, modify some options for printing, and how to control the Windows XP and Vista print queue. Conserving Printer Ink Do you wonder why replacement ink cartridges for inkjet printers are so expensive? It's not just the cost of the ink inside. It's that most cartridges also include a new print head, manufactured with very tiny nozzles to dispense precise amounts of ink, and the electronics to control the process. They are expensive, but there are some ways that you can conserve your ink. You can print documents that don't have to look perfect in draft mode, which uses less ink than normal printing mode. To do this, find and click the printer "Properties" button in your application's print dialog. Find a tab or option that lets you set print quality, and choose the "Draft" or "Fast" setting. Another way to save the more expensive color ink is to set the black and white option for draft documents that would normally print in color. However, if your printer supports a "Grayscale" setting, it actually uses color ink to produce shades of gray, so you may be better off printing in all black. Also, to conserve ink and paper, you should print only the pages you actually need from emails or other files. Most applications allow you to specify a range of pages to be printed. If you have a Print Preview option, use it to determine the actual pages you need, or you may be able to modify your formatting to fit the document onto fewer pages. Printing Web Pages You can save ink and paper when printing Web pages from your Web browser by using your mouse to select by highlighting only the portion of the page that you need to print. Then, click the browser's Print button or select Print under the File menu, and choose "Selection" under Page Range or Print Range. Another technique for printing only a portion of Web pages or email messages is to use your Word Processor to edit the data and delete the unnecessary portions before printing. Select the portion that contains what you want to print, the choose Copy from the Edit menu. In your Word Processor, choose Paste from the Edit menu. Then delete blank lines or whatever you don't need to print. You can also change font sizes to further reduce the amount printed. This technique is especially handy for printing the documents you receive when buying airline tickets or making other online reservations or purchases. How to View and Cancel Print Jobs Windows uses a queue to prioritize and control the work waiting for printers attached to the system. You can access this queue to view jobs waiting to be printed, and to delete jobs that should not be printed, for example a document you printed by mistake or one you printed too many times. You can only do this before the document is actually sent to the printer's output buffer, which usually happens immediately if there is no other document being printed. To open the print queue, look in your System Tray on the lower right corner of the screen for a printer icon, and double-click it. If you don't have a printer icon, click Start, then Control Panel. In XP Category view, click Printers and Other Hardware, then click "View installed printers or FAX printers". In Vista Category View, click Printer under Hardware and Sound. In Control Panel Classic View, double-click the Printers or Printers and Faxes icon. Then double-click the icon for the printer you want to change the print queue for. If you see print jobs listed, you can delete them all by clicking the Printer menu, and selecting Cancel All Documents. Or, you can delete individual jobs by selecting them, right-clicking, and selecting Cancel. You will also see menu options to Pause/Resume or Restart print jobs. Often, deleting all outstanding print jobs is all that is needed to solve the problem of a printer that has stopped working. In some cases, you may need to reboot your system after doing this. What About Remanufactured Inkjet Cartridges? You can save some money by looking on the Web and buying what are known as remanufactured ink cartridges. These have been cleaned and refilled with new ink. I do not recommend buying these. They may leak and damage your printer, and your print quality may suffer since the original manufacturer intended for the print heads to be used with only the original amount of ink. It is better to conserve your ink using some of the techniques above, and buy new cartridges when you run out. Some printer software gives premature warnings about low ink levels, so you can often continue printing long after you start getting these warnings.
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