I have come across this little trick to save ink in printers, and I have been using it for so long, that it is habit. Try it out and see if it works out for you. Not only will it use up less ink (and save you money), but the prints will come out much faster too.

By default, when you print something, it usually does not chose the draft option, as shown highlighted in yellow:



If you click the draft selection, it will use about half the ink (depending on manufacturer). You do have to click OK, and apply on the print screen before you print.

Chances are, it will revert back to text or text & image every time, so you may have to change it every time. In the short amount of time that it takes to make the changes, you will save in the ink and printing time.

If you have any questions about your specific printer, please post in the hardware forum, with your make and model number, and I will walk you through the options.

Being cheap myself, I appreciate this tip!
I set (by default) to print in Black and White, further saving ink. Rarely will anything need color (except the occassional photo)
I set it in Control Panel / Printer / Properties
By the way, most printer manufactures use Color and Best (or high Quality) as the default settings...since they also sell the ink, you can figure out why they use those settings! (you can also figure out why they give away printers so cheaply...free after rebate in many instances)

Good tip! Very readable output and (at least with a Canon i550) it prints much faster. But why can't I instruct this dratted machine to always print in draft and always print in reverse order unless I tell it otherwise????

Those are great questions, twinsdad.

The first one is easy. They do not want you to. It can be done, with a registry edit, that a new default will be set, so that you do not have to change it to draft everytime. After the first few times, I would still check to make sure that the setting is still the way you want it. I can help you out with that, is you can help me out with a few of these:

Is the exact make/model number Canon i550?

What version of Windows are you running?

Do you know how to post a screenshot?


The next one is a little tricky. I would have to find the exact entry in your registry that will enable that feature. I am sure that it can be done though.


Edited: I did not know that you already started another thread on this. A link to it is here, and a copy of this message is placed there also.