Ink saver programmes.

[Arthur]

I am sure this is an old topic but for my benefit please - do they work and
are they worth it?
-
Replace 'invalid' with 'net' to reply.

 

[P-P. Henneken]

I am sure this is an old topic but for my benefit please - do they work and
are they worth it?
-
Replace 'invalid' with 'net' to reply.

Inksaver 2.0 works pretty good IMHO. You can set a preset "saving value" or
let the program pop-up every time when you print something. After installing
you can print a test sheet with some text and graphics and increasing levels
of ink-savings. You can then decide for yourself how much you want to save
(on that particular kind of paper, with that particular resolution setting
and so forth). Very nice.

P-P.

 

[Taliesyn]

I am sure this is an old topic but for my benefit please - do they work and
are they worth it?
-
Replace 'invalid' with 'net' to reply.

I believe these work by reducing the number of dots an inkjet spits out.
Supposedly you shouldn't see a difference, depending on the ink saving
setting you've set it to. I think if you're printing something important
- a photo, CD liners, greeting cards - you need all the dots your
printer can dish out. If it's less important stuff like emails, letters,
notes, kid's projects, then sure, go for it.

I have my own ink saver program. It's called "I Refill My Own
Cartridges." I can now print out entire phone books if need be at no
loss of visible quality and at a cost that's manageable. Instead of
costing me over $125 CAD for a set of new cartridges my cost is
considerably under $10 with a refill kit. (Do not use Universal, works
in all printers type ink!)

-Taliesyn

 

[Gary Tait]

I am sure this is an old topic but for my benefit please - do they
work and are they worth it?
-
Replace 'invalid' with 'net' to reply.

My printer driver has a draft mod,, I used that, and probably might still.

 

[Bob Headrick]

I am sure this is an old topic but for my benefit please - do they work
and
are they worth it?

They do use less ink, but at a cost. The one I looked at basically made
a fine Swiss cheese out of the print. For black a 50% reduction was
tolerable, for color about 25% ink reduction was pretty noticeable. The
downside is that it turns text into graphics, which can make the
printing *very* slow. By comparison, printing in draft mode gives about
50% ink savings at the advantage of faster printing rater than slower.

Regards,
Bob Headrick

 

[HankG]

I believe these work by reducing the number of dots an inkjet spits out.
Supposedly you shouldn't see a difference, depending on the ink saving
setting you've set it to. I think if you're printing something important
- a photo, CD liners, greeting cards - you need all the dots your
printer can dish out. If it's less important stuff like emails, letters,
notes, kid's projects, then sure, go for it.

I have my own ink saver program. It's called "I Refill My Own
Cartridges." I can now print out entire phone books if need be at no
loss of visible quality and at a cost that's manageable. Instead of
costing me over $125 CAD for a set of new cartridges my cost is
considerably under $10 with a refill kit. (Do not use Universal, works
in all printers type ink!)

I have my own 'program' also. It's called draft mode/black only. Use it
for about 99+% of all print jobs. Still working on my original carts (EPSON
CX 6600) since July - August, '05.

HankG

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

I have my own 'program' also. It's called draft mode/black only. Use it
for about 99+% of all print jobs. Still working on my original carts (EPSON
CX 6600) since July - August, '05.

HankG

I use a program called 'Inksaver' that works well for me.

 

[P-P. Henneken]

They do use less ink, but at a cost. The one I looked at basically made a
fine Swiss cheese out of the print. For black a 50% reduction was
tolerable, for color about 25% ink reduction was pretty noticeable. The
downside is that it turns text into graphics, which can make the printing
*very* slow. By comparison, printing in draft mode gives about 50% ink
savings at the advantage of faster printing rater than slower.

Regards,
Bob Headrick

But then again draft looks nowhere near as nice as using Inksaver. Every
text is turned into graphics. All modern consumer printers are GDI devices
with almost no internal intelligence whatsoever. Draft will print faster for
sure, but at a cost: quality.

P-P.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I suppose it depends on which ones for which printers.

There is one, which might be called InkSaver, made in Canada that has
received very good reviews overall. The [programs attempt to find ways
to create patterns that are less ink intensive during printing. This
may involve skipping dots in certain situations, using smaller dots,
using black when the image gets close to black, etc. Most products
allow you to set the degree of ink savings, so you can find at which
place its more than you wish for the quality yo are after.

Some have a free trial product for download so you can see for yourself
before buying.

Art

 

[Bob Headrick]

But then again draft looks nowhere near as nice as using Inksaver.

This is not the case for the printers I have used, mostly HP DeskJet,
Photosmart or all-in-one devices.

Every text is turned into graphics. All modern consumer printers are
GDI devices with almost no internal intelligence whatsoever.

Not at all true, at least for nearly every current HP Deskjet,
Photosmart and all-in-one device. Most (nearly all) of these support an
enhanced PCL and have numerous built in fonts.

The product I tried was Inksaver, probably version 1.0 as it was a year
or two ago. For my use it did not have any advantages I could not get
by using draft mode of using the ink slider in the "advanced" tab of the
driver. The downside was considerably reduced performance.

Draft will print faster for sure, but at a cost: quality.

Draft modes vary greatly from vendor to vendor. As different vendors
make different tradeoffs in the speed/quality curve. I have seen
printers that appear to use only 25% of normal ink in draft mode, for
these cases draft mode may not be suitable for everyday use.

Regards,
Bob Headrick