Hi all, I'm the local lurker with a little printer tip. My habit for the last few years has been to take advantage of the advancing marketplace & technology. I have one "serious" printer that I use only for important stuff and one uber-cheap one that I rotate out.

Since a cheap printer is always available now for around $20, it makes more $$ sense for me to buy one with one extra black cart and only use it until it runs out of ink. Then, I donate it to the elementary school and take the tax deduction.

For drafts and non-essential/file copies printing, I always print in grayscale only, which saves a ton of black ink and uses no color.

NEVER run the "clean print heads" option if it can at all be avoided, this requires a significant amount of ink. To correct many printing issues, stick your nose in the compartment and look for lint deposits, carefully pull them out with tweezers or hemostats. Never stick a q-tip or anything fuzzy in there.

Unless you print on a daily basis, do not store paper in the feed tray where it can collect dust which is then carried into the printing mechanism. Keep paper supplies in original sleeves and only load paper as it's needed. Most printers have a door that doubles as the feed tray, keep it closed when possible.

It's much cheaper to put photos on a jump drive and print them at a photo stand in a drugstore or bigbox store. The ink and photo paper are the bread and butter for the suppliers.

LOL, sorry for the lecture! Apparently, I'm passionate about my printing.