Printing costs have a habit of creeping up without you noticing — a cartridge here, a ream of paper there. But with a few straightforward habits, you can use significantly less ink, reduce paper waste, and avoid the reprints that eat through both. None of this requires buying new equipment or compromising on quality where it matters.
Use Draft or Economy Mode for Everyday Documents
Most printers offer a draft, economy, or fast mode that uses noticeably less ink per page. For internal documents, notes, reference prints, or anything you're just going to read and discard, this setting produces perfectly legible output at a fraction of the ink cost.
The key is being deliberate about when you switch it on and off. Set draft mode as your default for everyday printing and switch to standard or high quality only when the output actually needs to look its best — presentations, photos, client documents, and so on. A lot of people do this the wrong way round, printing everything at full quality and wondering why their cartridges run out so quickly.
Print Double-Sided as Standard
If your printer supports duplex (two-sided) printing, turning it on by default is one of the simplest changes you can make. It immediately halves your paper consumption, which adds up quickly in a household or small office that prints regularly. Most modern inkjet printers support duplex either automatically or manually, and the setting can usually be made the default in your printer preferences so you don't have to think about it each time.
Choose the Right Paper
Cheap, thin paper is a false economy. It absorbs ink less consistently, which can lead to smudging, bleed-through, and prints that don't look as intended — meaning reprints, and more ink used. Good quality inkjet paper holds ink on the surface more effectively, producing better results with the same amount of ink.
For everyday documents, a standard 80gsm inkjet paper is fine. For anything involving colour, images, or anything you want to keep, stepping up to a slightly heavier or coated sheet makes a visible difference and often means you don't need to reprint.
Keep Your Printer Maintained
A poorly maintained printer wastes ink in ways that aren't always obvious. Partially blocked print head nozzles cause streaky or uneven output — which leads to reprints. Incorrectly seated cartridges can cause the printer to cycle ink during cleaning operations. And leaving a printer unused for weeks at a time can cause nozzles to dry out, requiring multiple cleaning cycles to restore print quality.
A few simple habits help: print a test page every couple of weeks if you don't print regularly, run a cleaning cycle at the first sign of streaking rather than waiting until output degrades significantly, and always install cartridges properly. Our guides for cleaning HP ink cartridges and cleaning Canon ink cartridges walk through the process in detail.
Use Genuine Ink Cartridges
Compatible or refilled cartridges can look like a saving upfront, but the total cost picture is often less favourable than it appears. Cheaper inks tend to have lower page yields than stated, can produce output that prompts reprints, and in some cases cause nozzle clogging that requires cleaning cycles — each of which uses ink. There is also the warranty consideration: most manufacturers can decline warranty claims where damage is attributable to non-genuine consumables.
Genuine cartridges from HP, Canon, Epson, and Brother are formulated specifically for each printer model and deliver consistent page yields. Where available, XL versions offer a lower cost per page than standard cartridges — worth considering if you print regularly.
Recycle Empty Cartridges
Recycling won't reduce what you spend on ink, but it's worth mentioning here because it's part of getting full value from every cartridge you buy. Empty cartridges going to landfill represent wasted material that could be recovered and reused. At Crazy Kangaroo, every HP or Canon ink order includes a free prepaid recycling bag — just fill it with your empties and drop it in the post. You can also download a free Freepost recycling label at any time for any brand.
Preview Before You Print
One of the most wasteful printing habits is sending a document straight to the printer without checking how it will come out. A quick look at print preview takes seconds and can save you from printing a twelve-page document where the last page contains only two lines, or discovering that a table has been cut off at the edge of the page.
It sounds obvious, but making print preview a habit — particularly for longer documents or anything with complex formatting — eliminates a significant source of avoidable reprints.
