Certainly one of the biggest buzzes in the tech industry today has a lot to do with the idea of ink-saving software. Inkjet printer inks and other printer inks do not always come cheap regardless of the brand, and the spiel for these numerous ink-saving software brands is that they can greatly optimize the use of printer ink, thus resulting in considerable savings for the user.



Different Brands and Types of Ink-saving Software

There are indeed a number of companies out there that are selling their own brand of ink-saving software. Among these products, three do stand out, namely: InkSaver 2.0 by Software Imaging, Ltd.; PlugINKSAVEin by OneVision; and Arkitex by Agfa.

InkSaver 2.0 acts as a buffer between the computer application and the printer. Whenever a printing job is set to order by the computer user, the InkSaver 2.0 dialogue box pops up before the printing job is queued to the printer. Basically, what this ink-saving software does is prompt the user to determine how much ink will be used for the job, measured in percentages.

PlugINKSAVEin works by using a color management system. In this color management system that this ink-saving software uses, the amount of CMY ink that is normally used for a printing job is significantly reduced while the amount of the black ink is maximized, but without sacrificing output quality. The idea behind this ink-saving software is that black ink is considerably less expensive than color ink, and thus, black ink should be used more.

Arkitex is a more specialized form of ink-saving software in that it was designed more for the use of newspapers, publishing houses and desktop publications.

Ink-Saving Software: The Real Deal or Hype?

In as much as there are a number of ink-saving software being introduced to the market lately, and each with its own unique style of supposedly helping the computer user become more efficient in the use of printer ink, the question is this: Do they really work, or is it all hype?

There is always reason to believe that ink-saving software do work in cutting down printer ink usage. However, computer users should not forget that printers already have built-in settings that can help them save on ink. These settings include:

1.Draft printing. Printing jobs do not have to be of the best quality, especially if the document to be printed is just a draft. Best quality printing should be saved for final drafts.

2.Grayscale or black only. Printing in black or grayscale utilizes more of the cheaper black ink than the expensive color ink. Color printing should be used only when absolutely necessary.

Computer users are free to try ink-saving software if they really think they need it. They do work. However, before they shell out money to get their desired ink-saving software, maybe they should consider other means of saving printer ink that have already existed far longer than the idea behind ink-saving software ever did.