Today, the youth is becoming more and more computer literate and they are getting younger and younger. Eventually they will need to create documents and projects for school, which means they will need to use the printer. This can be a scary, and sometimes daunting task for a parent. A printer has a lot of moving parts and external components such as printer ink cartridges that can poses a greater chance of accidents for younger children. It is imperative to teach your child how to properly use your home printer to avoid any possible mishaps. The main thing you need to stress even before teaching them the functionality of the printer is that it is an electrical device and is plugged into a sock; therefore it comes with the same dangers as other things that are plugged in.

Here are a few tips to get your child familiar with the printer:

1. Teach your child what each of the buttons on the printer does. This will decrease your child’s curiosity and lessen the chances for wasteful printing or messes. If your child is just beginning to read, refer to the icons and symbols on the printer. Get them to repeat when each one is used
2. If you have a newer printer model with a display, scroll through the menu and show your child which icons are for adults and which are for kids.
3. If your child is old enough to load paper or change out printer ink cartridges, show them exactly how to secure the printer ink and what amount of paper to load. This would be a good time to teach them about paper jams and how they can greatly damage the printer. Most printers have arrows and other symbols to explain the proper direction and amount of paper to load or where to put the printer ink cartridges.
4. If your printer has a scanner or other additional features, be sure to teach your child what they are and when they are used.
5. Show your child where the print menu is in a text document. Explain what the “preview” feature is and how to read the page.
6. Go over each of the printing options including: print size, number of copies, which pages to print, etc.This will help cut down on excess printer ink usage.
7. Leave instructions for what your child should do in the event that there is some type of error of malfunction with the printer. Let them know that if a problem were to occur that it is not their fault as printers can be very tricky and complicated to use, especially for someone their age.

As your going over the function of the computer, you should also establish rules and limitations for printer usage. Some parameters could be to limit their usage to only when supervised or limit the amount of copies they can make. Proper instruction from the beginning will ensure your child is capable of using the printer with minimal difficulty. You should also keep in mind that your child could be learning something different at school, so you need to establish an open channel of communication. It is a good idea to ask them what they already know and how much exposure they’ve had to operating the printer. You may find out that teaching your child to use your printer is as easy as showing them how it compares to the one they already use at school, which will save you big on printer ink cartridges refills.

Recently, I’ve been talking a lot in my articles about how to cut costs at the printer. I just wrote about the font Century Gothic, championing it as the most eco-friendly font because it uses the thinnest character, and thus, the least ink. When I was writing that article, I wish I had come across this new font idea.

This idea is called Ecofont, and it can be downloaded free online. I want to say upfront, I am in no way affiliated with Ecofont or its makers, I just think it’s a great idea. Plus, Ecofont is totally free, so I wouldn’t have anything to gain from promoting it anyway. This article should be treated as an simple of piece of information for anyone with high ink bills who would like to cut expenses.

Ecofont is based on Verdana, the familiar font available in MS Word. It has a slight twist, however, that makes it far more economical. Every letter written with Ecofont has holes of white space within the confines of the letter. This reduces the total ink usage per letter an average of 20%. Every single letter printed with Ecofont, if examined up close, somewhat resembles a piece of swiss cheese.

This swiss-cheesery is hardly visible though. The font is still readable even at size 18, which is the first point at which the holes become very visible. Reduced to a normal size 12, the only dscernable difference between plain Verdana and Ecofont is a slight blurriness on Ecofont’s part. That, and a 20% reduction on ink costs of course.

This is equal to using 20% less words when you write your sentences or cutting out 20% of your final draft of a report. Those two options are hardly viable if the writing is to be preserved, but changing to Ecofont is an easy fix that does the same thing.

Although Ecofont is somehow totally un-challenged in this particular arena, at least for now, it’s unlikely to remain unchallenged (or free) for long. There’s another software package called Preton Saver that offers pixel-saving measures in graphics, photos and a variety of text, but it’s definitely not free. It does allow a free trial though, so it might be worth checking out to see what kind of savings are possible.

I like inkcartridges.com for all my cheap ink cartridges needs.

Ink for my Canon MX310 runs around 24 bucks for 13 mL of ink. A little math reveals that each mL costs around 1.80, or an astounding $1,800/liter.

Ink is part a higly lucractive business for the printer manufacturers called captive-product pricing. Companies like HP, Epson and Brother make very small margins on the sale of their printers because they make back their profits selling compatible ink.

Any profitable brand name lures counterfeiters and fakers. Similar to the infamous trickery associated with fake Coach bags and Rolex watches, there’s been a recent assault of fake printer ink cartridges.

These fake ink cartridges are far more insidious than a fake Rolex watch, however, when you consider that these counterfeit ink cartridges are prone to leaking, explosion, illegibly smudged pages and ink jams. This often puts consumers out of not only the cost of the fake ink cartridges, but the cost of a new printer after their old one is ruined.

These fake ink cartridges end up in our stores after being manufactured in China, the Philippines or Malaysia, places with cheap production means. They are generally distributed to midsize ink cartridge dealers who unwittingly sell them to consumers. The use of midsize ink distributors makes the sales very difficult to trace, especially when an individual has trouble with a counterfeit ink cartridge and wants to track down the source.

Relatively infrequent in the United States, authorities in Latin and South America estimate that current counterfeit ink cartridge penetration on the market is around 50%. The values in the US are more along the lines of 5%.

The best way to avoid this plague is to buy from a licensed distributor or a reputable third-party distributor. They usually sell recycled and refilled OEM cartridges. Their margins are lower and aren’t necessarily branded, so the counterfeiters aren’t making fakes for them (not yet at least).

If you got brand name ink at a significant discount, you should check the packaging and ink cartridge itself for anything that looks out of the ordinary like misprinted labels or weak seams.

Try inkcartridges.com for good deals on cheap ink cartridges.