How to Fight Back Against Lying Printers
Printers are pieces of hardware that are extremely useful in any home or office. The problem is, however, that printers don’t always work as they should. In fact, if you take a quick peek on the Internet, you’ll find millions of reports of printers acting up in various ways. Perhaps one of the biggest problems that people encounter with printers is that they lie, presenting misleading information to consumers and printer users like you and me. In this article, we’re going to take a deeper look into the matter of lying printers, covering topics like how printers lie to you, why they lie, and what you can do to fight back!
How can a printer lie to you
The question that’s probably on your mind is; “how the heck can an inkjet or laser printer lie?” Well, there are many ways that a printer can lie to you and most of these have to do with ink levels and print quality. The most common problem that people face when it comes to lying printers is that the printer misrepresents the ink levels left in the cartridge. If you have ever experienced a time when your printer unexpectedly refuses to print because it says that ink levels are low, then you’ve encountered a classic tale of lying printers. Sometimes, you expect a cartridge to last much longer than it should, but your printer simply won’t allow you to print because it says there isn’t enough ink.
Another common problem that people face is that printers lie in their print quality. Some printers in the market make print outs that are brighter and more vibrant than the actual picture or image file. Prints are made to look more lively than “real life”, presenting inaccurate print outs.
Why do printers lie?
The simplest answer to this question is that printers lie because it benefits the manufacturer. Most of the problems that you encounter with lying printers are programmed or designed that way to produce more favorable results for the
manufacturer. Let’s take the ink level problem, for example. Did you know that printer manufacturers make much more money on a inkjet cartridges than on the actual printers themselves? Some printers have been found to waste up to 20% or even over 60% of the ink in printer cartridges, because manufacturers want consumers to buy more cartridges. As for the print quality issue, HP’s marketing manager Thom Brown said it best when he stated, “We tune for what the customer wants, not for accuracy.” In other words, some manufacturers program their printers to produce brighter and richer print outs, because that’s what the customer usually wants.
Fighting back against lying printers
So, now that you know a little more about how and why printers lie, you can start taking some action against your lying printer. Here are some things you may be able to do to prevent your printer from lying to you:
- Some printers allow you to turn off ink level sensors through the “Printer Preferences” window.
- On some cartridges, you can cover the sides of your cartridge with electric tape to make your printer think the cartridge is still full.
- You can also tweak your print preferences, color balances, and image properties to produce a more accurate print out of images and photos, and to save on toner when using laser printers.
The best thing to do is to search the Internet for advice for your specific printer model to ensure that what you do won’t cause harm or damage to your printer.
You should buy replacement printer cartridges from a reputable online merchant who sells refillable cartridges or generic cartridges which are fully compatible with the manufacturers’ own brand replacements. LaptopsForLess.com has a huge selection of replacement cartridges in stock, at very reasonable prices [often a fraction of the cost of manufacturers’ own brand replacements].
