Choosing the right amount of ink to buy can be challenging. With larger quantities come better prices per milliliter, but if you buy too much you might be stuck with more ink than you can use. We recommend buying not more than 2 years worth of ink to ensure your ink is fresh and performs properly.
On average, 1mL of ink covers approximately 1 square foot of paper when printing in higher quality modes. Note that this is 1mL in total, across all color combined, so for a 4-color printer, we can expect an average of 1/4mL per color per square foot. However, it also important to understand that ink is not just consumed by printing. A portion of your ink will go towards maintaining the printer. If we compare your printer to your car, ink is not just the gas used to get you places it’s also the oil to keep the engine running smoothly. In general, printer maintenance will consume anywhere between 5% to 50% of your ink, depending on the printer and how often it’s used (less use = more ink going towards maintenance).
If you primarily print documents, like on a Brother Desktop printer, you will use approximately 1/20mL of ink per letter sized page. So, if you print 30 pages a week, you will need approximately 3mL of ink per week or about 150mL per year, factoring in maintenance. This makes smaller bottles are ideal for the average printer.
For those who print photos, like on a Canon Pro-300 printer, ink usage will be higher, typically around 0.5-1mL of ink per print. At that rate, even just printing 15 photos per week, you will need approximately 14mL of ink or 750mL per year, so buying kits with 120mL - 250mL bottles makes sense.
For large format printers, like the Epson SureColor P6000 printer, printing large posters (24” wide +), ink usage will be much higher, up to 4mL per poster or even more depending on just how large the print is. This means if you print about 20 posters per week, you will need approximately 80mL of ink per week or 4L per year. Printing large posters can quickly use up your ink supply, so it's essential to keep track of your ink levels and have a keep some extra ink on hand.
Ink usage can vary a lot depending on what you print and how often so consider your application and how much maintenance the printer will do to inform your decision on how much ink to buy. At InkOwl, we are proud to support most inkjet printers, from home-and-office models all the way up to commercial printing! If you would like personalized advice on how to best save on your printing costs, do not hesitate to contact us!
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