InkSaver 2.0 Review
By: Michael Phrakaysone
Edited By: Steve M. Silver
Inkjet printers are getting better and better with each new release. Most consumers at home today make the choice of going with the inkjet alternative than the costlier laser solution. One of the reason why is probably initial costs, however since inkjet printers are becoming more advanced with their print quality, most people have run out of ink too quickly, and one of the complaints with inkjet printers are that the ink cartridges cost too much to replace. The most popular alternative way in saving ink has got to be advertised inkjet refill kits. However, refilling ink yourself can be a headache and refills sometimes don’t compare to the manufactures ink quality. I’ve even heard of inkjet refill scares sometimes damaging the printer’s components. Today we review an inkjet saving alternative that comes in the form of a utility that works with 99% of the inkjet printers on the market today, InkSaver 2.0 by Software Imaging Limited.
About Software Imaging Limited
“Software Imaging is the world's largest independent supplier of imaging technologies, printer drivers and related services for the Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and Linux operating system environments.
Software Imaging’s retail division has long been known for its development of retail printing solutions for the Windows and Apple® Macintosh® markets. In particular, our award winning products have included InkSaver, software that lets you control how much ink your inkjet printers uses; PowerPrint, a family of Apple Macintosh printer driver solutions; StyleScript, an Adobe certified PostScript RIP; as well as other printing related products.
Our business roots extend over 20 years and have given us the unique advantage of having a long history and experience in both the retail market.”
Lets get on with this review!
By using InkSaver 2.0, Software Imaging claims that it can save you money and extend the use of your ink cartridge, while maintaining the print quality of your printer. Now what does this mean? Well this means once you have installed InkSaver 2.0 on your system, every time you print there will be no sacrifice in the print resolution of your printer and the costs per page will be lower than if you were using 100% ink quality. Why don’t people just use draft mode you ask. Well in some cases, draft mode sucks. I have an Epson R200 inkjet printer and every time I print out in draft mode it looks very light and faded that I cannot even read what I just printed out. It literally looks like a half-tone image. That is why draft mode is not an option.
InkSaver works by overriding the default controls of your printer intercepting the print before it is going to be printed, while it optimizes ink usage, reducing the amount of ink used in a photo or text document. In some cases it works much better than draft mode and is easier to configure than the software that ships with most printers. InkSaver will reduce ink usage for almost any major printer brand such as Epson, HP, Lexmark, and more. If you typically use more than 2 ink cartridges in a year, Ink Saver will pay for itself before you need to buy another cartridge.
The program
When you install InkSaver 2.0 there will be an icon located on your taskbar every time Windows starts. Thankfully, the program allows you to hide the icon from your taskbar.
The main configuration screen of InkSaver 2.0 looks very attractive and very easy to follow. This program is basically straight forward having only two essential tabs. The first tab is the “Current Ink Settings” where the user can select to what degree of ink reduction percentage they would desire through a slider. The user is able to choose between 0 to 75% ink savings. I have found that 50% still looks better than draft mode and is totally readable printing from my Epson R200. It looks like the original no-ink savings and that is nice to see. You will only tell the difference if you have nothing else to do and inspect the printouts closely. The only difference I can see is that the InkSaver printouts look a little faint than usual.
To the right of the ink savings indicator, we have two printer options. The first option is enabling or disabling InkSaver and the second one is to let the program ask you about whether or not you would like InkSaver to optimize your print job and at what percentage of savings would you like to choose.
A great feature of InkSaver 2.0 is the ability to calculate the costs of savings throughout the year.
The performance of your printer stays the same while using InkSaver 2.0. Your printer always prints out at high resolution but at the same time InkSaver is telling your printer to use less ink.
A nice feature within InkSaver is the “Print Sample Page” function. If you want to get a quick idea of what the quality is within 0, 25, 50, and 75 percent ink savings.
Test Prints
If you look at this roll-over image, you can see that 50% savings text is totally readable. In fact 75% savings text is better than the default "draft" settings for this Epson R200. The color savings is also there too.
You can see the difference of savings; it gets gradually lighter, but resolution stays the same
Conclusion
InkSaver 2.0 from Software Imaging Limited is an excellent program for all users wanting to save ink and their savings. Not only does this program do what was advertised, it does it while helping you know that it is making a difference through savings calculator. It doesn’t make sense printing at high ink settings for emails or texts that are not important, but it does make sense to choose to save money on those print-jobs that are not important. InkSaver allows you to do that with its user friendly and straight forward interface. InkSaver does indeed work and I would not hesitate in recommending this program to anyone. If you think about it, the program will pay for itself in the long run.
Pros and Cons
+ Does what is advertised
+ Does not sacrifice print resolution quality, just throttles amount of ink used
+ Attractive interface
+ Easy to follow, dummy proof
+ Better than draft mode (in my case)
+ Pays for itself immediately
- NONE
Please follow this link to try a free 15-day trial of InkSaver 2.0.
