I am not sure this is really a computer related issue

[randr]

How do you stretch out the ink in a printer?
Every printer I have had seems to start indicating low levels far sooner than actually required, at least for my moderate useage.
On occasion I have removed cartridge and tapped it on a blank piece of paper and this seemed to extend the life. my new HP Photosmart does not respond to this proceedure.
Is it really necessary to replace before you are completely out?

[hobbit709]

1. The printer companies have a vested interest in selling more ink.

The page counters they use often overestimate the amount of ink used per page-especially if you print a lot of text.

[randr]

2. So the little graphic of the ink level is based on paper count?

[hobbit709]

3. They don't actually measure the ink used

They just have a counter that counts how printing you did.