Is conducting a "Print test page" a waste of printer ink?

Printing costs for my All-In-One Epson printer especially when using branded inks is very expensive. Whenever I install new cartridges, I usually conduct a so called Print Test Page via Devices and Printers in Windows Explorer (as is generally advised).

Whilst the amount of coloured ink in the resulting print out appears to be minimal, a considerable amount of black ink is used (in my opinion).

Is there a way to test printer inks, where the resulting print out uses less ink without using this so called "official method" - perhaps by selecting a suitable minimalistic webpage instead ?

3 Answers

I read a blog post post about this, recently

Usually printing google.com is sufficient, as it's colorful enough to check your inks, but won't destroy your wallet

Just direct your browser to Google, and print the first simple page there with the colorful google logo that should show your colors working, and other black text, that will test the black working.

There is nothing stopping you from printing anything else than the build-in test page.^*

You can print a page from the web, or from Open Office, notepad, paint, print a PDF, ... Take any page which has all the features you want to test and just print it.

^* As long as you have a computer (or other device which can print) attached to the printer.

I use a CIS (continuous ink system) for more than one epson printers, and I can tell you for sure, it is the "Head Cleaning" itself that uses the most ammount of ink by far.
The ammount of ink used for a head cleaning, or multiple head cleanings does not even compare to printing an entire page of a colorful print.

If you have spare paper that you have used already, but would throw out, you could print a test page, or a nozzel check, or anything else you want , without fear that it will drain your carts, as much as a head cleaning would.
If your printer uses a nozzel check it would be better than a test page, because it uses every jet in the thing to print. A nozzel check uses a very very small ammount of ink, and can represent all aspects of operation quickly.

Notes: Using CIS or cheap inks does have a tendancy to clog more, and I would not recommend them for minor use (pita it is). I feel it is better to keep your inkjet printer printing a few pages a week, instead of drying out , because of the head cleaning taking so much ink. Always make sure you park your heads/cartrige (turn off) on the printer before pulling the power on it.

Other notes: Even if a nozzel check works, or a test page works, there is no guarentee that the thing will print 10 full color pages after that. It might not be fully "primed" anyway, depending on how it ran out. I do not know enough to state as fact, but there are times after a cartrige change where it can go Dry after printing a few full print pages, and still require a head cleaning to get the ink back down.