Reducing Print Costs: Print Solutions & Hacks to Help You Save Money

Print Solutions That Reduce Paper & Cartridge Consumption

Out of all the expenses that office workers have to deal with, costs associated with printing are among the most expensive. The average employee prints about 10,000 sheets of paper each year, and keeping a steady supply of ink and toner can cost a fair amount of money. Fortunately, there are a few ways you can reduce these costs.

Try out the following office hacks to reduce your printing expenses.

Do a Thorough Review Before You Print

A common reason why paper is wasted in the office is because people make simple spelling and grammatical mistakes. An employee will print out a document, only to discover it can’t be used because some errors were missed. The spell check tool can’t catch every error you make, so make sure you do a thorough review of your work before you print anything.

When printing pages off the internet, make sure you only print the pages you need. Printing out everything will be a massive waste of ink, and it’s likely you only need a few pieces of information anyway. Use the print preview function to make sure you grab the right pages.

Email Invoices & Other Documents

Do you need to send an invoice or some other document to a client? You can save money by emailing these documents instead of shipping them through the post. Not only does this reduce printing costs, it also saves you the need to spend money on the mailing process.

If you need a colleague to review a document, upload it to the cloud so they can access it there. That way, corrections can be made without the need to print out extra sheets of paper. Long story short, if you don’t need to print something out, make sure its stays on the computer.

Utilize Duplex Printing

One of the best ways to cut down printing costs is to print documents using both sides of the paper. You can do this by simply flipping the page around and putting it back through the printer. This cuts paper consumption in half, reducing the amount of times you need to stock up on copy paper.

The best thing about this is that most new printers come with duplex printing functions that handle this process automatically. It’s such a simple process, but it’s one that can save you a lot of money in the long run.

Reduce Ink for Internal Review Documents

When you need to print a document for internal review, there are a few tricks you can take to reduce printing costs. Try these out when you need to review something with coworkers.

First, print documents in black and white, since the cost of restocking colored cartridges is often higher than restocking black cartridges. You also have the option to print your document in draft mode. This lowers the quality of the document slightly, but reduces the amount of ink you use.

If you only need to review the copy, consider removing any images you have for the document you need to print. Images always use up more ink, and having them on your internal review document may not be necessary. Lastly, you can use the multi-page function to fit at least 2 pages worth of copy onto a single sheet.

Shut Down Your Printer Properly

Printing costs don’t just come from the paper and ink cartridges you need to buy. As long as printers are plugged in, they can sap energy from the outlet, even if they aren’t switched on. This is known as vampire power, and it can feed into your electric bill each month.

If you know that no one needs to use the printer on a particular day, power it down and unplug it. If you have an inkjet printer, don’t switch it off directly from the power strip. Doing so might force the printer to rinse out its ink supply, which is wasteful.

The same applies to laser printers as well: make sure they are properly powered down! Doing this will help you run a more eco-friendly office as well!

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