Put your hands up if you love wasting money on printer ink. If there’s anyone with their hand raised, then you either have too much money or didn’t hear the question properly. Although emailing and cloud sharing have largely reduced the need for printers in workplaces across the world, there will still be several instances from week to week when you really need something printed on paper. From invoices to a poster in a shop window, printing on paper has its uses and is still necessary in 2020.
While it’s true that we aren’t seeing office workers as much anymore, it doesn’t hurt to get small things like printer costs solved immediately. Read these tips to find out how.
Buy an economical printer
Ideally, you should already have one, but if you’re in the market for a new printer, ensure it’s one with an automatic duplexer. An automatic what, you say? In simple terms, this is a printer that allows you to print on both sides of the paper. This is a huge boost for the environment as you’re using less paper, but it’s very economical as well. Your printer might even allow you to do it now, so check the settings and make sure it’s always clicked on.
Use that Print Preview feature
It’s tempting to just print away to your heart’s content without really checking anything, but if you make use of the Print Preview feature found in Word or Excel settings, you could discover that the pages don’t quite look right before printing. This might save you a load of ink and paper, especially if it’s a 50-page document.
Consider third-party inks
We typically keep buying the brand that we know and love, which in the printing world is names like HP and Canon, for example. But in terms of ink cartridges and toners, we don’t necessarily have to buy from the same names over and over. Third-party inks are often far cheaper and work just as well, even if some people have complained about worse quality or ink jamming in the nozzles. Check out this site to see if your printer make and model is available and find out if the price is a lot more affordable for a third-party option. You just might be pleasantly surprised when you compare the online prices to that of the high street.
Embrace print management software
Employees using the office printers to print out their boarding passes and concert tickets might not be a huge concern for small businesses, but when the personnel is in the hundreds, it’s going to be an issue! Employees not using the printers for work-related items is a big waste for the company, but print management software can help alleviate the problem. The software can track all the printer tasks in the office so you’ll be aware of who is using it for which task.
This type of software also helps to stop people from printing out the same document numerous times! It’s easy to click ‘print’ a few more times than necessary, but print management software means you can physically interact with the printer using your ID number and select which tasks should be cancelled and which should indeed be printed.
