The
most common printer related complaints
we get are the high cost of ink or toner. Yes, ink can be costly
particularly for people who print in high volume but there are ways to reduce
your printing costs over time. Here, we offer eight money-saving printing tips.
Most of them tried and true, but some have downsides or up-front costs that you
should weigh carefully before implementing them. It's also good to have a
general idea of how much you print every month or even every year (either
personally or for your business), as usage plays into what tips will work for
your particular situation.
If
some of these suggestions seem self-evident, ignore them and be grateful you're
already on the right track. Your no-brainer may be someone else's cash-saver.
Shop
for a printer with a low cost per page. Many
printers have a low price, but when you factor in ink costs, you may be paying
more for them in the long run. Ink or toner costs tend to be inversely
proportional to a printer's price; high-end laser printers often have a very
low cost per page, while budget inkjets frequently have high ink costs. But
even for printers within a given price range, there may be considerable
variation in running costs. It pays to do your research so you don't get stuck with
a printer with inflated ink or toner costs.
Cost per page info Generally
supplied by the manufacturer, based on its most economical ink or toner
cartridges and other consumables with all printer. One caveat: The most
economical cartridges are also the highest-capacity and the most expensive
ones, so although you'll have to change them less frequently than the
low-capacity cartridges, you will have to pay more for them up front. For
instance, replacing a set of color laser toner cartridges can be very costly. And
for inkjets, if you don't print a lot, you may be better off with
lower-capacity cartridges.
Bring
your brochure printing in-house. Some color lasers are capable of printing graphics,
photos, and/or text at a quality suitable for use in basic marketing handouts
or brochures. Buying a high-quality laser or LED-based printer can reduce or
eliminate the need and cost of sending those materials to a print shop.
Investment in such a printer will pay for itself over time and then provide
cost savings, as well as the convenience of on-demand 24/7 printing.
Get
a printer with an automatic duplexer and
use it. Most business printers
sold today and many consumer printers as well include (or offer as an option)
an automatic duplexer, which lets you print on both sides of a sheet of paper.
Several vendors now sell their laser printers with duplex printing as the
default mode. Duplex (two-sided) printing is both eco-friendly and economical, as
it can cut your paper use and costs nearly in half. Just remember, when you do
need to print single-sided documents, to change the driver setting to simplex
printing. It's also important to note that duplex printing is somewhat slower
than simplex printing for a given document, as the duplexer has to flip the
page over to print on the back.
Think (and
look) before you print. You
can reduce clutter and save ink and paper by only printing the material you
actually need. Why print out the four pages of legalese at the end of a bank
statement, or the 242 comments that follow an opinion piece? Do you really want
a hard copy of that 50-page report, or will reading it on screen suffice?
Preview your documents before printing; many documents, particularly webpages,
will print quite differently than they look on screen, often with gaps or blank
spaces within.
Check your printer's software or
driver settings. Most printers come with
a user-friendly software interface that lets you access and tweak many of the
printer's functions. All come with a printer driver a program that controls the
printer, converting files and commands into a format the printer can recognize.
The driver offers a more direct way (and in some cases, the only way) to change
settings, with all the settings accessible through a tabbed interface.
To find the driver, open the Printers page (in some
Windows versions, it's called Devices and Printers) from the Start menu or the
Control Panel, right-click on your printer's name or icon, and open the Printing
Preferences tab.
Whether you work from the software interface or the
driver, our recommendations are the same. Look for an ink-saver or toner-saver
mode. Print in Draft mode except when presentation-quality output is required.
Wherever possible, print in black and white instead of color. If your printer
supports duplex printing, using it will enable you to save paper.
Third-party
inks may save you money but at a cost. Many
third-party companies offer ink cartridges that they claim are compatible with
given printers, at a considerable cost savings from the cartridges offered by
the manufacturers. Although the savings are real, sometimes you'll pay even a
higher price in headaches and also the damages done to the printer. Common
complaints about third-party inks include degraded output quality, leakages of
Ink in printer and the need to frequently clean the nozzles. If you're still
tempted to try third-party inks, do your homework: Do a search on the ink
company and see what other users have said about its cartridges.
Be
skeptical of low-cartridge warnings. Warnings
that a given color cartridge is running low and needs to be replaced often
start well before the ink level is actually a problem. The accuracy of such
warnings can vary greatly between printer brands and models, and you don't want
to waste ink and money by replacing the cartridges too soon. In time you'll
learn whether your printer's warnings are dire or premature. Until then, don't
rush to replace a cartridge, unless you notice degradation in the output
quality, or if you are starting a large and vital print job.
Take
care of your ink and toner. With older ink
cartridges, particulates may come out of solution and clog the nozzles. To
prevent this, don't overstock on ink cartridges so they extend past their
"use by" date. Also, match cartridge capacity to how much you
actually print, to avoid having large-capacity cartridges languish beyond their
time. (It's also a good idea to regularly clean the nozzles—your printer should
have a setting that will clean the nozzles and print out a test sheet.)
With laser printers, toner will
settle over time, causing it to be unevenly distributed on the printed
page, causing faded areas and/or streaking. If your laser print quality is
deteriorating, remove the toner cartridge from the printer and shake or rock it
from side to side five or six times. You may be able to do this several times
before the cartridge actually needs replacing.
Thanks & Regards,
Praveen Gupta
Mobile No: + 91 9212057276
Parsh Infotech Inc.
B-48, Somdutt Chambers-II
9, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066
Phone: + 91 11 2618 6164 (5 Lines)
Fax: +91 11 2610 6163
