How to reduce your printing costs without forfeiting quality

Even in today’s increasingly paper-free world, printing is a necessity in nearly every office. Often an expense that most business owners and managers try to reduce and even eliminate, it’s key not to overlook the effects on print quality. Follow these tips and you’ll find it easy to reduce your printing costs without forfeiting quality.

Print more than one page per sheet

It goes without saying that using both sides of a sheet of paper will dramatically lower your printing costs by 50%.  You can easily do this by going into the settings of the document you want to print and selecting the number of pages to print per sheet. Most laser printers will also allow you to select duplex in the options menu so you can easily print on both sides. Try sticking to 2 pages per sheet and the document should remain clear enough for all to be read.

Try limiting your use of color ink

Color ink is extremely expensive in comparison to plain black and white ink. Make sure your colleagues are aware that they should only print in color if absolutely necessary. If not, all documents should be printed in grayscale by default. Making this simple switch will lower your print bills drastically. 

Use print preview

It’s easy to go ahead and click the print button straight away without thinking about how the document will look when it is on the printed page. But we’ve all probably been in that situation when you press print only to see the document has just one line of text at the top or has even printed in an unreadable format. It is a huge waste of paper and ink, but while this mistake is easy to make, it’s just as easy to rectify.

By using print preview, you’ll be able to see how the document looks on the page before you press print, so any changes you need to make to its formatting can be done beforehand, without wasting any paper or ink. A quick and easy solution, you’ll find that using print preview will save you plenty of paper and ink, reducing your costs and improving print quality in the long run.

Print by selection

If you’re printing from the web, make sure to print by selection. Printing by selection will allow you to print just the relevant paragraph, map or calendar that you need. It will also allow you to avoid wasting paper on excessive documents that will later go straight into the trash. This is also particularly helpful if you need just a small section of a long spreadsheet and don’t want to print the whole document.

There are plenty of web browser applications that you can download directly to ensure you’re not overprinting web-based documents.

Print in draft mode

While printing in draft mode might be seen as a lower-quality option, it’s really useful when it comes to printing black and white documents with text. This is a great option for printing documents for internal use only. If you just need handouts for a meeting or any other document for employees, it is worth setting your printer to draft mode so that you’re not unnecessarily wasting ink or paper.

Shut down the printer correctly

Get into the habit of switching off your printer properly. Making sure your inkjet printer properly shuts down is key when saving money on ink. Don’t switch off your printer at the socket. If your inkjet printer is disconnected from the power outlet, it will reinstall itself when switched on again. This might mean the printheads need to be rinsed, using up plenty of valuable ink. Try following your printer’s exact shutdown procedure to ensure it doesn’t completely reinstall itself and consume more ink than necessary.

However, if your office uses a laser printer instead, it is worth noting that these devices use up much more power when in idle mode - another reason to make sure you shut down your printer correctly when not in use. In short, whether you have an inkjet or laser printer, it’s important to switch it off correctly to avoid wasting either ink or power.

Invest in the right kind of printer

As the owner or manager of a business, you’ll be well aware of the sometimes high and frequent costs that come with investing in equipment. While it can be tempting to make easy savings, don’t skimp on purchasing high-quality printers.

If you’re expecting to print at a fast rate and high volume, it’s advisable to select a more premium model to ensure that it can handle the level of usage your office requires. Avoid cheap inkjet printers which will likely have limited performance and range resulting in a need to replace them and spend more money. Equally, cheaper models tend to malfunction more easily due to being poorly made or unable to cope with higher demand.

Use a managed print service

Outsourcing the management of your printer pool allows experienced professionals to optimize your printing costs. A managed print service will endeavor to thoroughly understand your organization’s printing needs and implement a well thought out strategy that helps you get more for your money.  When managed properly, you’ll find that your printing costs are reduced and made to run much further than before.

How can Coordinated help reduce the costs of your printing?

Coordinated Business Systems offer plenty of print solutions to help save your business valuable time and money. We can optimize your office printing by a combination of MPS offerings, SmartPrint and CartridgePlus.

Our SmartPrintTM Managed Print Services will allow your business to make significant savings by implementing a simple, low cost per print program.

Allowing professionals to take care of your office printing will save you plenty of valuable financial resources in the long run as well as optimize your print quality at the same time. Coordinated Business Systems will help you reduce your print costs without forfeiting print quality.