Printing in an office environment is necessary and the costs associated can add up quickly. Printing is one of the biggest uncontrolled expenses in modern office environments, despite the increase in the use of electronic communication. Below are our tips to reduce printing costs.
Font Changes
Different fonts use different amounts of ink. The most common office font, Arial is one of the more ink intensive fonts. By switching to Century Gothic, one of the more conservative fonts, an office printing 250 pages a week could save about $80 a year. Changing font color is another way to combat ink use. By using a dark gray instead of black to print you can reduce your ink usage.
Margins
A simple way to reduce the number of pages printed? Fit more on each page! Do this by making the margins smaller. It’s a simple and straight-forward way to use less paper.
Printing Culture
Establish a printing culture in the office that encourages careful checking and double-checking of every document before printing. Remind employees to take advantage of the print preview tool to make sure pages look correct before printing.
Double-Sided Printing
Cut your paper consumption immediately by setting double-sided printing as the default setting on printers and computers. This more environmentally friendly, not only because you’re using less paper but it also cuts down on energy usage.
Cloud Sharing
Cloud sharing is a great tool to take advantage of in an office environment. By sharing documents through cloud sharing you can prevent the printing, sharing, editing, and reprinting of documents.
Eco-Functions
Enable the eco-function mode on your printer if available. Not only is it better for the environment but it’s better for your wallet as it helps reduce energy usage. You could also encourage employees to include this phrase in their email signature “Please consider the environment before printing this email.”
The Right Machine
If your office requires a range of printing functions you’re better off buying a work-horse machine that supports many of those needs than buying one machine for each type of task which can get costly. Browse the office products offer at Duplicating Products.
Printing Caps
A more extreme measure would be to create printing caps to limit the number of pages an employee can print per day, week, or month.
Even using just a few of these simple tips can get your office on the path to saving money. Check out our blog to see what common printer mistakes you could be making to save even more money. Consider those changes as a long term investment in your office as the changes you make now can impact your money-saving for years to come which means you’ll have more money to dedicate to growing your business!