Tips On Spending Less On Printing While Getting Better Results

By Adriana Noton

Whether for personal use or for business, the cost of printing documents can amount to a huge expense. Brand new ink and toner cartridges are very expensive. When looking to cut costs, there are a number things you can do to reduce printing expenses without having to lower the quality of the printed document.

Below are a number of tips on how to spend less on printing while getting better results:

1. Purchasing ink or toner cartridges as well as printing paper in bulk can result in substantial savings. There are many manufacturers and wholesale suppliers that sell bulk office items such as ink and paper at a much lower cost than if you were to buy each individually. You should also consider purchasing the much less expensive generic ink or toner. This is especially helpful when printing documents that do not require high quality printing output because sometimes the quality may not be as good as brand name ink and toner.

2. If you print a large volume of documents and use a laser printer, look for what is known as high yield toner cartridges. These cartridges have an increased longevity as they produce more documents such as 5000 documents (depending on what type of cartridge you buy.) The quality of the print is also excellent. Often the higher yield you buy, the less per page it costs to print. For example, monochrome laser printers are quick and cheaper and they produce quality documents for only a few pennies for each page.

3. If you require a printer for a small volume of documents such as less than 250 pages, consider doing your printing in-house instead of contracting it out to a printing company. This will save you a lot of money. Make sure you have a quality brand name printer for the printing job.

4. For text documents that do not have any graphics, use draft-quality printing. You just have to set the printer's driver-settings dialog box to draft mode and you will conserve ink. However, the quality may not be the best. Also, turn off the color ink when you do not need it.

5. If you want to save on printing paper, you can print on both sides of the page. Only use the high quality professional paper for important documents. The cheaper paper can be used for printing documents where a professional appearance is not required. For instance, printing off research documents or memos to staff.

6. Proofreading before you print will cut down on wasted ink and paper. You will save money by not printing the same document again because of errors you found after printing.

7. Ask for discounts from your printing provider. If you print a high volume of documents on a weekly or monthly basis, a good printing provider will offer discounts in order to keep your business.

During difficult economic times, everyone is looking for ways to tighten their budgets. Adopting practical ink and toner conservation practices will ensure that you are making the most out of your ink or toner without affecting the quality of the printed document. - 29854

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