Printing costs, no matter how small, can amount to a massive expense in the long run. The most eco-friendly, economical advice to keep printer and printing costs down is to not print at all—if it’s not necessary to have something printed out, then don’t. Of course, there are legitimate reasons for printing, so when you can’t avoid it, do the following to save on your printing costs.
Buy online and use voucher codes at check out
Buying your printer toner and cartridges online is by far cheaper than at a regular brick-and-mortar store. Not only that, places like 365ink, which have an online presence, also offer voucher codes that you can use when you check out and get even more off the retail price. So by buying online, you can ensure that you make double the saving.
Buy compatible ink and toner cartridges
Purchasing compatible ink and toner cartridges lets you have comparable print quality to branded cartridges but at a much lower cost—as much as 50% to 70% less. You can also purchase recycled or refurbished original cartridges at a fraction of the price of new branded cartridges. There are many ink retailers that offer various kinds of compatible cartridges for different printer models, so you don’t have to worry about where to source the ink and toner you’ll need.
Preview before you print
Checking the preview before printing lets you determine exactly which pages you can do without and also proof-read your documents. By doing so, you avoid costly reprints due to errors. When printing webpages, you can choose to print only the sections or pages that have the content you need. You can also opt for the printer-friendly version of the page, which removes unnecessary images and ads.
Print fewer pages
Saving on printer costs also means cutting back on paper consumption, and one of the ways you can do this is by printing fewer pages. Here’s how to accomplish this:
• Print documents on both sides of the paper by enabling your printer’s duplex printing mode. By doing so, you cut the amount of paper you use by 50%.
• Decrease page margins and do away with double-spacing unless absolutely necessary.
• Decrease your font size and use economical, lighter font types, such as Calibri or Century Gothic. A reduction of one or two points off your font size will not sacrifice readability with these types and it will use up less paper as well. Refrain from using boldface, strikethroughs or underlines in documents as well as big headers unless necessary.
Print in black and white or grayscale
Colour ink cartridges cost more than black ones, so by printing in monochrome you can keep your printing costs down. Internal documents and reports don’t require colour logos, charts, images, headings and graphics all the time. If you are printing a document that mostly consists of text, make black and white the default setting on your printer. If it has a few images, you can choose to print the document in grayscale, which only uses the black cartridge.
Print in draft mode
When assessing your output requirements, you’ll find that most of the documents don’t even need to be printed at the highest quality. For these, printing in draft quality would be to your advantage, as you don’t use up too much ink and toner, therefore saving on your printer costs. Reserve the high-quality printer settings for documents and other materials that require it. Printing in draft mode is also faster.
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