One of the more common complaints about ink and toner is the high cost. For those of us that print in high volume, this can be particularly a sore spot when it comes to managing your bottom line. However, there are ways to help reduce your printing costs over time. Here is a collection of tips that offer ways to do just that.
Purchase a printer that has a low cost per page ratio. Often, when printers have a low purchase price, once you factor in the costs of ink or toner, you may actually be paying more for them in the long run. The costs of ink and toner can often be contrary to the price of the printer with higher-end laser printers often having a much lower cost per page while lower end, less expensive printers often have higher ink costs. Aside from functionality of the printer, this can also be due to the yield capacity of the toner or ink cartridges associated with the machine. Even still, the average costs of a printer per machine can vary greatly and doing a little research before your purchase can help prevent being caught with a machine that has inflated ink or toner costs. Here at One Stop Toner & Inkjet we are happy to help you determine your cost per page with any given printer, so when you have narrowed down your potential purchase list, let us work up a comparison for you.
Print your marketing materials in house. There are a number of color laser printers capable of printing graphics and text at a quality suitable for basic marketing hand outs and brochures. Purchasing a higher-quality laser or LED printer can reduce or even eliminate the need for sending marketing materials to the print shop. Over time, investing in a higher-end printer will pay for itself plus has the added bonus of on-demand convenience.
Purchase a printer that offers automatic duplexing. Many of the business printers sold these days offer the option of an automatic duplexer. Two-sided printing will allow you to print easily and often automatically on both sides of a sheet of paper. Many laser printers and multi-function machines sold today come with this feature as standard. Duplex printing is eco-friendly as well as economical, as it cuts your paper use by half.
Think before you print. You may see this phrase at the bottom of emails you receive from the environmentally friendly. It is a short but strong message. A reminder that when you prepare to print something to ask yourself: do I really need to print this document? It is easy to save on ink and toner as well as other printing materials and reduce your waste and office clutter by taking care to only print the documents that you actually need a hard copy of. When you are considering printing a document, take a moment to read through each page to see if there are unneeded or empty pages. Eliminate empty last pages from emails that have information you don’t need like virus scan reports or modify a document prior to printing to reduce the font size, line spacing and gaps to cut down the total number of pages. Select only the pages your need from the printing options and avoid wasting paper and toner or ink.
Tweak your printer’s software settings. Most printers available currently include a user friendly software interface that will give you access to and tweak many of the printer’s functions. You can select any of the available quality options to fine-tune the quality of the documents that you print. Using “economy” settings will reduce the amount of ink or toner that you use. You can also set things like frequency of calibrations and maintenance cycles your printer will run, which will decrease the amount of ink or toner used for these functions.
Use compatible toner cartridges. Many toner and inkjet cartridges are available in compatible or remanufactured options. These cartridges are built or re-built by a third party to the same specifications of the original product but sell at a significant savings over name brand cartridges.
Use your cartridge until it’s empty. Many printers do not actually read the amount of toner or ink that is actually in your cartridge but base the estimated yield on your past printing history. The printer keeps a count of the number of pages your print between replacements and uses that to gage how long the next cartridge will last depending on your printing habits. By printing until the cartridge is empty and not replacing it simply because the warning has come on you will save money on wasted toner or ink left in the discarded cartridge. This same principle applies to imaging drum units that often only need to be replaced once the print quality begins to deteriorate. Refer to your printer’s operation manual for possible counter reset options that will allow you to continue printing until your cartridge is truly spent. It is a good idea however to keep a backup cartridge on hand as this practice can be unpredictable for when your printer will discontinue printing due to an empty cartridge.
Take care of your ink and toner cartridges. Always store your cartridges in a cool, dry place and out of direct sunlight. Most cartridges have a shelf life of one to two years, so keeping a large stock of cartridges that you will not use during that time will increase your chances of having cartridges that will give poor print quality due to degraded toner, ink or mechanical parts. Run a nozzle cleaning cycle regularly for inkjet cartridges to prevent ink from drying and clogging. Toner cartridges that have been in the printer for an extended period can be shaken gently from side to side to re-distribute the toner solution to help avoid print quality issues and extend the life of the cartridge.