Although there’s a move for paperless business operations by sending and using documents digitally, businesses still need to print plenty of documents each day. By doing these steps, you are not only saving money, but also the environment.
- Use laser printers: Your business should use more laser printers for casual printing tasks. With laser printers, you can print many pages with lower costs per page. Costs of laser printers are upfront and you can save money eventually in the long run. When you print 1,000 pages with inkjet printers, the cost will be five times more compared to laser printers.
- Print text only: One easy way to convert document into a text-only format is by copying the document and pasting it on Windows Notepad. Open the text file on Microsoft Word and make any necessary improvement. You can do this with webpages, PDF pages, Word documents and others. This way, you can print out important information and save color toner.
- Check with Print Preview: If you don’t use Print Preview, you may find that some parts of the document are cut off with poor formats. Even if you want to print a single page, you should always use Print Preview, so you don’t need to repeat printing, due to some mistakes.
- Send documents through email: Instead of sending printed documents through regular mails or couriers, you can send them through email. Another solution is cloud storage, file sharing websites, shared intranet and USB flash drive.
- Scan existing documents: If you have received a printed document from other companies, you should scan it for further distribution. Many employees simply use the copier feature of the printer and send copies to various departments. Scanned documents can be sent through email for internal distribution and you will save a lot of paper.
- Ignore the low-toner warning: When low-toner warning lights up, there could be about 30 percent of toner left in the cartridge. It’s only a warning that you should be prepared right now and you don’t need to replace it immediately. However, you should still be careful not to let the toner dry.
- Don’t let cartridge dry out: Cartridge will dry out, if you don’t use it often. You need to keep your cartridge fresh and you should print at least once each week. Immediately replace the cartridge if the printed document fades visibly. When you get the low-toner warning, it is a good idea to shake the toner. This will activate any remaining toner in your cartridge and you should get more than a few extra passes for printing. Give your cartridge a good shake and you will save some money.
- Turn off your printer properly: If you don’t shut off the printer properly, you can damage the unit. When you shut off the power strip, printer heads won’t rest on the proper place. You should always hit the power button and you will notice it takes some time for the printer to adjust its head.