No matter whether you’re working from home or at the office, your business will occasionally still need a printer for some urgent document.
Email and cloud sharing notwithstanding, there’s sometimes a need for someone to sign a contract or perhaps you need to put up a notice. Whatever the reason, make sure you don’t end up making the following common printing mishaps that cost you more money!
Not checking the file format
While most images are .jpg or .tiff, your colleague may have sent you a .png or .gif image to print out. These latter file types are okay for viewing on a computer screen or phone, but there’s a huge loss of image quality if printed. If you’re printing something out for a client, they won’t be satisfied if you use .png or .gif so you’ll have to print it again, thereby wasting ink and paper. After all, you’d want to lower your printing footprint, right?
Not checking the settings for printing colour or black and white
One of the biggest mistakes that wastes a lot of ink is printing an image in colour when it should have been black and white. Even though printer ink is really easy to find if you shop online, we still shouldn’t waste it if it can be helped. If the document is internal and not incredibly important, then always keep the default on black and white, and if there are a lot of colour photos that should be printed this way for a client, then switch the printer settings at the time. Always check accordingly before each printing task!
Not printing doubled-sided
Seeing a long booklet printed out that isn’t doubled-sided really irks some people! It’s easy to see why, as the amount of paper that can be saved is massive, not to mention the size of the booklet. Every modern printer has the capability to print sheets double-sided, so make sure you check this setting before hitting the print button and wasting paper unnecessarily. Another annoying habit people often make is not proofreading a document thoroughly before printing, then noticing a mistake after checking the document and having to re-print!
Printouts for a meeting when it’s not even necessary
If you’ve ever had a meeting with an accompanying printout that you’ll look at for a few seconds, then throw onto your desk and forget about, then you’re definitely not alone. There are meetings in countless offices around the world that look overprepared and provide the attendees with more information than they really need. If you’re hosting a meeting, consider sending everyone an email with the most important points afterward, and then they can decide if it’s useful, rather than you printing anything out.
Using an inkjet printer instead of a laser printer
While using an inkjet printer isn’t the end of the world, it’s common knowledge that laser printers are far more economic to run, have more advanced models, and generally use less ink and will last for a longer time. There are many great laser printers on the market now, so pick one that suits your budget and you’ll save more money in the long run.