8 tips on how to save on printing in your company

The vast majority of companies cannot be denied a sincere effort to effectively reduce printing costs. However, savings often do not correspond to the effort expended, and despite comparable conditions, companies achieve diametrically different results. So where do some companies make a mistake, or more precisely, how can you save on printing in a company?

Companies are well aware that toners, ink cartridges, office paper, energy for operating equipment, printer servicing, and archiving or, conversely, paper disposal cost them considerable financial resources each year that they could invest much more meaningfully. It is therefore no wonder that companies are trying to achieve savings by adopting various measures, including motivating their employees. However, as it turned out, a kind word and various motivational flyers have practically no positive effect when it comes to reducing printing costs.

Somewhat more successful were companies that did not rely solely on their employees and deployed software for "paperless offices," which replaced paper-based document records and allowed employees to access documents from anywhere. Surprisingly, even paperless offices are not a guarantee of success, because the companies that saved the most money were those that acted more decisively and adopted a range of measures. We selected the most effective ones from them, which can be applied in any company.

1. Replace small inefficient printers with one central printer

A recipe for reducing printing costs can be replacing older printers with a high cost of consumables with more modern, economical printers.

However, a number of printers still means more consumables, so it would be ideal to have one central printer and print via the computer network. If you additionally place the printer near the employee responsible for it, the savings are taken care of.

2. Monitor submitted print jobs

Modern printers can increase savings by monitoring what specific users or individual departments print and, if necessary, allowing them only the approved type of printing. If you additionally inform employees that you intend to carry out such monitoring at regular intervals, we can bet that printing costs will decrease by as much as several tens of percent.

3. Eliminate mistakes; they can cost a company far more than you think

To err is human and none of us is perfect, but mistakes also need to be viewed from the other side—the financial one.

For example, if you want to print only one page from a 15-page document, but make a mistake and print the entire document, you have unnecessarily turned 14 sheets of office paper into so-called snoop. In larger companies, such mistakes can amount to thousands of pages, unnecessarily increasing the consumption of office paper and toner.

4. In addition to mistakes, address forgetfulness as well

When we mentioned human fallibility above, we realized that it would also be appropriate to mention forgetfulness.

As a result of stress and a high workload, employees may forget that they have already printed the given documents once. A solution may be to send print jobs to a server, where they wait in a queue. The task will only be printed when employees come to the printer and confirm printing by pressing the button.

5. Font and margins may seem like negligible details, but they are effective

One of the simple but proven methods for reducing printing costs is reducing the font size. If the font settings go hand in hand with the margin settings, you can count on quite an interesting financial saving. But we will stay with the font for a little while longer.

6. Don’t overlook the font type

You may be surprised, but just two ordinary mouse clicks are enough to help you save toner or ink. Among the most economical fonts are Century Gothic, Calibri, and Garamond, while Arial and Tahoma consume the most printer ink.

7. Save office paper

If you are thinking about how to save on printing in your company, the weight of office paper should not escape your attention. For regular printing tasks, use standard office paper with a lower grammage; for special occasions (printing presentation materials, etc.) opt for more expensive paper with a higher grammage.

8. Duplex printing must be a matter of course

Naturally, the list of tips cannot omit duplex, or if you prefer double-sided, document printing, which according to the experience of renowned companies can achieve up to 40% savings in paper costs. When trying to save money, it is also worth considering black-and-white printing or printing in lower quality.

• TIP: The ideal office paper for the office