5 ways to easily reduce business printing costs

Printing is essential; even in digital paperless business, a printer should be used to keep a hard copy paper trail. If you've read that number and are now swiftly heading to pull the plug on your printer, don't be too hasty - we have some tips and tricks to cut this cost.

Limit the use

The first thing to do is limit the use. This can be done by adding employee accounts onto the printer along with printing credits. If employees know they have a limited number of pages available to print each month they will be more likely to consider the pages that need to be printed.

Things to consider before hitting print:

• Is a hard copy needed?
• How soon after it is printed will it be recycled?
• How many people will benefit from it being printed?
• Is more than one copy needed?

Find the right printer

As a rule, more expensive printers tend to have cheaper running costs. You can find a fantastic range of printers which have outstanding green credentials. Some have energy-saving modes where it's only on when needed, and another thing to look out for are multi ink cartridges, rather than tri-colour cartridges. The latter is a single cartridge containing cyan, magenta and yellow and will need replacing once one colour is low or empty - regardless of whether the other colours are full. This wasted ink will soon start to add up. Multi ink cartridges are where each colour is separate, so you will only need to replace what is empty.

Choose the right ink cartridges

There are many more options available now when it comes to choosing ink cartridges for your printer. As well as opting for genuine ink manufactured by your printer's brand you can even get compatible cartridges which are guaranteed to work with your printer for a fraction of the price. You may even find your printer has XL ink cartridges available and these are ideal if you print many pages. These high-capacity cartridges can produce more pages per than standard-sized ones.

Reduce colour use

Colour ink cartridges cost more than black cartridges, so you only really want to be using coloured ink when it's essential. Try and limit printing pictures and patterns and keep word documents simple.

Choose your fonts wisely

As well as choosing what colour to print in, you should also pay close attention to what fonts you're using. Arial should be avoided as it can use more ink than Times New Roman. If you don't want to use Times New Roman, however, Century Gothic and Calibri have been found to also outperform Arial.

There are many ways to reduce the cost of printing for your business. While at first, it may seem like restrictions, over time you will realise you've made the right changes in helping to save money and reduce paper and ink waste.