If you are the proud owner of a printer, you may have heard expressions like “I still have to buy paper” or “ink is expensive!”. Indeed, using a printer regularly can be very costly, and harm the environment as well as your wallet. But fear not. Did you know that there are a few easy things you can do to save ink and paper?
1 – Print only if necessary
This tip is the most basic, but we don't think about it that often in the end! Before printing a document, simply ask yourself the question: is this printing really necessary? If the answer is no, just save the document in question in a folder on your computer, a cloud like Dropbox, a USB key or even all 3 at once if you are afraid of losing it. And if you are really clumsy, know that it is now possible to recover a deleted document on your computer.
2 – The magic of layout
Learn how to print on both sides of a sheet of paper: using both sides of a sheet of paper will reduce your paper consumption by half. And printing multiple pages on one side will further divide your consumption by 2, 3 or even 4! Just think: printing a 40-page document on both sides with 4 pages per side will only require 5 sheets instead of 40!
3 – Recycled cartridges
Most of the time, major electronics stores provide a container for customers to drop off their empty cartridges instead of throwing them away. The cartridges are then recycled: ink is reinjected into them, then resold for even less than new cartridges. You can therefore save money by using recycled cartridges, which can be found from providers such as TonerPartenaire.
4 – Scrap paper
In addition to cartridges, you can also recycle paper! When you want to print an unofficial document that will stay at home (like a schedule to display on your fridge), use paper that has already been used, such as obsolete photocopies for example. Of course, be careful to print on the still blank side of the paper!
5 – Economical printing mode
Before printing, you can choose between several printing modes for your document. The one you usually use is the "standard" mode, but imagine that there are other modes (fast, draft, economical) that print more lightly and use less ink. Don't hesitate to try them out, maybe you'll adopt them?
6 – Print your texts in gray
Printing text in gray is like printing text in black, but with less ink. Think about that the next time you want to print a document with a lot of text!
7 – Use an economical font
The font you use affects how much ink you use, so you can use fonts that are specifically designed to save ink! Ecofont for example is a completely free font that allows you to reduce your ink consumption by 20%!
All you have to do is apply these few tips when you print, and nature will thank you!
Hello,
thanks for the ecofont tip, but how do I include it in the office pack or open office suite?
you need to download and install it on your computer. Normally this should do the trick…