The HP Supplies Guys: Top-6 (Painless) Ways to Save on Printing

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When it comes to business, small, simple changes can often add up to big savings in the long run. Printing is no exception, and many times it’s not what you print but how you print that can generate the biggest cost savings. Today I’d like to share our top six tips for saving on printing.

1. Choose ink-friendly fonts

Is your Trebuchet too thirsty? Your Palatino a little parched? The answers might surprise you. A recent study found that average users can save up to 31% on their ink costs just by choosing the right font. While Arial might be voted “most popular,” Century Gothic and Times New Roman are neck-and-neck for the title of “best all-around” for their classic style and ink-saving superpowers. In fact, the same study showed that users who print 25 pages a week would save about $20 a year simply by choosing one of these more cost-effective fonts.

2. Avoid the “cheap” ink trap

It might be tempting to save a few bucks upfront by purchasing refilled, remanufactured, or other types of third-party ink or toner. But here’s the deal: more often than not, what you initially save at the cash register is quickly trumped by botched prints, ink spills and other headaches at the printer – and that’s if the cartridge even works at all. In fact, research showed that 72% of all non-HP cartridges failed during use or right out of the box. This means that seven out of ten times, users of third-party inks are stuck wasting printing supplies and valuable time. In this same study, Original HP cartridges printed more than twice the number of pages as the non-HP cartridges. Trust me on this one. Gambling with your time, resources and productivity just isn’t worth the risk.

3. Buy big, save big

If your business requires more frequent printing, consider using high-capacity cartridges such as HP’s line of XL cartridges. In addition to buying more time between ink purchases, these cartridges offer lower cost per page printing than standard cartridges. In fact, XL cartridges print up to three times more black pages and up to two-and-a-half more color pages than standard Original HP cartridges. Additional savings can also be gained by purchasing the HP ink cartridge combo or multi-packs which combine two or more cartridges at a discounted price.

4. Don’t pick sides

Another great way to save money and use less paper is by adjusting your page formatting for increased efficiency. For example, duplex printing uses up to 50 percent less paper by printing on both sides of the page. Printers such as the HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One  offer an auto-duplexing feature that makes two-sided printing automatic. You can increase your savings even further by expanding the borders of your documents to allow for more content on each page. Printing a document in Microsoft Excel or HP Smart Print? Look for the “shrink to fit” option to easily condense your page count.

5. Try life in the draft lane

Today’s printing technology makes it possible to print professional-quality documents from your own desktop. But does the sign-up sheet for the company softball team require the same print standards as your next business proposal? Probably not. For first draft documents, reduce the amount of ink you use by switching your printer settings to “Draft” mode. This setting produces characters that are still easy to read but not as bold as standard print settings, allowing you to save money on the print projects that will only be used once or for a short amount of time.

6. Find your perfect match

Perhaps one of the most essential ways to save on printing costs is to start by choosing the type of printer that best fits your needs. The running costs of HP printers are tuned to support the specific ways in which they are used. By determining which functions you’ll need, what type of output you will generate, and how much average use the printer will get, you can identify the category of printers that meets your needs and budget. Need help narrowing down your options? Try using HP’s Help Me Choose tool to get started today.

Bonus tip: Want to better understand – and control – the printing impact of your business? Consider incorporating fleet management software such as HP’s Web Jetadmin or EcoSMART Fleet. These print management solutions allow you to oversee any number of networked printing devices from a single interface – making it easy to evaluate printing habits and customize print settings to save time, resources, and costs.

Following these easy tips can quickly make you a lean, mean, cost-saving machine! And in an office environment with multiple printers, applying these tips to every device will multiply your savings.

On behalf of the HP Supplies Guys, we look forward to sharing more about the science of printing in future posts. Meantime, feel free to share your comments below or follow me on Twitter: @ThomatHP.