A Writer’s Guide To Efficient Printer Use

A printer is a writer’s best friend. Even in this day and age, where digitization is pretty much the norm when sharing and storing a wide variety of documents, printers remain an essential tool for scribes everywhere but how many writers know the ins and outs of efficient printer use?

In this digitized world where emails and e-readers rule, there are various reasons why a writer might still need reliable printing equipment.

• A lot of publishers and editors still require writers to submit printouts of their work.
• Many writers simply feel that it’s more comfortable to read their manuscripts in hard copy format.

If you’re a writer who wants to make the most of your money and want an efficient printer use, check out our tips on how you can maximize its use and take advantage of your printer’s different features. 

Choose the correct printer right from the start

Before investing in a new printer, you have to think about how you intend to use it for the long term. There are many factors to consider in terms of features.

For instance, there’s the type of printing technology used (inkjet or laser), the printing speed, the printing capacity, the dots per inch output, the printer’s multifunction capabilities, and so on.

It is important to take these different elements into account so that you can choose a unit that will truly address your requirements.

Pick a monochrome printer

Unless you also do photography, graphic design, and other forms of visual arts, it is unlikely that you are going to have much need for a color printer. 

If you know that you’re going to print mostly text documents, choose a monochrome or black-and-white laser printer instead for an efficient printer use. It is a good way to cut down on your printing costs.

Laser printers print faster compared to inkjet units, and because they use toner instead of ink, you don’t have to worry about the ink drying and clogging the cartridge nozzles when you don’t use your printer regularly.

Buy re-manufactured and compatible printer cartridges

Printer ink and toner cartridges from original equipment manufacturers (OEM) can leave a serious dent on your office supplies budget. That’s why it makes absolute sense to choose re-manufactured and compatible printer cartridges instead.

Re-manufactured ink and toner cartridges start out as used and empty cartridge shells that many people just throw away. With the help of state-of-the-art equipment, these shells undergo thorough cleaning, restoration, ink refilling, and resealing, helping them achieve the same level of quality and performance as OEM products.

On the other hand, compatible ink and toner cartridges are made from scratch. They are engineered and constructed from the ground up under stringent quality standards, ensuring that they will be compatible with the printers they are intended for.

As such, compatible cartridges tend to be completely identical with OEM products, with the exception that they cost much less than the latter.

Choose XL printer cartridges

One good way to maximize your print mileage at a more affordable cost and ensure an efficient printer use is to purchase XL printer cartridges.

XL cartridges are the same size as regular cartridges, but they often hold up to twice the amount of ink. These higher-yield ink cartridges cost more initially, but the cost per page printed is significantly lower compared to regular-yield cartridges.

Take advantage of the duplex printing setting 

Many printers allow users to print on both sides of the paper, a feature known as duplex printing. It’s very helpful, since most of the time, there’s really no need to print on just one side of the paper.

Aside from being an environmentally sustainable practice, duplexing also helps you save money on your paper purchases.

Watch your printer’s energy consumption

Explore your printer’s power-saving settings to lessen its energy consumption. Better yet, turn your printer off properly after every use.

If you’re using an inkjet printer, turning the equipment off properly also allows the printer’s capping station to engage the printer head, effectively sealing the cartridge to prevent the ink from getting exposed to the air.

Check if you can print in draft mode

Most printers also offer an option for printing in draft mode. This is an “economy” setting that allows you to print at a lower quality level. The other side of the trade-off is significant savings in ink and faster printing speed.

Print through the cloud 

Using services like Google Cloud Print, you can set up printers for cloud printing, a great feature to use if you need to multitask or to work remotely. With cloud printing, you can send a print job to a remotely located printer, which can then print the document for you.

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