Read Time: 4.5 mins.
Are you digging into your office budget to find ways to save money? If so, you need to know how much you spend on ink per year on each of your copiers and printers. Not to mention how to save some money, too.
Your printer costs are a little more complicated than the price tag on your ink or toner cartridges, so get the details and find out what you can do to lower your costs.
How Much Do You Spend On Ink?
The page yield for store-bought toner and inkjet cartridges is based on five percent coverage, meaning you’re probably spending a lot more money than you think.
For instance, let’s say that you buy an ink cartridge with a page yield of 2,300 pages. That sounds great, but the number is based on 2,300 pages with five percent coverage, which is half of a regular page without any bold lettering, or consideration for saturation of color.
With that being said, your toner cartridge might end up producing around half of the estimated pages. It could be even less based on your standard page coverage, font, and other factors.
That’s enough to make you want to throw your printer out the window and start writing everything down by hand, right? Fortunately, you can save on toner for your office copier.
How to Save on Toner for Your Office Copier
You have various options for saving on ink for your office copier. Let’s go over some of the top ways you can cut down on printing costs.
Switch To A Laser Printer
You’re hemorrhaging money if you’re currently using an inkjet printer in your office. Most inkjet printers waste precious ink on maintenance chores every time you start the printer, so you might not even get 5 percent coverage. This is especially true if you have an inefficient model or use it intermittently.
You can cut down on your ink costs right away by upgrading to a laser printer for your office. While the printer will cost more upfront, the cost-per-page is much less when compared to inkjet printers. Your toner will last longer than ink cartridges, and you’ll spend less on each document you print.
Use High-yield Toner
If you already have a laser printer, you can save money by switching to a high-yield toner. With more toner powder packed into the cartridge, you’ll be able to print more pages before running out. The page coverage limitations might be the same, but you’ll still reduce your cost per page.
Think of this as buying in bulk. If you buy a case of water, you’ll spend less per bottle than if you were to purchase a single bottle.
The same is valid with toner. If you get high-yield toner, you’ll end up spending less per page than if you went with standard toner.
Use Toner Saver Mode For Some Documents
Your office printer likely has a toner saver mode. It might be listed as EconoMode, but the concept is the same.
If you activate the feature, your office copier will use less toner. The reduction in toner use depends on your office copy machine, but it could be as much as 50 percent less.
Keep in mind that this mode impacts print quality. The text or images will look lighter than when using standard mode.
Thus, you don’t want to activate toner saver mode if you’re printing essential documents for clients. However, if you need to print off some drafts to review, this is a fantastic way to reduce printing costs.
Change The Font
You can also reduce toner usage by changing the font when printing and copying. For instance, the Calibri font burns through toner, so you will run out much sooner than you would with the Courier New font.
As a general rule, stick to Courier New, Garamond, Ryman Eco, or Times New Roman to reduce toner consumption. If you need to use a different font for documents you send to customers, you can switch between options based on the document you’re printing or copying.
Preview Documents Before Printing
Your office printer likely wastes a lot of toner on documents that end up in the trash. This is especially true if your employees print web pages. They think they’re printing articles, only to end up with pages and pages of advertisements and links.
You can avoid this problem by making a habit of using the “print preview” feature before sending jobs to your office copier. This might be a simple tip, but it is pretty effective, so pass it to your employees. You should notice a reduction in toner consumption as soon as you implement this tip.
Use Managed Print Services
Managed print services can also help you reduce your printing costs. First, you can get better deals on high-yield toner when you buy directly from an authorized copier dealer, like AOS. The dealer will also replace your toner when needed, so you won’t have to worry about keeping up with it.
Your managed print services provider will also monitor your machine to ensure it’s performing at optimal levels at all times. This reduces the strain on the device as a whole, including the toner.
That, in turn, can help you cut down on how much toner you go through, saving your office money.
The Final Say: A Printing Partner Can Help You Save
Your toner budget might be high right now, but you’re not locked into your current price. Instead of overspending, use these tips to reduce costs while creating high-quality documents for customers and employees.
AOS has been in business since 1969 and provides managed print services to offices of all sizes. We can conduct an audit of your current printing setup and suggest cost-saving changes, if needed. Then we will stay on top of your printing products and needs and provide maintenance and replenish supplies as needed.
Instead of trying to reduce costs on your own, reach out to AOS today. We can discuss your needs and develop a plan to help you save money while accessing all the printing equipment and supplies you need.
