Of all the standard office expenses that seem to creep up out of nowhere and pack a real wallop, few are quite as painful as printing. The reason being that once you’re set up and ticking over nicely, you completely forget that sooner or later you’re going to have to once again hand over a king’s ransom for the smallest amount of ink, a new ream of label printing paper or a quick repair that ends up costing more than the printer did in the first place. Of course, if your business is wholly dependent on self-adhesive digital labels to get by, then there’s really no way of escaping the costs of printing,
However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of tips, tricks and common sense approaches to the saving of money when it comes to printing – some of which are less obvious than others. So, in the spirit of keeping costs to absolute minimums while at the same time ensuring quality standards remain as high as possible, here’s a quick overview of five expert tips for making your money go as far as possible:
1 – Be Frugal with Colours
It’s of course no secret that colour ink is more expensive than simple black ink, which in turn means that colour printing is always going to be more expensive than black and white printing. To assume outright that grey-scale images and designs cannot be as beautiful and effective as colour designs really is the wrong way to go – it just takes a little more thought and creativity to get right. The less colour you use, the less you’ll have to shell out for ink when and where needed. And if colour is indeed 100% essential, try going for lighter, subtler shades rather than brilliantly bright blocks of ink-hungry colour.
2 – Use Ink-Friendly Fonts
Something else to bear in mind with regard to ink usage is the way in which certain fonts will inherently use more ink to print than others. It all comes down to the shape and size of the text, with those fonts presented in a bolder or blockier manner generally using up the most ink. Of course, in this instance it is important to be realistic as you cannot expect to get away with nothing but razor-thin fonts for the sake of saving money if it then ends up impossible for the fonts to be read. It’s therefore a case of balancing the two – make the fonts attractive and readable by all means, but still try to keep ink use to a minimum.
3 – Buy Supplies in Bulk
When the time comes to buy more ink, more paper or more blank labels, try to get out of the habit of buying only what you need for the immediate future…tempting as it may be. As is the case in all areas of business, the more you buy at any one time the more you’ll save and it’s not as if you aren’t going to need the stuff in the future anyway. It can seem like a heavy investment to buy enough ink for several months or even a whole year all in one go, but the simple fact of the matter is that you’ll make savings of up to 40% compared to buying week by week. Of course, this will mean that changing to a new brand and model of printer might be out of the question, but there’s really no avoiding that.
4 – Take Your Time
Never rush your designs to print and don’t be tempted to run off more than a single sample copy unless you are 100% sure that you are 100% happy with what you’ve come up with. So much ink is wasted every year on printing jobs that end up going nowhere but in the bin, with the businesses behind them having gone for something of a trial and error approach – and an expensive one, at that. Take your time and print when you’re sure – there’s no rush!
5 – Outsource to the Pros
Last but not least, it’s often difficult to grasp at first thought but in many instances is 100% true to say that outsourcing to the professionals could easily save most businesses on their printing costs while upping quality at the same time. The reason being that the equipment and supplies are already there and ready to be used, meaning that you only ever pay for exactly what you need and don’t have to ever worry about hardware, manpower, maintenance, repairs or anything else of the sort.
