Whether privately or professionally – many people depend on the use of a printer. Especially in times of home office, the resulting costs should not be underestimated.
Select the right printer
In order to select the right printer for your purposes, it is advisable to first determine the individual print volume per month. On this basis, you can determine which type of printer is best suited for your purposes. If the print volume is rather low, this speaks for the procurement of a classic inkjet printer, since these devices are usually cheaper to purchase. With a higher print volume, it is advisable to buy a laser printer, since such devices often have lower consumable costs to compensate for the higher acquisition costs.
Avoid stand-by mode
Printers with external power supplies consume electricity – even in stand-by mode. If you do not use the device for a longer period of time, it is advisable to disconnect it from the power supply. So only activate the printer when you really need it and make sure to switch on the PC and printer separately. The starting process of many devices is accompanied by an automatic cleaning of the nozzles, which leads to avoidable electricity and material costs.
Save on the purchase of toner and ink
Printer manufacturers usually strive to compensate for the comparatively low costs of their devices with expensive ink cartridges and toner cartridges. Therefore, one should consider using refill products. Original cartridges from third-party suppliers are usually filled with cheaper ink, which reduces the price.
However, if you rely on the refill solution, you should make sure that the printer, cartridge and ink are compatible, otherwise the inside of the printer can become contaminated and cause unnecessary follow-up costs. In the meantime, however, well-known dealers have also established themselves with third-party providers whose cartridge solutions give no reason for concern.
Grayscale or color printing?
One is often tempted to convert color photos to black and white mode in order to save ink or toner. However, this assumption is a fallacy, as grayscale is created by the printer overlaying all colors. Ink and toner are only really saved if color images are actually printed out in color.
Choose a toner-friendly font
The go-to font in many documents is Arial, as it is easy to read and conveys the necessary seriousness. Unfortunately, the lines of the letters are also very thick, so that a lot of toner or ink is used. The solution to this is to switch to the Century Gothic font, which has much thinner lines. Although Century Gothic usually does not detract from its seriousness, it is not suitable for all documents – especially if they are of a business nature. It is therefore advisable to use Century Gothic at least for private use.
At this point also the reference to the eco-mode of many printers, which downgrades the quality to a certain extent and is particularly suitable for use with private documents, such as e.g. B. lists, is suitable. The printouts are faded because less ink or toner is used per letter. Legibility usually doesn’t suffer, so switching to Eco-Mode for non-business printouts is worth it if you’re trying to save money.
Use paper sparingly
For the sake of both your wallet and the environment, you should make sure that you use printer paper sparingly. If possible, you should use the duplex mode and thus print on both sides of the sheet. If necessary, you can also put several pages on one sheet, as long as legibility does not suffer as a result.
Inna Warkus / Editor finanzen.net