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There’s an awful lot you can do to reduce the environmental impact of offce printing, from the type of printer you use to your choice of driver settings and how you use the free tools that come with it.

It is easy to view printers as commodity items that all do the same thing in a similar way, but this is far from the case. An all-in-one cartridge containing both the toner and drum may be the most common type of consumable, but there are less wasteful alternatives, such as Xerox solid ink and Kyocera Ecosys printers.

Look again at inkjet technology: this is making a comeback in offces and it may be all you need, but before making your decision do work out the cost per page from the cost of the cartridges and their stated capacity.

And don’t forget to compare the energy consumption of printers: Energy Star accreditation is essential (its website has a useful table showing different printers’ consumption fgures). Once you’ve installed your printer try to keep paper use to a minimum.

The obvious thing to do is to print on both sides of the page. But you could also use smaller/lighter paper, reduce margins and font sizes, change font (Green print has developed one specially to reduce paper consumption) and print n-up so that you can ft 2 or 4 pages on a single side (visit www.shrinkpaper.org for a comprehensive list of tips). These are all thoroughly recommended, and easy to do on any printer. Once you get into the habit they become second nature: in fact, pretty soon you’ll be kicking yourself if you forget to set the driver and revert to wasteful old habits – so set n-up, duplex as your default now.

And while you’re at it, why not reduce toner consumption by setting draft printing mode as the default, too – very few documents need to be of the best quality and it will make your consumables last up to 40% longer.

Free software tools

That’s just a start. The software provided with many printers gives you scope to do much more.

Admin software will enable you to manage your printer feet more effciently and in some cases will even let you monitor and control printer use through quotas and restrictions by user and/or application – i.e. no printing of emails.

Many printer manufacturers, including HP, Lexmark and Epson, now provide free downloadable software that reduces the waste associated with printing internet

pages (all those extra sheets with nothing more than a thumbprint image or a URL).

Lexmark’s ToolBar V4 is a good example. It works with any make of printer and shrinks web pages to ft on a single page. Users can save ink/toner by removing colour and images from web pages and highlight and print specifc areas of text.

Xerox is bundling a similar but more powerful tool with its Xerox Phaser 8560 and 8860 solid ink printers and MFPs. GreenPrint Enterprise analyses each page sent to the printer and automatically highlights and removes typical waste characteristics (e.g. pages with just a URL, banner ad or logo). It also allows users to remove pages, images or text with a single click before printing. Another way of saving money is to print forms and stationery on demand and eliminate the waste associated with pre-printing and stockpiling material that may go out of date before it is used. TallyGenicom recently broke new ground by announcing that it was bundling its TG Forms integrated forms solution with all professional laser printers; and HP is supplying HP Smart Template Printing free with some of its new LaserJets. This enables users to store multiple, ready-made templates in the printer’s memory so that they can print letterhead, invoices, postcards etc. as and when needed.

One of the benefts of today’s colour printers and MFPs is that they can be used to produce marketing material in-house, removing the expense and unnecessarily large print runs associated with outsourcing. A number of manufacturers, HP included, provide marketing templates online for users to download.

Oki is particularly strong in this area. Its Template manager software and www.askoki.co.uk website provide users with a wide range of templates and in-house marketing tools. It recently expanded its offering with the launch of v-studio, which makes available royalty-free images and business design tools that can help you produce professional looking documents in-house. Printers are essential to the smooth running of any business. By choosing them carefully and using them intelligently, you can prevent unnecessary waste and expense

and improve your marketing and presentation.

30 sustainabletimes 0870 903 9500

Printers are a source of considerable waste, but by using them wisely and making use of free software tools businesses can reduce the downsides considerably.

Oki provides its customers with templates and images that can be used to create professional looking marketing material