How To Use Less Printer Ink In A School

2010-08-17

In today's economy, operational costs in schools are getting scrutinized and slashed more than ever. Every dollar counts and minimizing wasteful spending can literally mean whether or not someone has a job. A huge burden on school budgets is the ever-present cost of supplies. Anyone who's ever spent time in a school knows how many printer ink cartridges go into making those hundreds of copies of materials each teacher needs to do their job. While it's hard to tell teachers to limit their copies, there are ways to use less school printer ink from day to day.

One way to reduce the replacement of printer ink cartridges in schools is to print documents with smaller font sizes whenever possible. It makes sense that the bigger the font, the more room it will take up, and thus more ink that will be required to print. Not everything will be able to be reduced in size, but if a document can use size 10 font rather than size 16 and still be useful, then it will help prolong the length of the ink cartridge life.

In addition to smaller font sizes, changing the type of font can also help save printer ink. Many word processing or e-mail programs use a default font, such as Arial, which actually uses more ink to print each character than other fonts, like Century Gothic. While miniscule on an individual basis, using Century Gothic for printed documents will over time use less ink than Arial because of the way the font is printed- with numerous tiny circles rather than solid blocks of ink forming the characters.

Aside from adjusting fonts, one can delay the replacement of a new printer ink cartridge by avoiding printing documents that contain solid blocks of dark colors, dark figures or pictures, and large, dark text. For instance, when copying or printing portions of a textbook, leave out pages that have heavy dark outlines around headings or pictures that aren't necessary. Sometimes these things are necessary to the document, but they do result in a lot more ink being used than printing simple text. So, see if it's possible to cut those parts out before printing. If you need to print a particularly large, dark part of a book then adjust the printer or copier settings to print lighter. Using a lighter shade will use less ink, while still making the document legible.

All in all, using less school printer ink can be challenging given the volume of materials printed and copied every day. However these eco-friendly and economically-savvy tips can very well add up over time to save the school precious money.