To Print or Not to Print?

How many times have your gone to a web site, found a funny joke or interesting story that you quickly printed off so you could share it with others or so you could keep it for posterity? Have you ever printed off a draft of a letter or other documents so you could have someone else edit/review it for you? These and other printing activities may have seemed important at the time but if you have only stopped and asked yourself the question in this article’s title, you may have changed your mind. Here are ideas for conserving some of that printer paper and printer ink cartridges we seem to love to waste.

Recycle Paper

Unfortunately, not all printers are going to be working with you on this quest to conserve paper. Occasionally, blank pages are going to be printed and those aren’t going to be useful to anyone. Have a container near the printer in your home or office where these pages and other unneeded pages can be dropped off for later recycling. Even though you won’t technically be saving any paper yourself, by recycling these sheets you can prevent the necessity for cutting down more trees.

Select Print Range

We’ve all printed something from the Internet only to find that the last page of the job only had a small line of text at the top and nothing else. One of the best ways to prevent this from happening is to get in the habit of doing a “Print Preview” before you send the document to your printer for processing. You can select this option from under your “Print” menu. Once you see the preview, you can find out which pages are necessary for printing. You can go back to the print job options and enter the specific page number range (for example, 1-5) that you need to print. You will save paper using this technique but it can take time getting in the habit of taking those extra steps.

Print Front & Back

As long as your printer comes equipped with a duplexing feature, you can save on paper simply by printing on both the front and back of the paper. In fact, you might want to look for a machine that comes with auto-duplexing because this will be even easier to use. Generally, this approach works well for any document larger than one page in size and it allows you to cut your paper needs in half. For example, if you need to print a copy of a report that is 10 pages in length, printing front and back means you’ll need five sheets instead of ten.

Only Print When Necessary

Another way to reduce your paper usage is by printing only items that are necessary. If you see something on the Internet you want to share or keep, email the link to people or bookmark the page instead of printing. If you are on a network, you can place documents on the network so they can access them in digital form.