Best Printing Practices for your Business

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Printing Practices

When you have invested the time and money into finding the best multifunction printer for your office, it can be really disappointing when you still end up with an unsightly print job. The trick it to take the time to prepare your document and set up your printer efficiently — after all, a print job is only as good as the person who is printing. We don’t expect everyone in your office to be an expert in this department, but with a few tips and tricks, producing a quality print job can be easy.

 

Printer care

The best way to ensure quality print jobs is making sure to take proper care of your printer. Your service contract should cover the maintenance issues you would have no idea to look for. And if an error message comes up, your service team will be happy to help. Do not ignore service reminders from your MFPs, they are programmed to make sure you get the best print quality and performance possible.

But there are other things you can take care of yourself.

We recommend a laser printer, as they are much easier to care for, however if you haven’t yet upgraded and are working with an inkjet printer, nozzle clogs will happen. Every month or two, run your printer’s print head through the cleaning and alignment utilities to prevent problems. And the more you use your printer, the less likely it is that you will encounter clogging issues. If you are working in an office with low humidity, nozzle clogs will be more frequent. Consider keeping a humidifier in the same room as your printer, but if you are still seeing regular clogging, you may need a new cartridge.

 

Paper choice and the printed page

The whiter and brighter the paper, the crisper your text and more vibrant your colours. When you are working with an inkjet printer (again, not ideal), higher quality paper is a must-have to avoid the absorption of ink into the paper and ensure crisp photos and text. When you are using a laser printer, however, you can stock up on the bright white paper you are comfortable with, which will save you a bit of money in the long run too.

When it comes to the printed page, you’d be amazed at how using features you didn’t know existed will improve your printer use. Most MFPs have a “scale and zoom” (or similarly named) setting, which allows you to print multiple pages on one page without altering your document. Explore your printer dialogue box that comes up when you hit print. You can select how many pages you want to fit per sheet, allowing you, for example, to print a draft of a 20-page document on three sheets. And don’t forget about double-sided printing too. Remember, saving resources saves your business money, and isn’t that the best practice out there?

 

The right size

When you print an image, you need enough pixels in the file for the print to be sharp at the desire size. Your best bet is to make sure to have at least 200 dots per inch (DPI) for acceptable quality photos and 300 DPI for excellent quality.

To figure out what your result will be, divide the image’s pixel size by 200 (or 300 for higher quality results). For example, if your photo is measuring at 2000 x 3400 pixels, divide each by 200. That leaves you with 10 x 17, which means you could print the photo as large as 10 x 17 inches and still have acceptable results.

 

The finished product

Before you send anything to the printer, double check your document. Spell check, grammar check and format check. Make sure you margins are properly configured for your document. If you are planning to hold punch the sheet, make sure that there is plenty of room in the margin. The last thing you want is to cut off copy (or find a spelling error), wasting paper and printing time.

And if you are printing from the web, avoid wasting space with the clutter of ads. Use a website like printfriendly.com to make any website or document print friendly. Just paste the URL you want to print and all the extra clutter disappears, saving you a lot in ink and money.

 

Working with the right dealer

The best way to get the best prints is to have the right printer. And the right office automation equipment dealer will make sure you have exactly what you’re looking for. At BrockOA it is our mission to make your business life easier, and whether that means helping you purchase the perfect device, finding the best lease agreement for your business or providing a reliable service team, we are working for you. The best printing practices start with the purchase or lease of your machine, and we’ll make sure you start off right.

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