After Hours·5,453 discussions

Anyone know of any truth to this- Going green: saving on printer ink

Locked

Hello,

We are curious if anyone else has implemented these changes and seen an improvement. Also, is there any similar study for toner?

Perhaps you already knew this one, or saw the recent article in the news? Going green in the office:
Saving on expensive printer ink cartridges.

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. This is Arial 12 pt
Arial uses 30 percent more printer ink than the font below.

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Century Gothic 12 pt
According to CNN, using the Century Gothic font will save 30 percent in printer ink.

The lighter font may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But those who wish to do so may set up Outlook to print e-mails with Century Gothic, 10 pt. The typical memo style in your Outlook may currently be set for Arial 10 pt.
Click: File >> Page Set up >> Memo Style, then change the Font for the Fields portion of the e-mails. Whenever you print, you will save money.

Topic

With printer ink cartridges on my Canon…

In reply to Anyone know of any truth to this- Going green: saving on printer ink

I refill myself. I buy the ink in bulk and refill at my leisure. Yes i do get ink on my fingers sometimes but it comes off slowly but my printer is happy. 🙂

What the heck is green about it?

In reply to Anyone know of any truth to this- Going green: saving on printer ink

It may save money, but I question how ‘green’ it is. Actually, if a person is dissatisfied with the suggested font and prints a second copy using a darker one, it’s wasting paper. If one is concerned with disposing of the ink cartridge, refilling it a time or two is a better ‘green’ option.

a true green option for printing

In reply to Anyone know of any truth to this- Going green: saving on printer ink

implimented from day 1 of this company’s operations:
http://www.urbanimpact.com

they went as paperless as they could.
almost no printers at all.

edited for content correction

I’m not meaning to argue, but on their web site they state:

In reply to a true green option for printing

“Invoices are printed on paper that is 100% Post Consumer Waste (PCW), certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, processed chlorine free, acid free and Green-e certified.”

I’m not trying to be a pointy-headed fact checker, but I just could not see how a business could go 100% paperless. It’s a great idea, and a worthy goal, but sometimes you just need to print something.

I missed that part,

In reply to I’m not meaning to argue, but on their web site they state:

but considering they ARE a recycling company trying to reduce landfill requirements, it makes sense they would go for the lowest amount of printing they could.

and yes, they could go electronic invoices and lose even that printing if they wanted to.

I did a study with toner cartridges

In reply to Anyone know of any truth to this- Going green: saving on printer ink

The big problem with refilled cartridges is that the quality isn’t there. I’m not talking about documents printed in the office, they look good. Try mailing that document to yourself. After it goes through the postal service, the letters are falling off the page or there is ghosting in some places when its received. I’m talking about your typical letter printed on any kind of decent stationery.

Even the original toner cartridges will not produce a 100% good image after they go through the post office.

Try the test for yourself and see what you receive after its been mailed. It was an eye opener for me.

AV

It’s the mail handling equipment that does it

In reply to I did a study with toner cartridges

That equipment applies pressure (and some heat) to the letters as they are processed, and do the same thing the fuser in your laser printer does. Inkjet print comes out worse than that; the ink bleeds.

It definitely is the postal service equipment

In reply to It’s the mail handling equipment that does it

I tried my test with many different HP printers, old and new, and got the same result. I even increased the heat on the fusers to see if that would make a difference, but it didn’t.

When I did the same test with a Xerox Workcentre copier though, the letters were received in perfect condition. Their fuser process is much better. Hence, we replaced our HP printers with Xerox.

AV

Must be something in the US

In reply to I did a study with toner cartridges

I have sent Printed Invoices to a Client who then returns then in the post both ways and have not noticed a difference.

Granted I didn’t look too hard but at a quick glance there was nothing obviously wrong with the returned Invoice. Granted they where Laser Copies not Bubble Jet and occasionally they get wet which kills Bubble Jet printed documents.

I’ve just dragged one out and it’s OK. I compared it against another copy of the same thing made at the same time as I sent out the Original and they are next to identical. 😉

Col

If they really wanted to go "green",

In reply to Anyone know of any truth to this- Going green: saving on printer ink

why not revert back to dot-matrix printers? I mean, those dinosaurs last forever
(still have 3 of them in running condition), and the ribbons can be used for a long
time…only drawback is noise and much slower printing. But, if all they are doing
is trying to save 30 percent on printing typical emails, a good old OkiData ML321
just might do the trick!

On a side note, I half expect any day now that some green group somewhere will
devise a method to collect our own flatulence, compressing this “natural gas” into
canisters, to be use as fuel cells for automobiles, heating units, etc.
LOL! <{;-)

Personally I think that they will start with

In reply to If they really wanted to go "green",

Flatulent Cows first to collect Methane. It would be a lot more cost effective and offer a greater source of [i]Natural Gas.[/i] Though with Public Transport it may be economical to collect the produced gas easily and economically. Though you may be forced to eat lots of Fart Food if you want a seat. 😀

As for Dot Matrix Printers why bother trying to get old hardware to work when they still make & sell these units?

I currently have several in different business around the place and they have the added advantage of being able to print Carbon Copies as apposed to several sheets of the same thing to get the necessary copies that so many require. 😉

Col

Brilliant Idea !! Just like solar panels

In reply to Personally I think that they will start with

I think the transit authorities should offer a rebate according to the volume and quality of your flatulence.

Oh, the irony of the fattest, fartiest person on the train actually travelling for free … the image of the chip machine on the platform now selling baked beans and lentils … instead of berating the multiple stinky farty-bottom, they’re now looked at with a tinge of envy …

Its true. Global warming will turn the world on its head! 🙂

Collecting flatulence

In reply to If they really wanted to go "green",

I envision something like the ‘still suits’ from ‘Dune’ that collected persperation, urine, transpiration, and other liquid excretions and distilled them into potable water.

😀

That would look Kinky

In reply to Collecting flatulence

On a Cow. 😉

Col

Reponse To Answer

In reply to If they really wanted to go "green",

Oooh – the very thought of the means of collection gives shivers! 😉

Or…

In reply to Anyone know of any truth to this- Going green: saving on printer ink

don’t bloody print emails!!!

I only ever print out forms and driving instructions…

[Author]

Replies