Despite the rising popularity of digital learning tools, print still plays a significant role in countless schools throughout South Africa. That’s because, although online learning has helped millions of children in the country keep their education on track, countless more still don’t have access to the internet for resources, hindering their learning.
For example, a 2020 Statistics South Africa report shows that only 1,3% of households in Mpumalanga, 3,4% in KwaZulu-Natal, 14,2% in Gauteng, and 20,3% in the Western Cape have internet connectivity.
“Learners without access to the internet often rely on printed resources that they can use in their homes, allowing them to continue learning after leaving the classroom. Unfortunately, a lack of knowledge and not using the right technology can lead to printing becoming an expensive task for schools,” says Yudheer Harbhajun, sales manager at Epson South Africa. “As a result, schools are forced to limit their spending on printer resources, including ink and other consumables.”
Thankfully, there are a number ways for schools to save on the cost of printing so they can continue providing crucial resources that benefit learners.
Print in draft mode
Today’s printers have multiple printing options to customise ink use and speed. So, for example, when teachers print documents that don’t need to look presentation-ready, like classroom notes and reminders, they can print them in draft mode.
This mode uses less ink and prints documents faster than standard, high-quality print modes. While printing in this manner might result in grainier text and pixelated pictures, making it less ideal for professional presentations, it’s still an efficient method for cutting ink costs and printing documents much faster.
Reduce font size and type
Teachers can also reduce printing costs by using a smaller font size on printed documents. That’s because the smaller the font, the less paper and ink will be consumed to print a document. For example, switching from a 12 font size to a 10 will make a surprising difference, while ensuring the text on the page is still legible.
Not only can reducing font size cut down on printing costs, but a TonerBuzz print test determined that different font types consume more ink and paper than others. For example, the most economical fonts include Courier, followed by Garamond, and Ryman Eco.
Teachers should aim to strike a balance between readability and reasonable ink consumption. So, big, bold, flashy fonts will generally consume much more ink and therefore cost more to print.
Be print savvy
Schools can save ink and paper by simply being a little more frugal with what and how they print. For instance, there’s no need to reprint material for every class, every year – simply collect reading assignments and other handouts after learners are done with them. You can easily get two, maybe three runs on each printed packet before wear and tear means that they need to be replaced.
Most office copiers and quite a few desktop printers offer double-sided print options as a standard feature – so use this setting wherever possible. If you’re printing mostly single pages, you can reprint on the reverse side of the pages to print them again or use the back of each as scrap paper. Use this setting whenever possible to maximise your print resources and be sure to reduce margin seizes to save paper too – just be sure that the text is still readable.
Cost-effective consumables
Schools that want the benefit of printing high-quality documents without incurring a high cost per page can use refillable ink tank printers. Moving away from expensive ink cartridges to bottled ink, like Epson’s range of inkjet printers that use Heat-Free Technology, can save up to 83% on energy and significantly reduce the time and costs of repairs, ink loading errors, and maintenance.
Epson Business Inkjet devices now offer a high yield ink-pack design on our consumables which allow you to print up to 86000 pages on a single ink pack, before having to replace inks. This is in line with our core value of less intervention on our products, which minimise on downtime and increases productivity. The Epson Business Inkjet range of devices fit perfectly into the school/tertiary environments where they are able to manage higher print volumes and boast print speeds of up to 100 pages per minute.
Because these printers feature large ink tanks and high yield ink packs instead of cartridges, teachers and learners can print thousands of pages before refilling the tank or replacing ink packs – saving schools thousands of rands by not changing cartridges frequently.