10 Checks to do Before Initiating Any Print Job

One of the most common ways print overheads are sent soaring is down to silly errors in document processing. Most businesses use Microsoft Word, others use open source suites such as Apache OpenOffice, and for those working remotely - file sharing can be used, too. When that happens it can wreak havoc on printed documents for a number of reasons.

To ensure you can minimise the cost of print, consider the following, and preferably have a printed document for your staff to refer to these common print errors so they don’t waste any more consumables on poorly formatted documents.

10 checks to do prior to clicking print

      1)      Get the MS office setup configured properly

The most common document processor is that of Microsoft Office. It covers a suite of features including PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and Publisher.

There is a problem with it though. It has not been designed to produce press ready documents ready for print. On occasion, some manipulation is required. This is due to conflicts between the print driver and the Microsoft coding. Word can override the print driver and cause the output to vary in the margin size, or even paper size.

If that happens, Microsoft has this workaround, however, another option is to convert the file to PDF. Most commercial grade printers recognise PDF properties and do not allow the file commands to override print driver settings.

Some MFPs can handle the file conversion, but there are some units that can’t. If your business MFP does not convert files automatically prior to printing, the set up will need altered.

Page sizes may also need adjusting.

The default for most MS Office documents are set to American page sizes. One of the most basic errors to occur when new hardware is installed on site is the default MS Word being set to US. It’s a different page setup size to UK print.

Whatever size of paper you are printing to; always check the page margins and size are set to UK A3, A4, A5, or any other custom size you require.

There’s a useful guide to UK paper sizes here

      2)      Don’t hit ‘enter’ to get to a new page

Let’s face it, reaching the bottom of the page with only a few lines left to run is much easier to repeatedly strike the enter key and hit the new page we need for the next section of the document. It’s a rookie mistake, and a lazy one at that, albeit for the effectiveness of productivity.

Many a person has this habit because it is faster, but prior to printing, the editing stage of document production must include inserting page breaks where appropriate.

Otherwise, any training manuals or other documents printed will have a messed up index. The page numbers will not correspond with the table of contents. Chapters will run into each other and the entire document can be ruined. That can be a costly error when mass printing volumes. All because of one simple tweak in the editing stage being skipped.

      3)      Don’t get fancy with fonts

Custom fonts are great for presentation purposes, but if they are not on the hard drive of the networked PC/computing device and printer, it will automatically switch to one that is.

When this gets disastrous is when documents have been edited in different processors through file sharing. Employees can do some work on their PC at their workstation, share it via Google Drive and log in to do some adjustments or insert some information and it’s inserted in a different font. If that font isn’t recognised, you could have a print output with different fonts which won’t look right at all.

The best practice is to stick to universally recognised fonts, such as Times New Roman, and Arial. Otherwise, you will need to ensure you send the fonts files to the printer to render.

      4)      Know the difference between screen quality and print quality

There is a huge difference between these two. A screen grab can look pixel perfect on your monitor, but print it out and you’ll scratch your head wondering what you did wrong. It’s simply pixels playing tricks on you.

Monitors can display quality graphics at 72 PPI (Pixels Per Inch). Printers cannot give a quality print with a low pixel amount to work from. For a quality image print, you need 300 ppi, although you may be able to get away with 150.

This is important to note because Clipart graphics and images downloaded from the web are not print optimised. You may be able to scale an image down in size, but you cannot scale it up. Even using sophisticated image manipulation software you will not get quality results.

Images for print must be high resolution to start with. That’s why there’s an entire market for high quality digital cameras. They produce imagery capable of press print quality. Downloaded images do not do that because they are mostly compressed in file size to save on memory.

      5)      Transparent backgrounds are  a no go

Unless you are trained in graphic design and know the technical intricacies of watermarking documents, do not attempt to do this. The only exception is if it is already installed within the Watermarks Gallery of MS Word. If you choose to do a custom watermark using a transparent background, you can find the print output will not render it, and instead produce a crosshatch pattern across the entire document.

This will happen if the printer driver doesn’t recognise the syntax that’s been inserted into the document.

     6)      Know the file formats the printer understands

Files can be saved as many formats but save in something the printer doesn’t recognise and you’ll have a hard time achieving a quality output. You need the input to correspond with the effective output. The universally industry standard is Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF).

Converting to PDF reduces file sizes and maximises the digital memory capacity of the printers.

Generally, you can expect PDF, Tiff, Jpeg, and EPS to be printer recognisable file formats on many colour MFPs.
  

      7)      Chose the right print quality for the job

This is one of the most effective ways to cut costs fast. In an unmanaged print environment, the first run will be done on the highest resolution, which will soar the cost of print.

When you send a print job to any printer, you have options for the quality you require. If you’re only requiring a test run to find out if the document will print okay, then you do not need to print on the highest resolution possible.

There is a reason the settings have a low quality print option and that is to print drafts. It will give you an overview of how your final document will look. This is the best setting to alert you if you have the page margins set up wrong, if the enter key has been used instead of page breaks and that the page numbers correspond to the index in the document.

When printing any first draft document, select low resolution. That can be anywhere from 72 – 150 dpi which is screen quality only. When you’re satisfied the document will print as you want it to, then opt for the high resolution option, which could be anywhere upwards of 600 dpi.

The higher the resolution, the higher the cost of print, and the faster you’ll burn through toner kits, or ink cartridges if your business still uses them.

      8)      Set Desktop Publishing Software settings to align with the printer

For businesses designing their own posters, or colour brochures, and pretty much anything that requires colour printing, you need to set the DTP to CMYK colour mode. As you may or may not know, graphic design has two colour systems. The CYMK model stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key [black]. The RGB colour model is light based representing red, green, and blue. That only works on screens because it’s based on light colour and not on ink.

As much as technology has advanced over the years, it is impossible to produce colour out of light. That requires ink and that’s why you need to have your graphics designed with the CYMK colour system enabled. It’s the only way to print images.

     9)      Know your image limitations

Before you even consider printing a colour image, you need to know if it’s going to look horrendous before you send the job to the printer. The way to tell is the image resolution.

As previously mentioned, you cannot scale images up in size. If you have an image designed for a postcard (A6) paper size, and the DPI is 300, if you double that to fill an A4 sheet, you will cut the resolution in half.

Whenever you scale an image up in size, it reduces the resolution. The print output result will be pixelated, and not the sharp and crisp image that you see on your screen. Any raster images you are working with - ensure they are a minimum of 300 dpi when sending to print.

In terms of image size, there’s a reason the government’s traffic-sign images are supplied to professionals in two formats. Jpeg, and EPS (Encapsulated PostScript). The majority of commercial printers recognise Jpeg file format, but only top quality printers will have EPS file comprehension. If you need to scale images, you need a printer with EPS functionality; otherwise, you’ll have a difficult time producing large poster size quality prints.

     10)   Always account for bleeds when the feature is enabled

Full bleed printers are important for colour brochures, poster printing and similar graphical print jobs. The margins can be up to five millimetres of a differential to the original document you sent to print.

The bleed feature is designed to enable right to the edge printing. You’ll know yourself when you print a document, or even use your home printer for a photo printout, you’ll have a white border surrounding it.

The bleed is there to get rid of that white border.

Where the problem creeps up is when people forget about the bleed feature and print a colour brochure with text on the edge of the document, or even page numbers. The printer will print to a larger size of paper, but once it’s been processed it will then be trimmed to ensure the colour does indeed run right to the edge of the paper. If you forget to account for that, you will find page numbers being cropped out, or even text cut completely out the document.

If you work with a large number of file formats, or find that you’re spending more than you’re comfortable with, it could be mishaps in your print management. You can refer to our printassessment information here, learn about print technology here, or a contact member of the Copylogic team here for any advice you need on print management.

Print Technology: Discover What Your Business Really Needs

A thorough analysis of a print output environment puts businesses in-the-know about their document management process. That data helps businesses of all sizes gain a unique perspective of what their print requirements are.

It is imperative decision makers have a clear idea of what they require any multifunction printer to do before investing. Without the data, things can go catastrophically wrong.
The decision on the technology you need must be based on the present print environment and not future projections. Taking that approach is likely to lead to operating over capacity. That happens when you pay a premium for advanced features that never get used.
Armed with the appropriate printing technology, costs will be significantly reduced and IT support time minimised. That is what will happen when you have the right MFP to cater to your organisations specific needs.

Print Technology Explained

     1.  Understanding the laser printing process

Laser printing technology is the most cost efficient printing technology there is. It is complex; however, it is also the very best at reducing print costs and providing cutting edge speed output.

To get an understanding of the entire process, we’ll turn you over to a guy that calls himself Professor Messor. Don’t know why the name, but he’s got a superb walkthrough on laser printer technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK0WrnFOg0I

     2.  Network printing

This is essential for efficient document management. The old method of serial port connections are not efficient because each unit will need connecting independently. Network printers are as the name implies. They are networked, and that can be done wirelessly or via an Ethernet cable.

     3.  Print servers

Speaking of network printing, this is only made possible with print servers. Over a decade ago, if a business wanted to share printers, the IT administrators would need to install and configure the print servers, and individually connect each printer to the server. The server is the hub that allows multiple printers to be connected through the one central server, so when a driver update rolls out, one update to the central server updates the print drivers for all the printers on the network.

They make IT administration a breeze, however with modern MFPs; the print servers are built into the units.

    4. Memory

With print servers discussed and the ability it has to compartmentalise the print environment, the next thing you need to know about is the memory capacity. With the amount of information going through these units, a high memory capacity is essential.

There are units, such as the TASKalfa 3252ci Colour Photocopier that packs a mighty 160 GB HDD memory storage and options to scan to a searchable PDF database. In essence, it allows you to build a digital filing system. Something that would not be possible with printers with low memory capacity. 

     5.  Cloud printing

Users no longer need to be at their workstations to print documents. With cloud services available from Google Cloud Print and Apple’s AirPrint, any device can be used to send a print job to the MFP.

To take advantage of cloud printing, you need a cloud ready printer.

     6.  Trays and feeders

Since MFPs are designed to cater to volume print jobs, they need the input trays and auto feeders there to keep the documents flying into the output tray. Some models only have the one input tray capable of holding one ream (500 sheets A4), whereas others can have multiple, each containing one ream, and also different sizes for different types of print jobs, such as A3 and A4. When one stack empties, the machine will automatically switch to restock.

Depending on your print requirements, you may need to have a manual feed option. This would be the case if you were to be printing directly onto envelopes. If your device were set up for duplex printing by default, a mass auto print job would be a nightmare. In that situation, you would need to alter the print settings manually and ensure the envelopes were inserted the right way, which auto feeders can lack.

     7.  Output and cost reporting functionality

Networked printers streamline document management, but they also make it super easy for users to print at a fast pace and get more done. That needs to be managed to ensure people are not being careless. Priorities can be set, (just the same as you can with print servers), assign permissions to different users, different offices, and even different locations.

For volume printing to be managed effectively, you really can’t be without the cost reporting functionality.

     8.  Permission based printing

IT administrators have a painstaking task of managing print budgets. If the costs are hiking, they likely need to adjust the parameters in the server’s active directory, resetting priorities, and applying restrictions to users and departments.

Instead, budget parameters can be set so that when a department approaches the monetary limitations set, the system will alert them to consider black and white print, and if colour is necessary to seek management approval.

The right technology puts the controls at your fingertips to strategically manage your entire print environment. 

     9.  Security protocols and card readers

Some information being printed may be confidential. In that case, card readers can be used so that any print jobs queued can only be printed when the user’s card is inserted into the printer. 

The most important detail is the monthly duty cycle

This is critical to get right. Every MFP information sheet will let you know what the machine can comfortably handle in any given month. That is the monthly duty cycle. Not the life cycle, which is how long the machine can last you when it is used to the monthly duty cycle maximum.

The best thing you can do is assess your print environment, establish your print volume, and invest in a multifunctional printer that can handle more than you need it to. If you print 15’000 pages per month, use a unit that can handle 20’000 pages per month. That way you can be sure that the machine is built to do what you need it to without overworking it, which will likely cause operational/maintenance issues.

How to Assess Your Print Output Environment

The UK is the worst in the Europe for document management. Or, mismanagement for a better word. Businesses are looking for ways to print cost effectively, while slacklining in an attempt to lower carbon emissions in accordance with the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. Sure isn’t an easy task to accomplish.

Poor print management is hurting the bottom line of many businesses. If one of those is yours, we’ll guide you onto the best track for an innovative solution.

That is, if you’re a SMB owner with more than a few employees. A small business with very little done in the way of printing will get by with an inkjet printer, and probably get away with monochrome only.

Those with higher print output though, more employees, more electricity consumption, higher cost of consumables, such as toners, ink cartridges, maintenance kits etc. have a higher cost of ownership, yet a far higher significant advantage toward reducing overheads with efficient document management processes.

As a rule of thumb, if your print volume is higher than 1,000 prints per month, an inkjet printer is costing your business money, and hiking your carbon emissions. Either one of those factors should be enough to tell you that laser is the way to go.

Laser colour photocopiers, or even multifunctional peripherals, (MFPs) which combine scan, print, photocopy, and fax together could be the perfect solution for any business to lower overheads and their carbon footprint.

You will only know if it will or not when you ascertain the data you need to analyse your print output environment.

That’s what we aim to help you with in this post. We will keep things to as basic a level as possible without getting too technical that we lose your interest by immersing you into our world of print. As marvelling as we find it, we understand not everyone is fascinated with technology.

Let’s dive into assessing the print output environment for business evaluation

1)      You need to involve your IT Division (without them, you’re not going to gather much data)

You need these guys/ girls aboard for this process because those are the people running your print network. Or, at least they should be. The days for standalone inkjet printers connected to desktops throughout your office are long gone.

If your business is not operating on a shared network, you’re losing money hand over fist! Networks are the primary drivers that enable businesses to lower their cost of print. 

It’s simple really.

If you have a team of employees, perhaps sharing a monochrome printer between three to four members of your team, connected through an Ethernet cable or the likes, you have a problem. 

If you read our last post about photocopiers in the past, you’ll know the days of paper jams and office workers hanging around a printer waiting for the documents to feed into the paper tray are finished. Anyone who ever worked as an office junior will recall those days vividly.

Thankfully, tech has come a long way to remedy the problems from back in the day.

The point is that you really need to be using shared printers, connecting them through your network, (even wirelessly), and implementing software that encourages your staff to print documents to the most cost efficient device.

A connected network will allow your IT department to gather far more intelligence on your document management via print management software

It’s estimated that 5% of total business revenue in the UK is lost every year to poor document management. Simple things like using print preview in landscape and printing in portrait, or prompting not to print in colour when monochrome would be just as effective.
  

Print Management software alerts the printer supplier when the units are down and bypasses the need for employees to report it to the IT department, preventing the equipment being out of commission for longer than necessary.

Certainly, in today’s offices, there is far more print productivity taking place in comparison to how the economy was haemorrhaging money back in 2008. Canon has an interesting press release here archived from those days. 

To prevent your business going backwards instead of forwards with technology advancements - Involve your IT division in the evaluation process. They will give you key insights into how your business is managing (or mismanaging) your document output.

Every month!

You cannot be short of any information about your print volume and the way it’s used in your business if you’re to stand a fighting chance at getting your print expenditure under control.

2)      You must be thinking of the long-term goal

We mean no offence when we tell you this, but your head needs to be in the right place. The savings are not in the next three months or anywhere close. The savings lie within the duty and life cycle of the photocopier, or MFP.
 

Copier manufacturers provide duty cycle and lifetime cycle information for each their models. The duty cycle is the capacity the MFP can handle monthly, and the lifetime cycle is, well to state the obvious, it’s the life of the unit before it begins to be affected by performance issues.

Commercialcolour photocopiers with laser technology will come at a higher upfront cost than their counterparts, but when you consider the longevity of the photocopiers, and the lower cost of consumables compared to laser printers - it works out much cheaper in the long run.

If you need a unit that does more than copy, opt for the multifunctional units. Each of the modern boxes has a range of technology. (Far too much to cover here, so we’ll save that for another day)

3)      Go deep in your assessment (and make sure management are kept in the loop)

Management must be in the loop with the IT division, because any strategic move to lower overheads naturally needs the approval of upper management.

There’s no point in telling your IT manager that you’re increasing their budget by £4,000 to improve document management. They won’t know what your objectives are other than to reduce company overheads.

You need to look over detailed reports of how many documents are printed monthly, how they are being printed, consider the duty cycle of the copier/printer you’re currently using, the service/repair costs to keep the units operational, and all the costs for consumables that your currently spending on. Remember to factor for shipping costs as well as they aren’t long in racking up.

It all comes back around to the total cost of ownership and that’s what your print output assessment is designed to help you do.

Assess the real cost of printing you’re currently spending and then implement strategies to reduce that cost.

Until you have your print usage data reports from your IT department, you won’t be in a position to know the best cost reduction method for you to deploy across your business.

Businesses with more than one location are at a major disadvantage if they aren’t on a connected shared network. There is technology there that lets you manage an entire fleet of MFPs from a single central unit. Whether you need that or not depends on your monthly print output.

We’ll leave you to collate the data on document management, and then we’ll come back and share some insights into the different technology that exists, what works, what doesn’t for certain situations, and discuss the different print technology that can help lower costs and carbon emissions.

Impatient?

Photocopier tech thrills us because we find it fascinating due to what it makes possible, so if you’re wondering what print technology can do to amp up your document management process, lower your costs, and reduce your carbon footprint, check out some modern and advanced solutions at copylogic.co.uk. 

Until next time,

The team at

+CopyLogic Limited