5 Ways To Keep Peace With Your Office Printer

by Chelsea Camper | Last Updated December 30, 2015

Your office printer is a loyal but sometimes loathed creature who aims to please you. Sometimes communication gets lost in the chain of command and your printer doesn’t print out exactly what you want. The Chain of Command goes: You > Computer > Printer

Here are five ways to help you keep peace with your printer:

Make Sure You’re Giving the Computer Correct Instructions

Double check your design that you don’t have any typos or strange colors that your printer can’t print or has a hard time printing. If there’s something amiss in the design, the computer is going to tell the printer to print something different than what you want to be printed.

Utilize the Print Preview. Most programs have the option for you to preview what the print will look like. Always use the Print Preview option before printing out a design.

Make Sure the Computer is Giving Correct Instructions

If you have double checked your design that it’s not giving the computer any accidental information, check the printer properties. Here are some things to look for:

Correct paper size
Correct number of copies
Correct duplexing instructions (if applicable)
Correct color settings
Correct margins
Correct number of copies per page

Keep Your Printer Well Fed & Hydrated

Stay stocked on paper and ink/toner. It’s always better to order a little extra so that you have some cushion for testing and room for error than to not order enough and have to put a rush ship on more paper or ink/toner.

Here’s a good method to use so that you never run completely out of ink or toner:

Cartridge A = Ink/Toner cartridge that’s running low in your printer
Cartridge B = Ink/Toner cartridge that you have as a back up at your office
Cartridge C = Ink/Toner cartridge that you’ll order

When cartridge A starts getting low, prepare to replace it with cartridge B. Before cartridge A runs out, order cartridge C. By the time cartridge C gets to the office you’ll have replaced cartridge A with cartridge B and cartridge C is your new backup.

Feed Your Printer the Right Kinds of Foods

You’ll want to make sure you don’t feed your printer anything that it shouldn’t be eating. Don’t feed a laser printer inkjet paper since the coating on the inkjet paper can start to melt inside the heat of your laser printer and cause all sorts of damage to your laser printer.

You’re gonna have a heck of a time feeding an inkjet printer laser toner, nonetheless, you shouldn’t try. Attempting to fit a large toner bottle into a tiny inkjet cartridge area can cause some serious damage to your printer.

Know Your Printer’s Strengths & Weaknesses

Each printer, like each person, has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some strengths and weaknesses are broad: Don’t expect high quality, full color photos from a laser printer and don’t expect scannable barcodes from an inkjet printer. While others are more specific: Some smaller office inkjet printers can’t print on tabloid size paper and some large laser printers have trouble printing on small pieces of coated paper.

Here are a few broad strengths and weaknesses:

Laser Printer Strengths