Readers respond: To print or not to print

Suzanne Choney • E-mail

When it comes to printers and printing, some of you are going green and saving green at the same time.

That’s what you said in e-mail responses to questions about whether you’re printing more now at home than you did a year ago, or even five years ago.

You’re pruning your printing, in part thanks to other technology, such as flash memory drives, or keeping documents and photos on the computer, or online.

Some of you have also switched to laser printers, which have longer-lasting toner cartridges, instead of making those frequent trips to the office supply store for expensive inkjet cartridges.

In “Laser printers find a home at home” April 24, I wrote about how smaller and cheaper laser printers are making their way into more households. Inkjet printers still rule, and multi-function inkjets in particular, dominate the home printer market, said Tricia Parks, CEO of Parks Associate market research firm.

In the story, IDC Research analyst Keith Kmetz wondered if some consumers “may not be printing as much as they used to,” because more information is stored online or sent in e-mails, and the increasing use of GPS devices is eliminating the need to print out directions from Web sites such as MapQuest, Google and Yahoo.

Cutting it back
College professor Tom Birkland, of Raleigh, N.C., said he is printing “far less” than he did five years ago.

He never prints his lecture notes, and “all my students' papers are submitted, marked and graded, and returned electronically,” he said in his e-mail.

“I used to go through a case of paper a year; now, I can buy half a case and it will last many years. (I don't buy much ink and toner, either). To save Web pages, I print to PDF (Portable Document Format) and store on my computer. I use a GPS in the car, but when I print Google maps, it's usually on my color printer.”

Part-time student Taylor Darcy, from San Marcos, Calif., who also works part time, has a Dell color laser printer she bought last year, and “couldn’t be more happy. I have yet to go through toner, so it is pretty cost-effective for me,” she said in a e-mail.

“I still have many professors (who) require essays/assignments to be submitted via paper. I would prefer to submit them via e-mail, but many of them are very archaic and old-fashioned.”

Keith Picher e-mailed that he is “printing far less than before because of cheaper jump drives, external drives, hard drives and online backup options.

“With limitless cheap memory, the decision of whether or not to print often can be postponed. That also applies to photos.”

Lois Webb figures she is printing about 10 percent more now than she did a year ago, using both a laser and an inkjet printer.

“I print programs, greeting cards and bookmarks for my church,” she e-mailed. “I use the laser printer for the larger projects and certain graphics because of the quality of the picture, and I use the inkjet to print on specialty papers that are not laser-compatible.”

And, she added, at the end of her e-mail: “I am 80 years old and really appreciate the convenience of modern technology.”

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