One thing I am always conscious of when designing reports for my clients (and for myself as a small business owner) is Toner & Paper. Toner is expensive and as a personal rule, I try to kill as few trees as possible when printing. So my tip today is to have a second look at any graphics, logos, shading, redundant space, etc. that are on your documents and receipts.
Here’s what I recommend. Avoid blocks of space with solid colours. If you need to have them, try using the lighter if not lightest shades available in those colours. If it’s a simple receipt, try having everything fit on one page (Yes I’m talking to you PayPal). If you have a presentation or proposal that has tons of pictures in it, try having a “printable” version of just text available. Watermarks are also a great alternative to having giant logos on the page. Whatever the case may be, just try to remember that if someone needs to print it, it should be toner and paper friendly.
Here’s what I recommend. Avoid blocks of space with solid colours. If you need to have them, try using the lighter if not lightest shades available in those colours. If it’s a simple receipt, try having everything fit on one page (Yes I’m talking to you PayPal). If you have a presentation or proposal that has tons of pictures in it, try having a “printable” version of just text available. Watermarks are also a great alternative to having giant logos on the page. Whatever the case may be, just try to remember that if someone needs to print it, it should be toner and paper friendly.
Example of a "Square" receipt which has a large, solid block of colour at the top. By the time this prints my paper is warped from so much toner being applied in one spot. A better idea would be to have a softer tone, or pattern that uses far less ink and perhaps darken the symbol in the middle.
PayPal receipts always take up 2 pages unnecessarily. Yes they are trying to convey a lot of information but I'm sure if they tried they could find a way to minimize all the redundant text on the 2nd page.
This is just 1 page of a beautiful presentation I received. However, printing wise - this a toner nightmare. On screen or during an actual proposal the giant pictures with minimal text is perfect, but for general distribution and printing purposes it should be the other way around.
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