Posted by Erin Gately, HP Deskjet Environmental Steward

Ever wondered how to print in a more environmentally friendly way? As an Environmental Product Steward working on HP Deskjet printers, part of my job is to know all the green features of our products. What if I told you that you could go green and save money when printing with all HP’s Deskjet, Photosmart and Officejet printers? Here are 7 tips for utilizing the green features of your HP inkjet printer.

1. HP Smart Web Printing – Down load the free HP Smart Web Printing software from HP and you can print smarter from the web. This software allows you to decide how and what you want to print off the web. Printing only the pages you need saves paper and reduces waste.

2. Print on both sides of your paper – Did you know your HP inkjet printer has the ability to print on both sides of the page? This saves paper which saves money and our planet. Why should you care about printing on both sides of the page? It turns out that in a Life Cycle Analysis of a Deskjet printer, the number one thing you can do to reduce the environmental impact of printing is to print on both sides of the page. It is a great habit to get into. Plus, it saves paper which saves you money! If you have an HP inkjet printer then you can print on both sides of the page with the manual duplexing option standard in all HP products. To see how it is done, check out this HP Uncut Video.

3. Print multiple pages on a sheet – For certain documents; you may want to print more than one page on a single sheet. You can print up to 16 pages on a single sheet of paper! This is a cost effective way to print draft pages.

Figure 1: Sample layout options (1-up, 2-up, and 4-up)*

1. Make sure you have paper loaded in the input tray.
2. On the File menu in your software application, click Print.
3. Make sure your product is the selected printer.
4. Click the button that opens the Properties dialog box.
5. Depending on your software application, this button might be called Properties, Options, Printer Setup, Printer, or Preferences.
6. Click the Features tab.
7. In the Pages per sheet list, click 2, 4, 6, 9, or 16.
8. If you want a border to appear around each page image printed on the sheet of paper, select the Print page borders check box.
9. In the Page order list, click an appropriate page order option.
10. The sample output graphic is numbered to show how the pages will be ordered if you select each option.
11. Click OK, and then click Print or OK in the Print dialog box.

4. Use the correct print mode – Did you know that your printer has several different print modes that provide different levels of print quality? You can choose a print mode based on the print quality and speed you need for what you are printing. Using the correct print mode means you are always using the correct amount of ink. Printing in Fast Draft mode uses less ink while Best mode uses more. Print quality options include: Fast Draft, Fast Normal, Normal, Best, Maximum dpi. For important documents you may want to use the “Best” mode. For draft documents, you can use the “Fast Draft” mode. For photos you may want to pick the Best mode for the photo paper you are using. Use the print quality that matches your print job. Which print mode matches your everyday printing? Use the Control Panel of your computer to set the print mode you most often use.

5. Optimize your print area – Documents in academia often have strict rules which define the print area of a page. For the rest of us, we can optimize our print area of the page. By expanding your margins, you can utilize more print area. Many word processing documents have a default template so every time you open a new document; it is formatted in a particular way. Play around with this default template to optimize your print area.

6. Enjoy your printer’s low power mode – Most HP inkjet printers automatically go into a low power state after a few minutes of inactivity. You don’t need to do anything – just enjoy the fact that HP has worked to reduce your overall power consumption.

7. Turn off your printer – You might be able to save energy by turning your printer off. There are several implications of doing so. Look for an upcoming blog to give you all the inside info on when you should and shouldn't turn your printer off. Why would you want to turn off your printer (or computer or task lights)? Even when you are not using your printer, it is still using energy. You might be surprised at how much energy your printer might be drawing while it is just sitting on your desk. Generally, depending on the model, it will draw between 0.1 and 2 Watts of power - just sitting there. But if you aren't sitting there, turn it off. This goes for all your electrical devices.

Certainly, in some instances, you won't want to turn your printer off. If your printer is on a network and is used by many people, you may not want to turn it off. If you have a multifunction device that needs to be able to accept faxes, you probably don't want to turn it off. But all the rest of you can save money and reduce the amount of power drawn which is good for our planet. So how exactly do you turn off your printer (or computer)? Just find and push the button that looks like the line drawing above. If you have an older printer or multifunction device, you may need to press and hold the button for a few seconds to get it into its lowest power state. In the lowest power state, it is likely drawing less than one watt of power. In order to draw zero watts of power, unplug your device.

Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original authors, not of HP and may not have been reviewed in advance by HP.