How Custom Printer Settings Can Streamline Document Workflows

From the outside, it may appear that most organizations have completely transitioned to digital services and technologies. But some old-school processes persist. For instance, printing remains vital for organizations, and managing printing is actually more complex than it appears.  

At first glance, the average printing process looks simple enough. But when things go wrong, even slightly, the delays and complications that ensue can spell trouble for enterprises. On the other hand, if businesses optimize their print operations, the ripple effect can be profound. 

In this article, we’re going to examine how custom settings can be the key to streamlining printing workflows. Basically, we’re going to give no-nonsense and actionable guidance on how to use printers for better efficiency and consistency in a world where every second counts. 

What are Custom Printer Settings? 

When we say “custom printer settings,” we’re basically talking about fine-tuning your printers and print environments to effectively meet the unique document and printing demands of your organization. By that logic, it’s important to know that your strategy doesn’t have to mimic other organizations’ strategies. Instead, it’s about pinpointing your printing needs and setting up an intricately designed plan that gets rid of printing bottlenecks that plague your teams. 

Out-of-the-box print settings are suitable for basic use cases. However, organizations with unique printing needs, stretched budgets, and tight deadlines need to make sure that every aspect of a print job is optimized for maximum productivity and resource efficiency. 

Even within an organization, businesses can customize printer settings for specific projects, teams, and use cases. But when we’re talking about printer settings, what exactly does that encompass? Let’s take a look at what kind of printer settings businesses should consider customizing to suit their needs:  

• Paper size and type (A4, A5, etc.) 
• Color modes (color or grayscale)
• Print resolution (Low, standard, or high quality, measured in Dots Per Inch or DPI)
• Printer access controls and user permissions 
• Predefined templates for common print jobs
• Duplex printing (single or double-sided) 
• Document layout, design, and orientation (horizontal vs. vertical, or inclusion of logos and headers) 
• Print queue prioritization

Before we proceed with custom printer settings, let’s examine what they will replace. Specifically, we’ll discuss the challenges associated with legacy and out-of-the-box print settings. 

Common Pain Points of Print Workflows 

In the large scheme of things, organizations might wonder why customizing print production processes is important. Let’s quickly take a look at the repercussions of having suboptimal print production workflows: 

Poor Print Output

Haphazard print management and inconsistent printer settings can have a direct impact on the quality of the documents they print. Design inconsistencies and quality lulls may become more frequent, which is a bad look for organizations. 

Low Productivity 

A minor printing inefficiency may not seem so catastrophic. However, when small printing bottlenecks add up, they could result in missed deadlines and project delays. Remember: productivity and morale are interlinked, so when printing user experience is bad, it will affect their morale and job satisfaction. 

Higher Costs

Printing isn’t cheap. From the cost of procuring commercial printers to restocking paper and toner, printing environments consume a significant amount of resources. When printer settings are slipshod, these costs rise exponentially. One or two instances of reprinting aren’t a big deal, but every day for months on end? That’s trouble. 

Increased Downtime

On a good day, inconsistent printer settings can cause a few headaches. On a bad day, businesses might experience full-fledged downtime, especially if printing is critical to their operations. Keep in mind that in today’s world, even a few minutes of downtime stemming from printing issues could cost thousands of dollars. 

Excessive Manual Work

Printing and document management are pretty complex, but doubly so if teams are tackling them manually. If you’re establishing new printer settings every single time you have a print job, that’s going to take forever, and you’ll probably make a few mistakes along the way.

Subpar Flexibility/Scalability

If printer settings aren’t dialed in, businesses won’t be able to deal with unexpected surges in print requirements or random ad hoc requirements. And remember: inflexibility is the antithesis of modern business operations.

The Advantages of Custom Printer Settings 

Now that we’ve seen the pain points of printing, let’s see how custom printer settings can flip the script. Here’s a high-level look at the benefits that custom printer settings can provide: 

Increased Efficiency and Cost Savings

Using templates and presets aligned with your organization’s printing standards saves time, money, and manual work. 

More Interconnected IT

If you dial in your printer settings, you’ll notice that your entire digital infrastructure—software and hardware—is more unified. 

Heightened Consistency

Optimal printer settings help ensure that print jobs maintain a high level of quality and consistency across teams, departments, and use cases. 

Better Security

Believe it or not, printers have cybersecurity vulnerabilities (like these). By fine-tuning access controls and permissions in the printer settings, you can prevent data breaches and security incidents. 

Stronger Compliance

Security and compliance are tied, which means security mishaps as a result of printer lapses will lead to regulatory problems. Better printer settings will lead to a stronger compliance posture. 

Boosted Sustainability

Custom printer settings will eliminate wastage of paper, toner, and other vital resources. The result? Your company will be cleaner and greener. 

The benefits mentioned above can be transformative, but how can businesses unlock them? 

Best Practices: Setting Up Printers for Better Efficiency and Consistency

Below are some simple and actionable strategies to customize printer settings. The main objective? Making your printers as resource-efficient and productive as possible. Let’s dive right in. 

Establish Organizational Printing Standards 

Before you start tinkering with your printer settings, it’s crucial to establish some basic standards. These printing standards should apply across teams and departments of your organization. This applies to everyone, from organizations with small printing ecosystems to full-fledged print shops. 

These standards essentially define the non-negotiables: what paper to use, what type of access controls to implement, and what predefined resolution and color settings are in place, among other details. 

Your first goal is simply to define these standards. In this step, you’re essentially creating a basic print management governance framework. The stronger the framework, the more efficient your printing will be. 

Next, it’s a good idea to use robust print workflow software to carry out these changes across the organization, and we’ll get into that in more detail soon.

Set Up Automation-Driven Print Workflows

Automation equals efficiency, even in printing. But you can’t automate print jobs without the help of some powerful tools. With the right workflow automation software solutions, you can automate every step of the print lifecycle. This includes everything from selecting a printer and print settings to queuing and finishing a print job. 

Automation, in particular, is beneficial for prepress print processes. For instance, think of a process like imposition, which involves arranging documents so that they’re printed in the correct order. Imposition is particularly important when documents have to be cut or bound into small print media. If a process like imposition is optimally automated, businesses can significantly reduce cost and time. 

When you’re shopping for automation-driven workflow solutions, make sure that you choose tools that are compatible with your existing tech stack. For example, if your designers are comfortable with a specific software, ensure that your automation workflow software can integrate with it. 

Shift to Cloud-Based Print Management Strategies 

If you’re running a high-octane printing ecosystem or just want a more straightforward, more streamlined approach to printing, consider shifting to the cloud. Relocating your print management setup to the cloud introduces many benefits. For instance, your employees can manage and deploy print jobs both onsite and off. 

Another crucial factor to consider is that most businesses have already moved to the cloud. So, if the majority of operations are cloud-based, it’s logical to weave digital printing into cloud plans as well. 

Use Print Dashboards 

How can you measure if your custom printer settings are effective? Dashboards can help. The more visual, the better. Centralized dashboards with custom key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics can provide comprehensive real-time insights into what’s printed and with what settings. Basically, it gives teams complete visibility of the print lifecycle. 

Print dashboards are also helpful to fine-tune custom printer settings continuously. For instance, employees might notice that some custom settings aren’t providing the efficiency gains they thought they would. That’s why print dashboards are so critical; it’s the perfect tool to assess and optimize the print ecosystem continuously. 

Dashboards that also provide alerts and notifications are handy, since many employees are busy and might not have the time to check themselves. 

Optimize Printing Infrastructure 

Customizing printer settings is a great idea, but it relies heavily on the capabilities of the printers, copiers, and workflow management software an organization uses. After all, you can only do what your printers and software allow you to do.

Your first move is to assess your existing in-house print ecosystem. If you already have strong and modern printers, then you’re good to go. But if your in-house infrastructure is lacking, you might have to consider third-party print services. More on that soon.

Train Employees on Print Settings 

At the end of the day, your print ecosystem is entirely in the hands of your employees. Therefore, it’s crucial to educate them on why custom printer settings are so important and why keeping an eye on printer performance is the key to long-term success. 

It’s easy to overlook printing as a non-critical activity. And that’s why it’s even more important to emphasize just how linked print performance is to overall efficiency, performance, and productivity. 

Pro tip: Don’t make this a one-way conversation. Make your staff feel comfortable and tell them to share their print workflow efficiency suggestions and ideas. 

Keep Improving Custom Printer Settings 

Setting up printers for better efficiency and consistency is not a one-time initiative. Instead, think of it as a continuous process with iterative improvements. This is important because your print needs, performance objectives, and budgets might ebb and flow, and your print management strategy needs to evolve alongside them.   

Just keep one thing in mind: if you take printer efficiency seriously, you’ll see gains in places you wouldn’t even expect. 

Conclusion 

Custom printer settings can provide myriad benefits to organizations, from enhanced performance and cost efficiency to happier and more productive employees. With the proper printer settings, fine-tuned to meet the needs of your organization, you’ll face less downtime, printing inconsistencies, and human error. 

However, to effectively customize printer settings, you need to get a few things right. For example, you’ll need to establish printing standards, use automation at scale, and shift your print management base to the cloud. Other recommendations include using print dashboards, buying the right printers, and training employees. And don’t forget that iterative improvement is a printing imperative. 

But what if businesses don’t have the in-house resources, infrastructure, or skills to implement custom printer settings? In such cases, there’s nothing to worry about, because with the help of third-party printing solutions and services from a top provider, businesses can unlock profound and transformative gains.