Color pages cost five to ten times more to print than black-and-white. Most offices know that and still bleed money on unnecessary color. Here's how to cut color spend without anyone feeling like they lost something.
1. Default to Black, Not Color
Every printer driver, on every workstation, set to black-and-white by default. Users can switch to color when they actually need it. This single change typically cuts color volume 30-50% in the first month, with no complaints.
2. Send Email Threads to the Black Queue
Most of what people print is email threads, calendar invites, and meeting notes. None of it needs color. A print rule that auto-converts these document types to black saves money silently.
3. Two Queues, Two Devices
If you have a color machine and a black-and-white machine, separate the queues entirely. Print to color is an explicit choice, not a default. Many offices find they can downsize the color device when usage drops.
4. The "Was This Worth a Penny?" Test
If a color page costs ten cents and a black page costs one cent, the question for any color page is: was this nine cents better than the black version? For headshots in a hiring packet — yes. For a draft of a memo — no.
5. Track Per-Department Color Volume
MPS and most modern copiers can break down color use by user or department. Shared visibility — even just an email to managers — drops usage by the simple act of measuring it. Nobody wants to be on the top of the color leaderboard.
6. Negotiate Tiered Pricing
Most contracts have a single color rate. Ask about tiered pricing where the per-page cost drops once you've crossed a volume threshold. If you print a lot of color, the savings are real. If you print a little, you'll discover it doesn't matter — which is its own answer.
If you're rethinking how your print fleet is set up, we're happy to walk through what you have and where it could be working harder. No obligation, just a conversation.
