Boring printing question

[Corporatepreggolady]

Hello all

I'm starting a job in a few weeks and want to hit the ground running (temporary contract).

It involves report writing. So to do my research, I want to go through previous reports thoroughly. Some of them are 250 pages.

How would I print this many pages without breaking the bank? I have a crappy little PIXMA at home that would probably fall apart, or the library at 25p a sheet. Any other ideas?

(I find printed docs easier to read before anyone suggests screen)

Years ago when I had to read a lot of pdfs for a course, I bought an ereader and read them on it. Not quite as good as paper, but better than printing.

Yes, I have looked into these. I know printing is bad but for editorial, proofread-y jobs where you need to annotate and add Post-Its to come back to something... Well I don't know, I would find it hard to do the work I do without physical printouts. Maybe I'm an old hen.

Do you need to understand the entire report, or could you prioritise sections?

Any chance they are publically available documents and therefore worth seeing if a local print shop could do them for cheaper?

When I used to do proofreading I had a mono laser printer. I used to have to print documents out (as you say, much easier to read that way). I had a brother one and the toner cartridges were relatively good value, and the print quality very good even with small fonts.

I don't know the costs involved, but I'd look for a local print shop better geared to bulk than the library. You might be able to get it cheaper?

Buy a mono laser printer.

I have an editorial job and I haven't printed anything off at work since 2018. All of my work is done on screen. I would wait and see what the set up is when you actually start. You surely don't need to do that much research in advance that hundreds of paper pages are required!

Yes this is true, I'd probs only need to print off two thirds.

I would aim to print as double sided, two to a page - turning 250 pages into 63 sheets, and then be selective on which to print.
Depending on the document and eyesight I’d try for four to a page - 32 sheets

I worked in print media (books and magazines) for 20+ years. By 1999, the year I left the industry, proof-reading was already on the decline and these days spell-checks and grammar programs remove much of the need to print up pages and read them word-for-word. If you're going to be working from home a reasonably priced mono laser printer (I have a Brother which has been v reliable) would do the job well enough. John Lewis have one currently at £99.99. Avoid the ink subscriptions, they're a rip-off.

Proof on screen. Buy yourself a big monitor and an Acrobat Pro subscription

There are chat GPT add ons that can summarise documents.

Printing wise I have an Epson Expression 4205 and a monthly ink subscription. I just upped it to 300 pages for £10. There are bigger subscriptions. They post the ink before you run put and unused allowance rolls over. I don't think that's a rip off given the printer itself costs £30. It depends how much money you can afford to outlay on a printer- if just black and white then okay maybe a mono laser, but I need colour sometimes plus double sided printing which is not cheap. I suppose you could have two printers. I looked at tank printers but the ink dries up if you have bouts of not using it..

Another alternative is to get a dual monitor setup. I find this incredibly helpful - the document open on one screen and I can take notes on the other screen.