Because of a long-held perception that colour printing is expensive, most office workers think using a colour printer for routine office documents is a luxury. That's according to a new survey about office worker print behaviours conducted by Zogby and commissioned by Xerox.

In addition, the overwhelming majority said they'd print in colour if it cost the same as black and white printing. So with the financial challenges of current market conditions, being green can provide your organisation with much needed fiscal relief. Being green can help you to save money.

There are more factors in being green in printing than you might think (notice printing in colour isn’t mentioned):

1. Duplexing. Printing on both sides of the stock is an obvious way to save paper. You need to be sure to have a device that makes duplexing easier. In fact, you can set up the print driver to default to duplexing.

2. Printing N-Up (multiple items on the same sheet). If you can print 2 or 4, for example, on the same sheet, you can save some paper. Using traditional tools like MS Word, this can be a bit more of a challenge. Many printers have the capability right in the driver now.

3. Recycled Paper. Using recycled paper may help the environment, but it may not cost you less money. Some printers aren’t designed to handle this media and might require more service and support if used improperly.

4. Ink Saver Mode. Most printers now have an ink saver mode that allows less ink to be used when printing. In many cases, you won’t even know the difference in the quality of printing.

5. Energy Saving Features. Most devices now have the ability to go into energy saver mode. This draws significantly less power but does take some power up time to be ready to print. Saving energy means saving money.