Southwest Office Solutions

Your Xerox MFP has a lot of built-in features.

Even if you never visited the Xerox App Gallery, you’d still be able to get a lot (and perhaps even most) of your critical work done.

Having said that, making use of the functionality extending software available on the Xerox App Gallery is absolutely recommended. If you haven’t had a chance to see what’s available, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised (if not outright blown away) by all of the amazing things you can do with modern Xerox technology.

Here’s just a sampling of posts from the Southwest Office Solutions blog that can get your imagination running:

Anyway, back to the point—even without utilizing apps, you still have a lot of power at your fingertips. If increasing print speed is something you’d like to do, in today’s post we’ll go over three tips that will have your PPM breaking all kinds of records.

Tip #1: Select the Correct Print Mode for Your Task

Your Xerox MFP is capable of printing in different “modes,” each of which determines the quality and characteristics of the document being printed. These range in quality from gallery to draft.

Gallery (sometimes called presentation) mode will yield the highest quality prints, best reserved for when you really need a document to look great. Standard mode is what it sounds like—good quality but not “presentation ready,” necessarily. And draft mode is the lowest quality setting, but utilizes the least resources. It also happens to be the fastest print mode in almost all cases.

Draft mode is an underutilized print mode in many offices. If you’re printing out “working” documents, meaning they don’t need to look perfect for, say, a client or an important presentation, this is the best mode to use. You’ll use less print resources and the documents will be printed at a faster rate.

Tip #2: Understand the Pros and Cons of Simplex Mode vs. Two-Sided Printing

Two-sided printing seems like it would be a great time-saver. While the difference in print speed between two-sided and simplex (single-sided) printing isn’t huge, it’s not insignificant either—if you need a document fast and you don’t mind expending a bit more paper to get it out immediately, stick to simplex mode.

Tip #3: Use a Lower Resolution When Possible, Add Memory if Necessary

If you’re printing image-heavy documents, they’ll look the best when you’re using a high-resolution setting. This, however, requires more computing resources to be used by the printer, which makes sense if you think about it: more complexity, more resources used.

Therefore, if you’re printing a document that doesn’t need to look presentation-perfect and it features a lot of images, or the file size is just quite large in general, consider lowering the resolution of the final print. It won’t look as pretty, but it’ll print out faster.

If maintaining a high resolution is important to you, the solution for speedier complex prints may require upgrading the memory in your unit—which isn’t nearly as expensive or intimidating as it sounds. We’d be happy to help.

Learn About More Ways to Speed Up Printing & Boost Office Efficiency at Southwest Office Solutions

What we’ve discussed today barely scratches the surface of what’s possible with a modern Xerox multifunction printer! If you’d like to learn more, please feel free to contact us or, if it’s time to upgrade your equipment, you may also request a free online quote.