I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love using fun, colorful planner stickers to organize my life. There’s just something so motivating about opening my planner and seeing those vibrant little stickers guiding me through my day.
But as much as I enjoy decorating with stickers, I know it can really add up when you’re printing them at home. Toner and ink cartridges aren’t cheap! And if you’re anything like me, going through them faster than you’d like thanks to your sticker obsession.
Well, the good news is there are some simple tricks you can use to cut down on toner usage when printing planner stickers at home. As a professional custom planner printing manufacturer, I’ve tested out a bunch of methods for reducing toner. And in this post, I’ll share everything I’ve learned!
Why Does Printing Planner Stickers Use So Much Toner?
First, let’s quickly look at why printing stickers results in higher toner usage compared to regular documents.
The main reason is because stickers tend to feature more saturated colors, decorative backgrounds, images, and other toner-intensive design elements.
Stickers like these put your printer’s toner through its paces! All of those vivid colors get achieved by layering multiple passes of cyan, magenta, yellow and black toner.
So if you’re printing page after page of festive, creative stickers, it’s no wonder you’re plowing through toner cartridges faster than normal.
Luckily, there are some easy ways to lighten up your sticker designs to conserve toner when printing. Keep reading to find out how!
5 Tricks for Reducing Toner Use With Planner Stickers
Here are my top 5 tried and true methods for cutting down on toner usage when printing homemade planner stickers:
1. Use Toner-Saving Settings
Most printers nowadays come with built-in settings to help conserve toner. For example, Epson Ecotank printers have an “ink saving mode” that uses less ink while printing. Canon printers have an ” toner save mode” that does the same thing.
So before printing your latest batch of stickers, dive into your printer’s settings menu and see if there’s an option to print in “draft quality” or enable any kind of toner-saving mode.
Reducing print quality slightly might make your stickers look a tiny bit less crisp. But it’s nearly unnoticeable in my experience. And so worth it for slashing toner usage!
2. Print Stickers in Black and White
Here’s an easy trick: convert your sticker designs to black and white before printing.
I know, the idea of colorless stickers might seem boring. But black and white stickers printed on fun colored paper can look incredibly chic!
For example, imagine a black and white floral sticker motif printed on pastel pink sticker paper. So cute!
Since black toner is much more affordable than color toner, switching to monochrome can save you a bundle.
3. Use Less Ink-Intensive Colors
Certain colors use way more toner than others when printing. For example, pure red is very ink-hungry compared to muted tones like beige.
So when creating sticker designs, try using less vibrant shades whenever possible. Soft pastels, earth tones and darker shades are easier on your toner supply.
You can also avoid incorporating large areas of pure white in your designs. Blank white spaces seem innocent, but require multiple toner passes to achieve that bright look!
4. Incorporate Negative Space
Negative space refers to blank areas scattered artfully throughout a design.
Using negative space is a timeless design principle for a reason – it creates visual breathing room and draws the eye towards the most important elements.
But negative space also has the nice side benefit of conserving toner when printing stickers!
Rather than cramming in backgrounds, borders and other toner-gobbling details, try keeping 30-50% of your sticker design empty.
Your printer (and wallet) will thank you.
5. Print Test Pages First
This last tip applies not just for reducing toner usage, but for any kind of home printing project.
Always always always print a test page on plain paper before moving onto the actual sticker sheets.
Testing first allows you to catch any issues with alignment, quality, or design before you commit to using up your precious sticker supply.
Plus, evaluating a plain paper test print gives you a chance to spot potential toner waste issues before they happen.
For example, you might notice that one particular graphic seems to use way more ink than everything else. So you could simplify it before the final print to prevent toner from running low too quickly.
Choosing Toner-Friendly Planner Stickers
All this talk of carefully conserving toner makes creating stickers seem like stressful business!
Luckily, there’s an easy alternative if you want effortless, affordable sticker printing without the toner worries:
Buy pre-made printable sticker sheets instead of designing your own.
Many printable sticker shops create their designs specifically to be toner-friendly. The patterns tend to feature:
- Open negative space
- Strategic use of white backgrounds
- Simple color palettes
- Clean lines and shapes instead of gradients
So not only are the designs beautiful, they naturally conserve toner too!
It’s a win-win situation – you get to decorate your planner with lovely designs without draining your printer’s ink.
Start Reducing Your Toner Use Today
Who would have thought that pretty planner stickers could be so tough on your printer’s toner supply?
Luckily, armed with the toner-saving wisdom I shared today, you can keep on printing stickers to your heart’s content without going broke.
Now you know how to:
- Enable toner conservation modes when printing
- Convert designs to toner-friendly black and white
- Use less ink-intensive colors
- Incorporate negative space
- Print test pages first to catch issues
Or simplify even further by buying pre-made printable stickers intended to save toner.
The most important thing is that you can keep enjoying decorating with stickers, while keeping operating costs as low as possible.
Let me know if you have any other clever tricks for reducing toner usage when printing planner stickers or other home projects! I’d love to hear what methods have worked for you.
Now get out there and start sticking! Just remember these toner tips and you’ll be good to go.