5 Reasons you should consider having a printer even if we live in the Digital Era
If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what does an empty desk signify?
We all aspire to a paperless utopia— stacks of papers, random sheets sprawled across the desk, just isn’t what we imagined our future to be.
Star Trek and science fiction depicted the 2000s as an age of where we finally embrace screens and pixels, and leave the analog world behind.
We were all promised of a Jetson’s style utopia that the 2000s would be the end of the dreaded paperwork.
And here we are 2 decades in, paper and printer technology thriving and is seeing advancements we could have only dreamed of.
We now have follow-me printing to more ink-efficient (and power efficient) printers and consumables.
How come printers and printed documents are so resilient? stood the test of time
What place do printed materials and technology have in the modern workplace?
Let’s explore it together —
Here are the 5 reasons why print is’nt going anywhere soon:
1. Paper (still) rule the office arena
A clean office means sitting at your desk having done zero paperwork. We’ve long dreamed about this utopian scenario. The reality is paper is the bloodstream of the workplace a workplace can’t survive without paper.
Living in a developing country doesn’t provide us with a steady internet connection and electricity, what happens when the power goes out?
Does that mean the world stops?
Digital is an alternative to paper but a physical copy still holds more weight than its digital counterpart.
Invoices and receipts still need a physical copy. Digital clutter is an ongoing problem because it’s free and doesn’t cost anything we tend to ignore it and let it pile up.
Digital debt and paperwork pile up because we don’t see it and can’t feel it.
The paper takes precedence when getting any work done. There’s a sense of urgency when we see physical paper on our desks as opposed to a digital one.
It is why we still write our tasks down on paper and stick it up on our screens.
Paper rules the workspace.
A digital backup of the work can reside on the server but another layer of redundancy is having a paper copy in the back office.
Paper copies may rot but digital counterparts can get deleted in an instant.
2. Paper Deters Distraction
When you have a physical copy in front of you, it gives you focus and deters frees you from notifications and the “just checks”.
How many times have you opened that PDF file on your phone without being interrupted by a message from your spouse?
Having a document that you can hold in your hands, you can mark up, read, and interact with your document.
You can physically alter the state of the paper by folding it, writing on it, and even crumpling it —when you’re done.
Studies have shown that physically writing things down and engaging with paper provides better retention vs digitally encoding it (aka typing it on screen.)
Thinking happens in the analog world and execution happens in the digital.
3. Paper is Technology Agnostic
You can find texts dating as far back as the early 1900s.
a .docx file can’t be read by a machine in 1995. If the bible had been written digitally, do you think you’d still be able to read it now?
An obsolete file type goes away when the platform closes down.
Backward compatibility is costly and can impede progress —we get that.
SWF files are now obsolete. MS Office can’t read .pages files, but a book will.
Digital in all its might have but one dependency —electricity.
You can hand someone a picture of your family vs, airdropping it to their phones (which only works when both of you live in iOS)
4. Printed Materials Can Do it All-day!
Posters, Banners, and Outdoor ads work best when the sun is brightest, as opposed to their digital counterparts where it’s indiscernible even with the brightest setting.
Physical banners and ads provide permanence and retention. They don’t need batteries or electricity to work.
This also goes for restaurant menus. You can flip back and forth you can’t do this with its digital counterpart.
Digital menus can look lazy, and crude. (even if it’s beautifully designed)
Printed menus show you that the restaurant has shown some professionalism and care in preparing their food because they’ve exerted effort in preparing a physical printed menu.
It’s easier to discern a physical billboard on the street as opposed to a digital one.
Print is more eco-friendly as it consumes zero electricity.
Posted memorandums on a physical bulletin board garner your attention.
Speaking of attention —
BONUS: Print will Get Attention
How many digital documents do house on your machine currently? hundreds? thousands? tens of thousands?
Digital affords us the ease of storage and reference. It also offers searchability which saves time.
The print counterparts are only clutter however, it’s because they cause clutter that we are forced to process the papers and hence proceed to get them done.
Out of sight, and out of mind as they say, if you don’t see it, it doesn’t get done. All the more it gets ignored.
The disadvantage of paper becomes its advantage. Things just get done on paper rather than digital. Printed materials scream silently. If you want things done, print out and process.
Again, we’re not here to dismiss the Digital workflow. it’s undeniable and inevitable, but we envision a world where digital and printed media can coexist.
Print’s weakness is digital’s strength and vice-versa.
All the points mentioned will stand true if you invest in a good quality printer. You extract the most value from printed materials when you invest in better print technology. You empower your workforce for better outputs thru better print technology.
There is no denying that your 5-year-old desktop printer “gets the job done”.
But is it efficient?
You’re missing out on potential savings and efficiencies by ignoring current print technologies like better ink economy, print security, and cleaner prints.
How do you know if your printer is still efficient?
How is the print quality? Is it still readable? Are there any stray lines in the print? Is it clear?
If you’re having trouble recognizing what you print, if it looks messy, it maybe time to consider refreshing your printers.
It shouldn’t be an us vs them when it comes to print and digital because both have their benefits and advantages, technology is never meant to replace but augment.
Digital offers convenience and speed. At the same time, print and paper offer durability and finality.
Having digital as the starting point affords us to keep refining without perceived costs and printing it out when we’re ready to submit for approval.
For Digital to win, print doesn’t have to lose, Digital aims to supplement the inefficiencies of paper technology it’s by no means planning to replace it anytime soon
If your business needs printing solutions in the digital age, ASDI can help. We offer a full range of multifunction printers and managed print solutions to fit the needs of organizations of all sizes. Contact us today and we’ll be happy to help