Preventative Paper Care Tips

Your printer and paper supply go hand in hand, without paper – how are you going print?

Taking care to properly store your paper minimizes the risk of infuriating paper jams and also ensures that your documents print at their highest quality. By taking a few simple precautions, you can rest assured that your paper is in the best condition to print. While some of these tips may seem obvious, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the improvement they can make in your printing process:

•  Store your paper/boxes of paper off the ground whether that means using a pallet, a closet or shelf of some kind. This minimizes the risk of the entire box soaking up a spill or getting kicked around.
•  Do not store your paper where it will be exposed to extreme temperatures or humidity. When paper is exposed to any kind of dampness, it hinders the quality of the document because the ink or toner is unable to properly bind to the fibres of the paper. Extreme humidity can also cause the paper to curl which then means paper jams.
•  When stacking boxes of paper, make sure the edges of the paper stacks do not get damaged, line them up properly. Nothing is worse than paper with a crumpled up edge, other than a box full of paper with crumpled edges.
•  Always store paper on a flat surface. Printer paper should remain completely flat and you don’t want to create a curl or bend in a stack because of where it has been stored.
•  Do not stack more than 5 boxes of paper as the heavy load can squish the boxes below.
•  If you’re storing coated paper, always keep it in its original sealable bag or covered box. Coated paper tends to be more sensitive to the elements than regular paper.
•  Only remove paper from the ream wrapper when it will be loaded into the printer. Ream wrappers are usually lined with a coating that protects moisture and humidity from creeping in.

By following these simple steps you can eliminate the headaches of paper jams that are caused by wonky paper. As well, you can save yourself money by not having to throw out what would have otherwise been a perfectly good ream of paper.