We often post about apps and technology that can help you manage your home and office life more effectively.
Reading this blog post, you’ll probably be wondering if you have traveled back to a time when printers were still household staples– you haven’t.
Believe it or not, you do still need a printer in your life. Here’s why:
1) Work from home
Many companies are now allowing their employees to work from home. Having a multifunction printer at home would make printing documents, spreadsheets and presentations an ease. There are even cloud ready printers which make working from home even easier as you can now print anything whenever you want.
[Suggested reading: How to Take Care of Your Inkjet Printer]
2) Boarding passes
In the past, we had to wait in endless queues at the check-in desk for the airport staff to issue us with a boarding pass. Technological developments have changed this. Many websites, ranging from budget airlines like EasyJet to premium carriers like British Airways, now allow passengers to check-in online. They then send out your boarding pass in an email for you to print off, eliminating the need for you to queue at the airport.
Some airlines have mobile apps that allow you to present an electronic version of your boarding pass. This may seem like a really useful, convenient feature, but how often do apps experience difficulties? What would happen if you arrived at the departure gate only to find the app wouldn’t load, or worse still that your phone was out of charge?
If this happened, it is likely that you would be denied from boarding the plane – a situation that everyone wants to avoid. With this in mind, a printed boarding pass is much more beneficial.
These boarding passes have revolutionized travel so much that some airlines like EasyJet, require all passengers to print theirs before their arrival in the airport. There has been much controversy in the news recently surrounding charges for those who forget to print out their passes before their departure. The Daily Mail reports that one family had to fork out £236 for replacement passes for their return journeys. To avoid these costs, you’ll need to make sure you have a reliable printer. Have a look at the printers available from United Carlton – they have some excellent quality ones that will be perfect for home use.
[Read also: How to Choose The Right Office Printer]
3) Tickets
Whenever you book concert, theater or event tickets online, most retailers give you the option to print out your own tickets. As you will already know, the cost of tickets can be expensive. Not only will you have to pay the face value of the ticket, you may be subject to service charges, order processing fees and even a facility fee that can all bump the cost up. Prices to post out tickets can be high and printing tickets at home can often be cheaper. This isn’t always available on certain events, but it’s definitely worth doing if you can.
[Recommended reading: Tips for Clearing A Stubborn Inkjet Printer Clog]
4) Photos
With cameras boasting more megapixels than ever before, we are forever capturing memories in crystal clear definition. It’s great to post them on our Facebook profiles and use them as our PC wallpapers, but rarely do we actually print them out. Many people use photo printing companies when they do print photos. Often, such companies offer free trials but once these are over, it can be expensive to print just a few snaps. You will also need to take into consideration delivery fees too.
Once you have invested in a printer, you will be able to print your favorite photos cheaply, easily and conveniently, without having to wait for them to be delivered.
[Read also: 7 Tips to Help Reduce Your Printing Cost]
5) Resumes
Surprised? Yes I know, who still need hard copies of resumes, right? Wrong!
Paperless lifestyles are not going away anytime soon. As much as we would prefer to send resumes electronically, there are companies still prefer to receive them in hard copies. I don’t know about you, but I would print out a hard copy of my resume before going for a job interview even if they didn’t ask me to.
I don’t know if printers will still exist in 10 or maybe 20 years from now, but I’m pretty sure at this moment of time, there are still reasons to own one. So don’t throw away yours just yet.
What do you still use your printer for? Let us know in the comments.
[Image credit: pakorn/Freedigitalphotos.net]
The more I think about my printer I am thinking that I don’t use it as much as I did a few years ago. I am not sure exactly why. Maybe I store more files on my computer rather than printing them out now.
One of the things I do use it for is printing tax forms out for my records. I could keep the digital pdf file, but we are always told we should hang on to them for awhile so I print them out just in case.
My sister prints out a lot stuff though. I think she is more into pictures and things though than I am.
Great points Peter! In particular I second your point #2. I always believe that relying too much on technology is really a bad thing! How embarrassing and how critical it will be if your smartphone has no charge or the app that is supposed to show the boarding pass doesn’t load?
Yes it is always good to have a hard copy of the pass! Thanks for sharing Peter.
I agree with you Printer is really helpful. More of the above points you have described, I have my small brothers and sisters at home and they do much need a printer for taking print of their assignment and question papers. It is really a great idea of keeping printer at home. Thank for the article.
At work, I still use my printer several times a day. If I am reviewing a document in preparation for a phone call with a client, there is simply nothing as quick and easy as marking up a printed copy and being able to flip back and forth in the document. Time is money, and time spent scrolling back and forth on a screen when you have a client on the phone is just not worth a few cents worth of paper and ink, even if it ends up in the trash immediately after the phone call.
You got a point there, David!
I remember times when I needed my printer and didn’t have any ink, it was an important document for school, so I thought that I was going to die, but luckily there was a local printing company pretty close to me. I think the only unfortunate and inconvenient thing about a printer is the cost of ink, it’s ridiculous.
Great reasons for having a printer. I have to disagree on the concert tickets though. Every time that I’ve ever bought a ticket online they make me pay an “at home” fee for printing it off before hand. A rip off if I ever saw one.
I have a small printer/scanner/fax at home. I don’t use any one function all of the time, but since all three are combined I find it very handy to own. If you can find a cheap one I really recommend it.