For K-12 schools, delivering the best education can be challenging, especially with schools opening and closing with COVID-19 coronavirus restrictions. School administrators need to be budget conscious and find ways to best use technologies to enable learning. One such technology educators can take advantage of is large-format printing, also known as wide-format printing.
Large-format printing is a way that just about anyone can print a large document or poster using their own printer instead of taking the print job to the local print shop. This wide-format printing has become more and more popular as large-format printers have come down in price, making them more affordable to purchase.
Additionally, with reasonably priced printer leasing or a managed print services solution, organizations can easily rent these wide-format printing devices without having to put a large down payment to own a printer outright.
Because of these options, large-format printing is now more and more accessible for organizations, especially K-12 schools.
There are many ways that large-format printing devices can help improve education. These include:
With a large-format printer, you can print everything from banners and signs to the school newspaper. School signage and educational materials can be printed with ease. The best part is that it is very cost effective and cheaper than taking day-to-day print items to an outside printing company for professional printing.
You can teach students valuable skills in graphic design and communications by giving them access to a wide-format printer. As mentioned above, these printers are capable of printing out school newspapers. In the past, students would produce the school newspaper and then lay it out, but send out the final proofs to a professional printer to be manufactured. With a wide-format printer, students can manage the entire process, from writing the articles to laying out the newspaper to printing and delivering it.
With large-format printing, you can update and cycle through print materials as needed. You have the flexibility to print things on the fly if something urgent comes up. You can also get things printed out quickly – immediately – instead of waiting for your local print shop to fulfill your order.
This can also reduce costly printing mistakes that end up wasting education budget money. Have you ever been in a situation where the school needed something printed, such as a flyer to an important event like a fundraiser, only to discover when the batch arrived from the print shop that the dates were wrong?
You would then have to fix the date and return to the printer to have an entire new batch of flyers printed up. This is a huge waste of time and money, not to mention it’s bad for the environment to waste all that paper unnecessarily!
With a wide-format printer set up at your K-12 school, you can print these flyers in-house. These can be checked right away for possible printing errors and avoid printing more out before the problem is corrected.
Large-format printing is easy with the right wide-format printer. These printers come in a variety of different models with different levels of functionality. On the lower end of the spectrum, highly affordable wide-format printers can print smaller posters that are still larger than what a normal printer can handle. As you go up the economic scale, large-format printing devices will be able to print bigger and bigger print pieces at better and better resolutions.
Different ink options may also be available to give your printed posters and banners that professional look and archival quality.
Some wide-format printers are also multi-function devices that can be used as copiers, fax machines, and scanners. One of the big benefits of using a multi-function printer is that it saves space – no longer will you need to find a separate home for multiple devices. Multi-function wide format printers are cost effective and higher-end ones are extremely affordable through managed print services or printer leasing agreements.
At Edwards Business Systems, we are experts in large-format printing for education. We can help you select the right devices for your school or school system. We can also help set up, manage, and maintain your education printer fleet with our expert managed print services.
Edwards Business Systems helps k-12 schools with large-format printing. Contact us today for a quote.