CLARION, Pa., Dec. 2 — Most people don’t consider 10 cents to be that much to print a sheet of paper. But the Clarion University purchasing department did some math, and every copy does add up.

The majority of expenses comes from changing print cartridges for the 540 printers, mostly Hewlett Packard, found on campus. Clarion spends $60,000 a year on these cartridges alone.

So to save some serious money, the university has begun deinstalling the HP printers in Carrier, and replacing them with Ricoh equipment. This new product is multi-functioning, including a printer, copier and scanner all in one.

“The new devices will cost three to eight cents a copy, whereas the HPs were six to 30 cents per copy. That’s almost double the cost,” said director of purchasing Rein Pold.

The new Ricoh devices will also be placed in more centralized locations on campus so faculty and staff members won’t have to travel as far.

Another benefit, says Pold, is a particular option Ricoh offers before confirming a print job.

“A prompt will appear asking if someone really wants to print, which gives the opportunity to think before printing. They can avoid printing and put it in a folder instead,” said Pold.

Since this year, 71 Ricoh machines have been installed and already have printed almost six million black and white copies and 250,000 color copies.

The Hewlett Packard printers would have racked up a bill of over $590,000 by now. By switching to the Ricoh equipment, Clarion has spent just over $215,000. That means that in one year alone, Clarion has saved over $380,000.

“The bottom line is that if you send the print message, the job itself is thought of first,” said Pold.

Clarion University will continue installing Ricoh equipment throughout the year on campus in centralized locations.