ULPT Request Best way to use up as much printer ink as possible.

Posted by Wolfie437@reddit | UnethicalLifeProTips | View on Reddit | 18 comments

I work for an "experience" english school abroad. To try and explain in short from Tuesday to Friday a school in the city will do a field trip to our school were they have experience classes to practice English. On average we get about 10 teams a day each numbering between 18-24 but on average 20 students per team and each team has 6 classes a day.

my school has decided that we need to implement worksheets/infosheets for every student in every class. Basic maths tells you that 10 teams, 20 students 6 classes, is 120 sheets per team and 1200 sheets of paper total, every day. Now the foreign staff know this is stupid but the management clearly haven't thought this through (even though it's been brought up to them)

So the request, what's the best way I can maximise ink usage on a black and white printer while still having it look like an infographic about the room. I assume Pure black silhouettes would be the best way to do it. Just curious if there's other tips I could use, it does need to resemble something actually useful.

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Wolfie437@reddit (OP)

It feels unethical to intentionally waste printer ink and money because I could easily create worksheets that use minimal ink. That's why I took it as unethical

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acrusty@reddit

But is there a reason to want to waste a lot of ink? 😅

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Wolfie437@reddit (OP)

This is definitely the best comment so far, I appreciate the others but they are a little less subtle, like print an all black background with white words. It's not something I or anyone at my workplace has ever done it'll be very clear what's happening.

Definitely like the crossword idea, good way to use pure black without it seeming out of place.

I will be saving every single worksheet that doesn't get taken home and showing it to them.

Thanks for the advice I'll do something like this!

I love a good ULPT but I think I’m missing it, why does this one need to be unethical?

OwlPelletCrunch@reddit

instead of a document, create a page-sized IMAGE

all the relevant text superimposed over a tasteful slightly patterned background - lots of formatting, line dividers, icons - “wedding invitation” style

maninatrexshirt@reddit

I assume you are going for a subtle answer, and the answer is 1. Use a more expensive paper. A specific weight that your supplier charges more for and feels "luxury"...for the experience. 2. Every page has a broad boarder and a faintly gray background. Again, luxury experience at the cost of using a lot more ink. 3. Cross words with black backgrounds around the boxes. Will burn a TON of ink and look legit. 4. Do some 'test prints' or pages with collums of various shades of gray, from her black to kinda white. Say it was for color testing. Do a new test print each day to check for toner levels. 5. Show management just how often these papers just get thrown out. Make sure there is a paper only recycling bin near where these are handed out and the door they leave.

HandshakeOfCO@reddit

Print the worksheets on piss discs

MollysTootsies@reddit

There it is! 😃

kyriacos74@reddit

Is this an inkjet or a laser printer? Most schools use laser because it's cheaper in the long run. If you attempt this with a laser printer, you're in for a very, very long wait, since there's a lot of toner in the cartiridges.

If you're attempting this with an inkjet, you just put small white text on a solid black background, preferably in a a relevant shape for plausible deniability purposes.

Bratchan@reddit

use a lorem ipsum generator make yourself a beautiful word document.. now make the background black and the text white.. and print

or ask chagpt to generate you a 100 page document about X topic and do the same.

Make word searches for your students and make sure the core background is black. So they can do their work.

hershelchastitycombs@reddit

Our stupid printer seems to “clean” itself a lot. Always running out of ink. Maybe that’ll help?

junigloomy@reddit

Print a black background with the lettering with no color (which would be negative space the white paper would show through).

Practical-Command634@reddit

Print totally black sheets and when the runs out print more sheets using mostly CYM in as high a definition as the printer will allow. Bonus points if you set a timer on your pc so it all happens when the office is empty. Just make sure there's loads of paper.