Which printer and paper for coloring pages

If you print a few coloring pages a week, an ordinary inkjet printer with cheap cartridges or refillable ink tanks is enough. If you print dozens of pages a week, for example for a preschool, a monochrome laser printer will be cheapest to run. Paper: 80 gsm for crayons, 120–160 gsm for markers, 200 gsm and more for paints.

An inkjet printer is cheaper to buy and prints in color, but the ink can dry up when the printer sits unused for a long time. It works best for regular, light printing.

A monochrome laser printer prints only in black, but toner doesn't dry out and the cost per page is usually the lowest. Coloring pages and worksheets don't need color, because they are black outlines. It's a good choice for teachers and families who print a lot.

Ink tank printers, refilled from bottles, combine the advantages of both: color and a low cost per page. They cost more to buy but pay off quickly with frequent printing.

The cheapest printers often have small, expensive cartridges. Before buying, check the cartridge yield in the specifications, that is how many pages it prints, and divide the cartridge price by that number. Yield is usually quoted for pages with about 5% ink coverage. A coloring page has outlines, so it uses a similar or slightly larger amount of ink.

Also check whether cheaper compatible cartridges are available and whether the manufacturer blocks them.

Paper weight in gsm (grams per square metre) tells you how thick and stiff the paper is:

• 80 gsm: ordinary printer paper. Fine for colored pencils and wax crayons.
• 100–120 gsm: heavier office paper. Markers don't bleed through as easily and the sheet wrinkles less.
• 160–200 gsm: drawing paper or thin card. Good for felt-tips, pastels and light painting.
• 200–300 gsm: card or watercolor paper. For paints, but check the manual to see whether your printer accepts this thickness.

Feed thick paper through the rear tray if your printer has one; the sheets bend less there.

In the printer settings choose:

• grayscale or black-and-white printing;
• "draft" or "economy" quality;
• "plain paper", even with slightly heavier office paper.

The coloring page outline stays clear and a cartridge lasts for many more pages. Use higher quality only for worksheets with small text or tiny elements.

All PrintyKids coloring pages and worksheets are prepared for A4 (210 × 297 mm). In the print dialog choose A4 and 100% scale or "Fit to page". If you print on US Letter paper, choose "Fit to page" so nothing is cut off.

Inkjet printers don't like long breaks. Print something once a week, even a single page, and the nozzles won't dry up. When lines are broken, run head cleaning from the printer menu, but not too often, because it uses a lot of ink.

Store paper in a dry place in its closed packet. Damp sheets jam and curl after printing.

In a preschool or school, count in advance how many pages you need. Coloring pages can be gathered into one file with "My PDF", because printing one set is faster than opening page after page. Worksheets can be printed double-sided; coloring pages are better single-sided, because crayons and markers show through.