Tips on printing coupon?
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Just finished my trip to Rite Aid. The Ensured coupon I printed will not scan which is not a new thing for me at Rite Aid. Except this time the cashier was very adamant on not manually entering it saying they won’t be reimbursed. In any case, she did finally enter it.
Rite Aid seems to have the very worst scanner of any of my typical place. Target seems to have the best. I print these out on my Epson printer in standard resolution. would it be better to print out in higher resolution on photo paper? I got tons of photo paper still.
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It probably wouldn’t hurt doing it at a higher resolution. Next time you have to print a coupon, print it normally and print another in high resolution. Then give the cashier the first one and if that doesn’t work, then have them try the high resolution copy.
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Don’t rule out a lower resolution. Sometimes it prints better on draft than on high resolution. Mine don’t scan very well when I print on a laser printer, they do better on the cheap setting on the inkjet.
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I use the toner save option on a laser printer, with whatever free paper from rebates I have from Staples/OD.
Never have a issue with coupons scanning at any store I shop at.
Maybe it is your cheap printer.
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@zennuts It would be better not to use an inkjet printer. Not only will you get better quality for blank and white prints, but you would also save money on ink as the toner would be cheaper and last you a hell of a lot longer than the ink cartridges that probably dry out every few months.
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I have a couple apps installed on my phone to check all the barcodes I print out to make sure they at least readable by my phone. QR codes, standard barcodes, extended barcodes, etc., there are many apps to scan these, and I had to try lots of them to figure out which apps worked best for my phone’s camera.
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I buy cheap Epson on used market and outfit them with CISS so my per page cost is next to nothing.
I did a bit more research. The one that Target uses are basically 2-D camera, hence they can do QR type codes and seems from my experience, never have issues scanning code. I’ll try photo type paper next time and see if it works better.
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I virtually never have scan problems. I learned long ago, that the resolution isn’t as important as size. I print at about 130% of the original size. I also set my print to black ink only. Been several years since my Qs didn’t scan. Printers are different so you will need to experiment on size. On a normal coupons.com I can print 3 Qs per page and the Qs lack about 1/2inch on each side from the edge. BTW, I use the cheapest plain paper on a HP printer with self-refilled ink cartridges.
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Do you folks print them in color or B/W? Again, my problem seems to be limited to the local RA stores.
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@zennuts I never have scanning issues at RA or anywhere else. Only issues have to do with coding not the quality of my coupon. B&W laser on the back side of scrap paper including phone bills (yes I get paper phone bills).
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@zennuts said in Tips on printing coupon?:
Do you folks print them in color or B/W? Again, my problem seems to be limited to the local RA stores.
I don’t know what an RA store is. As I said in the post right before this, I use only black ink on the cheapest paper on a HP inkjet printer with self refilled ink cartridges, but i increase the size of the Q to about 130%. I haven’t had a Q NOT scan in years. The way I learned this is that I worked for a company that for some unknown reason kept making their bar-codes smaller and smaller until finally they would not scan. That made me think that maybe a bit larger would make them easier to scan and it worked. The reason I settled on 130% was that was a size that would easily fit 8.5x11 paper.
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@fmb1 said in Tips on printing coupon?:
@zennuts said in Tips on printing coupon?:
Do you folks print them in color or B/W? Again, my problem seems to be limited to the local RA stores.
I don’t know what an RA store is.
I’m pretty sure that means Rite Aid.
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@rowan said in Tips on printing coupon?:
I don’t know what an RA store is.
I’m pretty sure that means Rite Aid.
Ahhh! Thanks. Haven’t been to an actual drugstore in years. They seem to change names so often I’m not sure which ones are in my area (DFW).
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Just an update, force the printout in B&W seems to help. Thanks all.
