I've been using a friend's OKI C5300 colour laser to print wedding
invitations, booklets etc. for friends and family.

I'm being persuaded to do this professionally but I need advice in terms of
the cost of printing and, consequently, I have no idea how to charge?

Help!

"Michael Johnson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> When it comes to color lasers you need to make sure you can absorb the
> cost of replacement cartridges. They are exorbitant. I bet it is cheaper
> to send them out and have them printed in bulk than doing it with a
> personal use color laser printer. IMO, the only exception would be if you
> are only printing a handful for your clients.

I'd imagine no more than a few hundred A4 pages at a time. I really need to
know the average cost per full coloured A4 page.

Gummo

In message <(E-Mail Removed)> Michael
Johnson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Gummo wrote:
>> I've been using a friend's OKI C5300 colour laser to print wedding
>> invitations, booklets etc. for friends and family.
>>
>> I'm being persuaded to do this professionally but I need advice in terms of
>> the cost of printing and, consequently, I have no idea how to charge?
>
>When it comes to color lasers you need to make sure you can absorb the
>cost of replacement cartridges. They are exorbitant. I bet it is
>cheaper to send them out and have them printed in bulk than doing it
>with a personal use color laser printer. IMO, the only exception would
>be if you are only printing a handful for your clients.

That depends on how you define "handful", the last time we priced
anything out locally, for the amount a few local print shops wanted for
a couple thousand pages, we bought a duplexing colour laser (HP
2600dnxi), all of the supplies, plus a full round of new toner.

When it was all said and done, we were down to 25% of the original toner
in one colour, the rest were above 50%, plus we had a full round of new
toner cartridges to spare.

"Michael Johnson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

>
> I imagine it also depends on page coverage too. Full color sheets reduce
> yield substantially from what the manufacturers estimate.

Major food for thought since most of my work will be full page JPGs

Gummo

"Bill (Adopt)" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> Of course, there will be variations in suppliers, in
> typical useage, in The What?, The Where?. The Why?
> and The How? ..but I trust the above has some value..
>
> ..and, perhaps, gives an an approximate insight into
> the 'real-time' per page costs that might be expected
> when running a typical colour laser printer...
>
> hh.. )
>

Load to think about - many thanks Bill.

Gummo