Color Cost per Page

[Mike Schumann]

I am looking for a color printer to use for printing full color catalog
pages. I am very concerned about the consumables cost. The pages are
largely photos, so average ink coverage is about 50%.

Does anyone have any feedback on actual cost per page for this type of
application. I am particularly interested in some of the lower cost color
Laser Printers from HP and Minolta.

Thanks,

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

I am looking for a color printer to use for printing full color catalog
pages. I am very concerned about the consumables cost. The pages are
largely photos, so average ink coverage is about 50%.

Does anyone have any feedback on actual cost per page for this type of
application. I am particularly interested in some of the lower cost color
Laser Printers from HP and Minolta.

As with all printers, the lower the price of the printer the higher the
cost of operating it.

If you're not going to operate it much, that may be fine.

But if you're going to operate it a bunch, you need to realize that
you'll either pay me now or pay me later. Either buy a machine designed
for it--and spend decent money for that machine--or else buy the cheap
machine and pay out the wazoo for supplies and maintenance.

It's all math. You may say to yourself, "but I don't want to buy a
$10,000 printer; that's too expensive!". So you go buy a $2000 printer
and in the first project you spend $8000 in supplies and maintenance
kits. OK, so now it's time to do your second project; you're already
behind.

Figure out the math. What will be your volume, how much to do it on a
variety of devices, etc.

Quite frankly, you're probably best off preparing this piece properly,
up front, and giving a well-prepared PDF to a commercial printer or, for
shorter runs, someone who already has the digital printing equipment in
place. Many commercial printers are ready to handle both long runs on
offset presses and short runs on digital presses, and you'd be very
surprised at the low cost.

You can go to Xerox and get a $20,000 printer (the 3535) that will print
everything you have, at any size and at any toner coverage, for 8.9
cents per impression--and that includes all toner and supplies and
maintenance.

If you buy a desktop laser for a thousand or two, you'll probably see
more like 40 cents to 50 cents per impression (or more, given that
you're using some serious amounts of toner there).

Find a printer who does this for a living, and let him give you a quote.
Ask him for details on how he wants the file prepared. See where that
gets you.

In other words, you probably don't want to do this yourself, based on
the questions you're asking.

 

[Ray R]

I am looking for a color printer to use for printing full color catalog
pages. I am very concerned about the consumables cost. The pages are
largely photos, so average ink coverage is about 50%.

Does anyone have any feedback on actual cost per page for this type of
application. I am particularly interested in some of the lower cost color
Laser Printers from HP and Minolta.

Thanks,

I have a Canon i850. With bulk ink refills my cost for ink is about
$.02 per page.

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

I have a Canon i850. With bulk ink refills my cost for ink is about
$.02 per page.

For what type of page? What coverage?

Post one somewhere, and I'll do an analysis of ink coverage.

 

[Dennis Rech]

I am looking for a color printer to use for printing full color catalog
pages. I am very concerned about the consumables cost. The pages are
largely photos, so average ink coverage is about 50%.

Does anyone have any feedback on actual cost per page for this type of
application. I am particularly interested in some of the lower cost color
Laser Printers from HP and Minolta.

Thanks,

Hi Mike, If I remember correctly, my QMS Magic Color 2 Desklaser
turned out full page photos at 13 cents a page. This included the
initial cost of $800 for the printer.
I think that you have to turn out about 100,000 pages before the extra
expense of the several thousand dollar more expensive commercial HP
printers get to be less expensive per page after amortizing the cost
of the printer.

If you do a Google Groups search under my name and Minota Desklaser
you may find the complete breakdown of costs over 100,000 pages vs a
HP 8500. This was a couple of years ago.

FWIT, my Minolta knocked out tens of thousands of 4 color pages
without even a jam. My previous HP 4500 had so many jams, misfeeds
and roller repair costs that I gave up on it as unsatisfactory for the
job. Others have probably had much better results with HP, but I am
still jaded about their paper handling.

Its not a laser, but I currently have a HP 120 24 inch wide 6 color
color inkjet and the paper handling on that is even worse.
The poster sized photo prints are really nice though.
Dennis

 

[Ray R]

For what type of page? What coverage?

Post one somewhere, and I'll do an analysis of ink coverage.

I get about 50 pictures per refill. These are full color glossy photos.
Canon cartridges cost $30 per set or about $.60 per page. After
market cartridges are available for $1.59 each or about $.10 per
page. Refill ink costs $8.95 for 4 ounces or about $.30 for refill.
At $1.00 per set of 3 for 50 prints comes to 2 cents per page. If
you buy larger quanities price per ounce is cheaper.

I have printed several hundred 8.5 x 11 color photos and used
about less than 1 ounce of each color ink.

 

[Gordon]

I get about 50 pictures per refill. These are full color glossy photos.
Canon cartridges cost $30 per set or about $.60 per page. After
market cartridges are available for $1.59 each or about $.10 per
page. Refill ink costs $8.95 for 4 ounces or about $.30 for refill.
At $1.00 per set of 3 for 50 prints comes to 2 cents per page. If
you buy larger quanities price per ounce is cheaper.

I have printed several hundred 8.5 x 11 color photos and used
about less than 1 ounce of each color ink.

An ink jet will not get the guy's job done. He was talking about
catalogs. Even printing a 100 is too big of a job for the Canon i850
or the Epson C-80 or like. (that is on a 17 page non-duplex catalog)
If I was to print more than two or three of those it will go to a
print shop.

Gordon

 

[Mike Schumann]

I'm looking at using the printer with a scanner as a color copier for a
retail furniture store. The all-in-one inkjet machines that are on the
market are WAY too expensive from a consumable cost perspective. (I'll
probably be making 500 copies per month per machine).

I've also been looking at color copiers. Unfortunately, most of the color
copiers that have relatively inexpensive cost per page, tend to be large
floor mount units. On of our constraints is that we need a relatively
compact desktop size.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike Schumann

 

[Elmo P. Shagnasty]

I'm looking at using the printer with a scanner as a color copier for a
retail furniture store. The all-in-one inkjet machines that are on the
market are WAY too expensive from a consumable cost perspective. (I'll
probably be making 500 copies per month per machine).

I've also been looking at color copiers. Unfortunately, most of the color
copiers that have relatively inexpensive cost per page, tend to be large
floor mount units. On of our constraints is that we need a relatively
compact desktop size.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

http://www.freecolorprinters.com

 

[leo]

I am looking for a color printer to use for printing full color catalog
pages. I am very concerned about the consumables cost. The pages are
largely photos, so average ink coverage is about 50%.

Does anyone have any feedback on actual cost per page for this type of
application. I am particularly interested in some of the lower cost color
Laser Printers from HP and Minolta.

Thanks,

Have you considered Okidata's LED color printer? I like the C5100 very much
in terms of speed and print quality. They have some pricier printers with
higher yield toners. How many pages are you going to print?

 

[Ray R]

An ink jet will not get the guy's job done. He was talking about
catalogs. Even printing a 100 is too big of a job for the Canon i850
or the Epson C-80 or like. (that is on a 17 page non-duplex catalog)
If I was to print more than two or three of those it will go to a
print shop.

Gordon

The question was "color cost per page" which is what I addressed.
For large quantities you go to offset printing not a SOHO printer.
As an aside I have a friend who printed a book. It was 150 pages
all in color with about 40% coverage per page. He presold 200
copies of it. He printed it on a HP722 printer whild held up fine.
He became quite good at refilling.

 

[Mike Schumann]

500 - 1000 pages per month.

Mike Schumann

Have you considered Okidata's LED color printer? I like the C5100 very much
in terms of speed and print quality. They have some pricier printers with
higher yield toners. How many pages are you going to print?

 

[Ron Cohen]

I agree with both Elmo and Ray. As a former owner of three print shops, I
agree totally with Elmo's advice about high volume printing. As for the cost
of printing using a Canon i850, Ray is right on target with his cost
figures. I do a very high amount of photo printing using a Canon s820 and my
ink cost per 8.5 x 11 page (full bleed) runs about 1.2¢ per sheet. In my
case I refill with bulk ink purchased in 16oz bottles which accounts for the
lower cost per page number.

 

[Mike Schumann]

How big of a pain is it to refill ink tanks? Where do you get the ink?

Thanks,
Mike Schumann

 

[Ray R]

How big of a pain is it to refill ink tanks? Where do you get the ink?

Thanks,
Mike Schumann

I can fill my canon tank in less than 1 minute. Google will give a plethora of
bulk ink suppliers. I use Atlasink.com

 

[Ron Cohen]

Mike,
I've emailed a pdf file to you describing how easy it is to refill Canon
cartridges.

 

[Robert Peirce]

I can fill my canon tank in less than 1 minute. Google will give a plethora
of
bulk ink suppliers. I use Atlasink.com

I have read different inks will result in different print life. While
the manufacturer's products have mostly been tested, what about third
party inks?

 

[Ray R]

I have read different inks will result in different print life. While
the manufacturer's products have mostly been tested, what about third
party inks?

While this is true I have tested one bulk ink against Canon.
On accelerated life test I could see no difference in life
vs. ink. There was a noticeable difference in paper types.
The biggest variable is probably display / storage.