Digital Prints

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Mastering Digital Printing
9. What Does It Cost?
You might think that this would be the first question, but I like to bury it at the bottom
of the list. If all the questions above bring you to a choice between two printers, then make
your decision on price. But never make a decision about buying or using an inkjet printer
solely on cost. You may be getting a good deal, but if the printer doesn’t solve your problems,
what good is it?
“What Does It Cost?” is also a complex question. There’s much more involved than just
the cost of the printer.
Desktop
Virtually all desktop inkjet printers cost less than $1,000, most are under $500, and
some are even under $50! In terms of a low printer-only cost, you really can’t go wrong
with the lower-end Canons, Epsons, HPs, Lexmarks, or Dells, which are made by
Lexmark. They’re practically giving these printers away. But remember, through a marketing
strategy called cost-shifting, these printer manufacturers make their profit on the
consumable supplies: the inks and the media. That’s where your money will go, so make
sure you figure in those costs, too.
Ink: Once you realize that ink is the most expensive part of desktop inkjet printing, you’ll
undoubtedly be looking very carefully at this element. Much has been said about the cost
benefits of having a printer that uses individual ink cartridges or tanks. The argument
goes: If you print images with a lot of blues, you will obviously run out of cyan ink before
one of the other colors. And, if you have a printer that uses a combination-color cartridge
(plus a separate black one), then you’re basically throwing away all the unused ink when
the printer indicates it’s time to change ink cartridges. It’s all or nothing with these combocolor
cartridges. The solution is to have individual ink carts that can be changed separately
as needed, and even though the savings are not always quite what people imagine, there
are several desktop manufacturers (Canon, Epson, HP) who have picked up on the idea
and now offer individual cartridges for some of their models.
Manufacturers have attacked this problem in a couple other ways, as well. The Epson 4000
(if you consider it a desktop printer) has not only very large ink cartridges (110 ml or 220
ml), but you can use either size at the same time. The list price of light magenta ink in a 220ml
cart (from Epson at the time of this writing) was $0.51 per milliliter; in a 110-ml cartridge,
it was $0.64. In a 17-ml cart that goes into the Epson 2200, it was $0.67 per milliliter.
In the HP Designjet 30 printer, not only do the inks come in individual cartridges, but the
colors typically used most often, such as light magenta and light cyan, are in larger (69-ml)
carts, while others (cyan and magenta) come in smaller (28-ml) carts (see Figure 6.6).
However, the real savings with desktop inks is by getting rid of the expensive cartridges altogether.
There are now several bulk-ink-delivery systems that allow you to buy and use large,
more-economical ink bottles to provide bulk ink to the printer. Unfortunately, not all printers
will accept this type of system, which I discuss in more detail in the following chapter.