Digital Prints

Media: The second important element in figuring ongoing inkjet costs is paper or media.
Inkjet paper in cut sheets can run anywhere from $.50 to $5.00 or more per sheet, depending
on the size and brand. Zeroing in on the U.S. standard letter size (8.5 × 11 inches), you
should be able to find high-quality paper under $1.00 per sheet with quantity purchases.
One way to save money on paper is to buy it in long rolls. However, the selection for desktops
is limited, and it’s only practical if you have a roll adapter for your printer (unless you
cut your own sheets from the roll and hand-feed them). Wide-formats, on the other hand,
are set up for roll media, and that’s one way they can economize paper costs. Owners of
both types of printers have been known to use the wide-format’s roll cutter to produce cut
sheets as needed for their desktop printers.
Cost Per Print: Adding these two cost components (ink and media) together brings you
to the important “Cost Per Print” (or cost per page). For one example, Epson America has
provided a cost-per-print analysis for the Stylus Photo 2200 printer. In their analysis, an
8 × 10 glossy print runs $1.25 in consumable costs based on certain papers used. That is,
if you make a print on the recommended paper with ink coverage that matches their
assumed average image, then the total cost of the inks and the media used to produce the
print should be $1.25.
So how does that $1.25 compare to other digital or traditional print costs? My local pro
photo lab charges $5.50 for a single, Fuji Frontier 8 × 10 digital print from a digital file,
$14.25 for a LightJet print of the same size, and $20 for a traditional enlarger print,
although they are now phasing those out. Factor in the cost of the printer, software, training,
and your time, and you can see where inkjet printing starts to pay for itself.
Other analyses by different media, ink, or print-device suppliers, of course, will vary, but
you can use this kind of information to compare different printer/consumable options.
Chapter 6 ■ Selecting an Inkjet Printer 205
Figure 6.6 Newer HP Designjet
printers come with different-sized ink
carts based on expected normal usage.