Hidden Costs Of Home Printing

In today’s not so paperless society, many consumers are attracted by the low cost of printers. Printer affordability has allowed virtually every office and household regardless of size to own at least one printer. It is not uncommon for companies to have one printer per employee in addition to fax machines, scanners and copiers.

The problem with home printing is that, while the prices for printers are relatively cheap, the prices for toner and ink cartridges are not. This is like a reverse sticker shock – once you’ve already purchased the printer you are stuck buying extremely expensive ink and toner (which can cost more than the price of gold, per ounce).

This is especially true for color inkjet and color laser printers (claiming to be more convenient than photo equipment or professional labs), which typically require four cartridges installed to assure printer operation, each at a couple hundred dollars a pop. A busy printer can run through these cartridges in a matter of days, incurring huge hidden costs.

There are some simple steps that consumers can take prior to buying a printer or considering commercial printing. First, ask yourself what your needs are. Do you need to print in color? Do you mostly print text? What type of print quality and speed do you need? How many copies do you need?

Considering merely the cost of the printer itself can misrepresent the true cost of printing. After all, it is the printer cartridge that will determine what you spend over time. Performing research prior to making a decision on a purchase of a printer can save you big in the long run. For many small businesses, commercial printing remains the most viable option, both in terms of overhead and hidden costs.

For example, printing 50,000 pages on an HP P1006 printer would cost $1666 after including cost of toner and paper. (This price doesn’t include productive business hours wasted on getting an employee to print and collate 50,000 pages).

In many cases, commercial printing using professional photo equipment and professional photo paper is an easy, cost-effective way to do business and get your moneys worth.