Lower your printing costs ...

St. Johns River Community College Computer Instructor
Published Saturday, August 28, 2004

Do you own a color ink-jet printer? Odds are, if you've bought a computer in the last 5 years you've also purchased a color ink-jet for under $100. That printer seemed like a great bargain; as time went on, however, you discovered a painful truth -- the ink cartridges have to be replaced every 1 to 3 months and cost anywhere from $30 to $60 each. Some last long enough to print a ream (500 pages) of paper; many last for less than 250 pages.

This is a great marketing tactic -- hook customers on the printer's price, then make your real profit on the ink. If you replace the cartridges every 3 months and new cartridges cost $40, you'll pay $120 a year for ink.

Many people replace cartridges more frequently. If you replace cartridges every 6-8 weeks, the ink will cost $360 a year. If you replace cartridges monthly, the annual cost is a whopping $480.

Is there a way to keep personal printing costs down? What if I told you it was possible to buy a good quality desktop printer that would cost more up front, but outlast your ink jet by several years and cost you under $75 a year to operate. The cartridge will print between 2000 and 10,000 pages -- compare that to the 500 page life of your color cartridge. In addition, it prints at a speed of 15 to 20 pages per minute, minimum, vs. 10ppm on a better ink-jet. Interested yet?

I'm speaking of a black-and-white laser printer. In the early 1990s inexpensive consumer versions came to market, but there were drawbacks; most people wouldn't pay the $250 minimum price for a black-and-white, and color lasers were very expensive (well over $1,000). As access to the World Wide Web mushroomed and a personal computer became a necessity for many students, more consumers wanted cheap home computers and printers. Along came the inexpensive color ink-jet. The price was right for consumers, and printer manufacturers made a lot of money on the cartridges.

But wait, color printing is pretty common, isn't it? What about printing photos? A boring printer like a black-and-white laser can't help me with those! No, it can't, but let's take a hard look at your real printing needs. Most printouts are not photos, and color isn't always critical. I'll bet most of your printing falls into these categories: emails, word processing documents, Web pages, other business documents such as presentations or spreadsheets, and school assignments. All these documents have one thing in common -- they're mostly text. Text prints best on laser printers. Ask yourself, honestly, do you really need to print these kinds of documents in color? Most of the time, the answer is no. Color is pretty, but it's also pretty expensive.

I looked up four desktop laser printers online and found prices between $200 and $300. One uses a cartridge with a life of 2000 pages. That cartridge costs about $65-$70. You'd probably have to replace that cartridge every 9 months to a year. Two models had cartridges with a projected life of 3000-5000 pages which cost around $75; you wouldn't have to replace them for at least one to two years. The final printer had a cartridge that cost $88, but here's the kicker: it's good for 10,000 pages. At that rate, you'd probably replace it every 2 to 3 years, dropping your annual cost into the $30-$40 range -- cheaper than replacing the ink cartridges in your cheap color printer just one time! On top of it all, you get a faster and more reliable printer to handle all of your basic printing needs.

So what do I recommend as an economical printer setup? If you've got the space, I recommend that you have both an inexpensive black-and-white laser and a light-duty color printer/scanner/copier. You can use the laser printer for most documents, keeping your operating and maintenance costs low. You can use the color printer for things like reports with color graphics or flyers and photos.

If you're being eaten alive by the cost of your color cartridges, save your money and invest in a second printer -- a black-and-white laser printer. Then, use that laser printer for text documents, most web page prints, and even drafts of documents with color. Your printing costs should drop significantly.

Karen Lee has taught computer science and web authoring courses at SJRCC for the last five years. Before that, she spent 15 years as a professional programmer, specializing in client-server, desktop and database applications.

For information about SJRCC degree programs and to find out about the computer and business programs, go to the Web site at sjrcc.edu or call (904) 808-7400, ext. 4183. Also, feel free to send an e-mail to michellewilcox@sjrcc.edu for more information.

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