Ideal colour printer solutions for needing to print about 500-600 colour printouts

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turtleattacks

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#298641 3-Jul-2022 14:52

Hi guys,

We are home printing about 500 pages (25 pages, 25 copies) of PPT printouts about once per quarter for a side hustle.

At the moment we are using a HP OfficeJet Pro 9028 Inkjet printer but it takes bloody long time.

We pay about $56 per colour so about $250 to fill up the printer with a yield of about 1500. (approx?)

When printing at work, using our big office printer/copier - it literally takes about half the time or less and staples it for us too!

Are there any other options apart from sneakily doing it at work? (p.s. anyone know how much work pays for these printouts per page?)

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shk292

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#2937952 3-Jul-2022 18:50

Colour laser printer, or one of those eco-tank inkjets. Laser will be much faster.

I know that businesses pay much more (7x) for colour printing than B&W, but don't know the $ amount. Probably enough to get you sacked if you got caught doing this for commercial reasons

Do your customers need paper copies? I'd usually prefer a PDF to read on tablet

insane

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#2937976 3-Jul-2022 20:32

Maybe speak to your boss and ask if you can pay for the materials to print at work?

Someone will know the rate. Usually in the 3-7c range depending what pricing plan they are on.

turtleattacks

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#2937981 3-Jul-2022 21:11

insane: Maybe speak to your boss and ask if you can pay for the materials to print at work?

Someone will know the rate. Usually in the 3-7c range depending what pricing plan they are on.

I would love to know how the lease works and how much it’s per colour page? Not a photo or anything but just slide handouts at 3 slides per page so not even very filled.

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timmmay

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#2937992 3-Jul-2022 21:47

Laser printers aren't too expensive. I have a second hand one for sale, though it only prints single sided and needs the waste toner cartridge replace, otherwise it's only done 1800 pages in 6-7 years. I'd just about give it away to get rid of it, half full of toner. Wellington.

insane

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#2938000 3-Jul-2022 22:16

turtleattacks:
insane: Maybe speak to your boss and ask if you can pay for the materials to print at work?

Someone will know the rate. Usually in the 3-7c range depending what pricing plan they are on.

I would love to know how the lease works and how much it’s per colour page? Not a photo or anything but just slide handouts at 3 slides per page so not even very filled.

I believe there are several billing models. A friend used to be a salesperson for one of the major players - sounds like they have a whole bag of tricks.

Sometimes you pay a nominal fee for the model and number of printers you get, this can be reduced if you accept an order model or take out a very very long lease. It's not uncommon for Govt agencies and schools etc to get stitched up for 10+ years. Reduced opex costs for being locked into a every longer contract.

And then it's just a price per page. There can be stepped pricing, either discounts for hitting the next level or penalties. Usually there's a difference in cost between b&w and colour, but not always.

Often the printers phone home so new cartridges just turn up when you start to run low.

SepticSceptic

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#2938005 3-Jul-2022 23:07

Pricing for office MFDS is usually around from 9c per page to 5c per page for colour, depending on the size,model/contract/lease
B&W is 1/10th of colour.
Bigger MFDS are cheaper per page.
Generally no distinction on coverage most contracts assume 5% coverage for office usage.

Hammerer

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#2938007 3-Jul-2022 23:19

The few managed office printer/copiers that I know of had a price per page of no more than 10c (excluding GST) for colour.

Buy your own colour laser printing commonly costs more at 10-50c per page. Although my old HP with cheap consumables cost me 6c a colour page. From memory, this is at 5% coverage.

The following site has some useful local costs:

https://costperpage.nz/index.php?option=com_costperpage&task=search

Prices there don’t include paper and don’t appear to include other consumables such as fusers and image transfer drums if they have them.

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Scott3

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#2938049 4-Jul-2022 09:41

turtleattacks:

Hi guys,

We are home printing about 500 pages (25 pages, 25 copies) of PPT printouts about once per quarter for a side hustle.

At the moment we are using a HP OfficeJet Pro 9028 Inkjet printer but it takes bloody long time.

We pay about $56 per colour so about $250 to fill up the printer with a yield of about 1500. (approx?)

When printing at work, using our big office printer/copier - it literally takes about half the time or less and staples it for us too!

Are there any other options apart from sneakily doing it at work? (p.s. anyone know how much work pays for these printouts per page?)

You are going to find typical home style color laser printers expensive to run.

I have a Brother MFC-L3770CDW. A fine printer, but very expensive to run if you print a decent volume of color pages.

I stopped using aftermarket toner with a prior bother laser printer due to issues with both print quality and very poor yeild (1/3rd of stated). If you could identify "good" aftermarket toner, this could help with the cost, but I never found a way to differentiate good and bad aftermarket tonor.

So I use genuine tonor (have been buying from computerfood. High yield tonors are $175.95x3 (yeild 2300), black high yeld is $132.95 (3000 yeild).

So if you loaded the printer with fresh tonor cartridges, it would cost $657.95. Cost per page for toner is about 28.6c - add paper, and other printing expenses to this. (over 2300 pages, black will have 600 pages odd left).

Should note that stated yeilds are based on 5% coverage. Print lots of full page photos, and your yield will be much lower.

For comparison, you could just outsource the print job. printonline.co.nz has an online pricing tool. 25 copies of 25 sheets (625 sheets), single side, 100gsm, stapled runs at $125 (free shipping over $100). Works out to 20c/page.

Obviously one would expect professional quality printing from a print shop, and it would mean zero capital outlay outlay on a printer, and no issues with other printer consumables (every 18,000 pages my printer needs a new drum worth $181.95). Also minimal effort on your part.

I took a cost at costperpage.nz.

Cheapist to run sub $1000 laser is the Kyocera ECOSYS P6230cdn (not this mode number doesn't match the pictured multi function, seems to just be a printer). That printer is $626.99 (2500colour / 3500 b+w yeild starter toners), Normal tonors cost 4x $281.69 (6000 colour / 8000 B+W yeild).

Would make this printer a good choice for high volume applications, but costs will be lumpy at OP's print volumes. Will need to be shopping for replacement toners after about a year, and that outlay is $1,126.76. would be pritty disappointing for OP if they lost the job immediately after spending that sort of money on over two years worth of consumables.

I haven't looked into them myself (we needed long archive life so had to go laser), but I understand those mega tank inkjets available these days will dramatically beat laser printer's on cost per page.