Total Cost of Printers:

The major contributor to the total cost of a printer these days are the consumables, particularly inkjet and toner cartridges. Some ways of minimising the total cost:

• Have monocolour laser printers in locations where most printing can be done in black.
  • One scenario is a mono laser printer in each classroom, with colour printing available only from staff room and library.
• Where information is available check likely consumable costs (expected yield in pages per cartridge) the time of printer purchase.
• Understanding that published yield in pages per cartridge is usually at 15% coverage - page of normal text.  If photos and blocks of colour, grey or black are printed then the coverage may be up to 90%.  If a cartridge is rated at 1500 pages yield then at 90% that would be a yield of around 250 pages, with a 4x increase in cost per page.
• Purchase inkjet printers that have separate ink tanks.
• Purchase Inkjet printers that take larger volume cartridges as they usually produce cheaper printouts.
• Inkjet printers with separate printheads are usually cheaper to run than those that have the printhead integrated in the cartridge.
• Be prepared to replace printers before failure where cheaper per page printers are available.
• Shop around for cheaper consumables and buy two sets at a time per printer.
• Remember inkjet cartridges have a use by date - do not buy several years supply at the one time.
• Use a budget allocation for consumables for printer locations controlled by an individual or group, so staff are aware of costs.
• Have workshops in digital image editing and display. 
  • If an image is suitable at half size then the printing cost is halved compared with printing an unedited image.
  • Every image displayed and used by computer display saves consumable cost.

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