I go into a number of offices each month that just have the “wrong” printer for the job, I want to give you my advice about the cost of printing in the enterprise. There are a bewildering number of choices available and it’s not easy to decide, but making the wrong choice could prove to be expensive. You would be surprised just how expensive it can be.

The Contenders

There are basically three types of printers available nowadays – dot-matrix, inkjet or laser. You may be surprised at what you learn about the costs associated with running these printers.

Dots….

The dot-matrix printer is the oldest type of computer printer that is available, most businesses have dumped these and switched to either Ink-Jet or laser printers. There are still a number of applications in which these printers excel and they are extremely efficient in these tasks. These printers physically strike the ribbon and paper when they print, and they are an excellent choice if you are printing on multi-part documents such as invoices in high volume transactions. Most people are not using them so I will focus on Inkjet and lasers.

Think Before You Ink!

Ink-jet printers are probably the least expensive printer to buy but you may be surprised at the cost to maintain and feed these printers. Ink-jet printers use cartridges filled with ink which is squirted through a microscopically small mesh called a print head. These are great printers for producing quality color work or high and when coupled with high quality photographic paper produce images that are indistinguishable to those that you’d get from a photo printing shop. Did you know that the whole ink-jet industry is subsidized on the price of replacement ink cartridges? Unless you are a VERY low volume business, less than 5 pages per day or if you really need the high quality color, I don’t recommend using them at all in a business environment. Even at these low numbers with the average cost of replacement toner at $25 you would be spending over $235 per year just on ink. Have you ever asked yourself why do printer manufacturers always have huge rebates on ink-jet printers? Stay away!.

Lasers – Printing at Light Speed

The workhorse of the current business world is without a doubt the laser printer. Although slightly more expensive than inkjets, the difference in price is not as great as it once was, you can pick up a color laser for about $399 and a black and white laser for less than $250. They produce the highest quality print and are only surpassed in photographic reproduction high performance inkjet printers. They are also far and away the quickest type of printer on the market. If you have to produce large print runs, then a laser printer is the ideal solution, most can print 15-24 pages per minute.

Feeding Your Habit

Color lasers are more expensive than color inkjets, but, in the long run, they WILL save your business money. The average cost per year of 15,000 pages is less than $300 This is an amazing value when compared to the alternative.

Follow Your Needs

No matter what type of printer you choose one requirement is that needs to be network capable. Some offices that I go to have an Inkjet printer on nearly everyone’s desktop rather than a shared laser printer, this is a huge waste of money.

Imagine if something as simple as swapping out your printers can save you hundreds per year what can be saved if you really look at your computing environment?