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Hello, everybody. We are in the position of shopping for a new printer/copier/scanner for a home office -- purely because there is no driver available to match our existing printer to the Vista OS.
We've read several online articles that stress comparing the cost-per-page when looking at printers, and that makes sense. Our problem is that we can't find any cost-per-page data, other than broad generalizations. Does anyone know of a document that shows independent, unibiased comparisons of the major brands and models?
Thank you-
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Printer cost-per-page data
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smax013 
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Posted 27 March 2009 - 02:12 PM
I don't know if you will find anything definitive that gets down to brand and model. That might be tough.
I can say that generally speaking laser printers (B&W) do better than inkjet printers on the whole cost per page issue. Thus, if you predominately print out B&W, then a B&W laser is usually the best way to go.
Personally, I have three printers. My primary one is a LaserJet 6MP that has served me well for close to 15 years or so...and it is still chugging along. I have a color all-in-one inkjet that I will use for occasional color printing and photos. And then I have another color inkjet that can do larger format (aka 11x17) that I use when printing out half-size architectural/structural drawings.
Thus, if you do a LOT of B&W and little color, then you might consider a B&W laser all-in-one. And if you need a color printer for occasional stuff, then you can consider a cheap color inkjet now or in the future.
If you do a lot of color printing, then a color inkjet or even a color laser might be the way to go. If you do a lot of color photo printing, then I would likely stick with a color inkjet. If you do more "business" color (i.e. color graphics, brochures, etc), then a color laser might be a good option.
Anyways, generally speaking B&W lasers will be about 4 to 5 cents per page (can be less with more "workgroup" level printers). B&W inkjets will be about 8 to 9 cents per page. And color inkjets will be about 25 cents per page.
You can get an idea yourself. For a particular printer, find out what ink cartridge or laser toner cartridge it uses and then look up that cartridge and see if it lists the lifecycle of that cartridge. Then take the price for the cartridge and divide it by the number of pages it can handle and that will give you a first pass, rough idea. As an example, here is a cartridge for a HP LaserJet P1006: http://www.staples.c...ice/supplies/p4HP-35A-(CB435A)-Toner-Cartridge197711BusinessSupplies110051_ATCH:SC3:CG44:DP1606:CL142045:SKU%7C243478%7CcmS. It costs $68 and will yield up to 1,500 pages. Thus, a rough, first pass would be $0.045 per page. For a Epson Workforce 40 Color inkjet printer, the B&W cartridge is $17 and can yield up to 245 pages...thus, about 7 cents a page. For color, you need a color cartridge pack ($35 and up to 350 pages) and a B&W ($17 and up to 245 pages)...this can result in about 10 cents a page (assumes ONLY uses color and no black) to about 16 cents a page (this assumes you use same amount of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow ink per page).
Now, to be realistic, you would also need to factor in initial cost of the printer as well, but that makes the calculation more complex. In addition, the calculation for color becomes complex because you cannot really accurately account for how much of each color you will use (i.e. does stuff you print use up the magenta faster than the cyan or black, etc). And lastly, it is tough to account for your own printing use compared to what the cartridge manufacturer use for their cartridge lifecycle esitmates (i.e. are you printing out a LOT of color photos that fill up a WHOLE page of an 8.5x11 page with ink or it is more printing out a web page with a few color photos, but mostly text or even a bunch of words documents that are 95%+ text with on a rare occasion photo or chart, etc).
Now, I will note that I believe some computer magazines have gotten into providing cost per page analysis. I don't recall if PCWorld does this or not, but you might look up some of their reviews for printers.
I can say that generally speaking laser printers (B&W) do better than inkjet printers on the whole cost per page issue. Thus, if you predominately print out B&W, then a B&W laser is usually the best way to go.
Personally, I have three printers. My primary one is a LaserJet 6MP that has served me well for close to 15 years or so...and it is still chugging along. I have a color all-in-one inkjet that I will use for occasional color printing and photos. And then I have another color inkjet that can do larger format (aka 11x17) that I use when printing out half-size architectural/structural drawings.
Thus, if you do a LOT of B&W and little color, then you might consider a B&W laser all-in-one. And if you need a color printer for occasional stuff, then you can consider a cheap color inkjet now or in the future.
If you do a lot of color printing, then a color inkjet or even a color laser might be the way to go. If you do a lot of color photo printing, then I would likely stick with a color inkjet. If you do more "business" color (i.e. color graphics, brochures, etc), then a color laser might be a good option.
Anyways, generally speaking B&W lasers will be about 4 to 5 cents per page (can be less with more "workgroup" level printers). B&W inkjets will be about 8 to 9 cents per page. And color inkjets will be about 25 cents per page.
You can get an idea yourself. For a particular printer, find out what ink cartridge or laser toner cartridge it uses and then look up that cartridge and see if it lists the lifecycle of that cartridge. Then take the price for the cartridge and divide it by the number of pages it can handle and that will give you a first pass, rough idea. As an example, here is a cartridge for a HP LaserJet P1006: http://www.staples.c...ice/supplies/p4HP-35A-(CB435A)-Toner-Cartridge197711BusinessSupplies110051_ATCH:SC3:CG44:DP1606:CL142045:SKU%7C243478%7CcmS. It costs $68 and will yield up to 1,500 pages. Thus, a rough, first pass would be $0.045 per page. For a Epson Workforce 40 Color inkjet printer, the B&W cartridge is $17 and can yield up to 245 pages...thus, about 7 cents a page. For color, you need a color cartridge pack ($35 and up to 350 pages) and a B&W ($17 and up to 245 pages)...this can result in about 10 cents a page (assumes ONLY uses color and no black) to about 16 cents a page (this assumes you use same amount of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow ink per page).
Now, to be realistic, you would also need to factor in initial cost of the printer as well, but that makes the calculation more complex. In addition, the calculation for color becomes complex because you cannot really accurately account for how much of each color you will use (i.e. does stuff you print use up the magenta faster than the cyan or black, etc). And lastly, it is tough to account for your own printing use compared to what the cartridge manufacturer use for their cartridge lifecycle esitmates (i.e. are you printing out a LOT of color photos that fill up a WHOLE page of an 8.5x11 page with ink or it is more printing out a web page with a few color photos, but mostly text or even a bunch of words documents that are 95%+ text with on a rare occasion photo or chart, etc).
Now, I will note that I believe some computer magazines have gotten into providing cost per page analysis. I don't recall if PCWorld does this or not, but you might look up some of their reviews for printers.
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