How does the cost per page of of printing on a medium sized laser printer compare to that of a larger black and white copy machine? I’m just looking for a general rule of thumb, as we have several printers and copiers in our office, so I don’t have an exact model to compare to another. For example, if I need 10 copies of single page document, would I be better off printing 1 and using the copier to make 9 copies, or would it really not matter if I just printed all 10 on the printer?
You’d have to know the cost-per-page of toner for your laser printer and for your copier. The technology is pretty much the same - in fact, my all-in-one printer/copier/fax machine uses the same paper and toner to print a document, receive a fax, or make a copy - so the cost for toner and paper is probably about the same either way.
In the long run, it’s likely that it’s more expensive overall to print once and then use a photocopier:
-the photocopier has the same paper printing system, but adds hardware for scanning in the original document
-you’ve added labor/time by ferrying the original printout over to the copier and then operating the copier
Just print ten copies.
As said, it depends, but in my office, we’ve been told that it’s cheaper to use the photocopier (and in fact the photocopiers here are set up as printers as well so you can print directly to them).
It all depends on the machines you have in use. Sometimes it is more expensive to print to a smaller laser, and sometimes it is more expensive to print to a large copier.
Take two machines I have in my office - A HP4250 Laser Printer and a Xerox 7428 Copier.
HP4250 Toner = $45 and I can get about 7,000 prints our of that = .006 per print
Xerox 7428 Toner = $150 and I can get about 25,000 prints out of that = .006 per print
Just an example.
What type of machines are you using?
They’re telling you it’s cheaper to print one copy using the “print” function of the all-in-one, and then make 9 more copies of the original using the “copy” function of the all-in one?
No, they’re telling us to send our print jobs to the network print queue set up on the Xerox MFC device instead of the one set up on the HP LaserJet printer.
We are asked to print from the copier, also. I guess for us it is much, much cheaper.
If your copier is an all-in-one, is there any reason to ever use (or even have) the stand-alone laser printer?
Our copier is not color, but the printer is. So if it needs to be in color we use the printer.
There is also the factor of the laser printers are often owned outright and the copiers are leased. This would often means the cost per page can be higher on the copier to the copier and so the 9 copies on the Laser Printer is cheaper if the toner cost per page is nearly the same.
Just one more variable.
The last place I worked, the administrative staff labored to crunch the numbers and concluded that the copier was cheaper, and the printers were only justified because they reduced the number of times we’d have to trudge to the mail room.
In my situation, the cost to replace my copier is waaay higher than the cost to replace a printer. Toner costs are close. So we use the printer.
Law offices usually have printers containing bond paper and letterhead for original documents, and copiers for, well, copies. This is becoming less important now that many courts use electronic filing systems, since obviously it makes no difference to a .pdf what kind of paper you’re using.
Doesn’t it take more energy to light up the original to scan it, and then print it, than to just print is 10 times?
In our offices, the small LaserJets in individual offices run about 2 cents per page. The big network copier in the common area runs about a half cent per page. Hence, print small things and one-time runs in your own office, send big jobs to the big machine.