Some printers are less than $80 retail. However, if you were to print only five pages a
day for a year, your cost in supplies would be $360.45. Most people will hold onto a
printer for three years, so the total cost to operate the printer comes to $1,081.35.
The first two ink purchases would exceed the cost of the printer!
Just for comparison...
■ Milk—$1.99 per gallon
■ High-end interior acrylic high-gloss enamel paint—$22.97 per gallon
■ Gourmet ice cream—$35 per gallon
■ Dom Perignon Champagne Brut ‘92 (1.5 liter)—$681.15 per gallonPrinter ink costs four to seven times as much as Dom Perignon!Highway robbery? Well,
yes. For this reason, you might want to consider refills and third-party ink. However,
does it affect resolution?Third-Party Ink and Printer Resolution
If you have a printer and love it, save your empties! Don’t ever throw away an
empty cartridge. You might want to reuse it some day soon. Even Epson users may
be able to benefit from old cartridges (read the section “Epson Printers and Big
Brother” for details).
Companies on the Internet and local companies now sell their own ink, ink refill
kits, and paper. Here are some examples:
■ Economy ink. Web companies now contract with third-party ink companies
and manufacture ink cartridges that fit into your printer. These cartridges cost
half to three-quarters the cost of OEM cartridges. One line of cartridges uses
high-end ink that runs IRIS printers, which are used at prepress facilities.
■ Store brand ink cartridges. Office supply stores now sell cartridges for the
most popular (or oldest, most popular) printers. This is similar to generic cereal
in the cereal aisle at your local supermarket. Generics are usually less expen-
sive, but often do not use the same quality ink.276 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TODIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
In the first fiscal quarter of 2001, HP reportedly had an operating loss of U.S. $1 billion in
its hardware business, which included printers and PCs. However, its net income in ink car-
tridge sales was U.S. $5 billion—that’s in three months!