The Real Cost of a Printer

Printer technology has changed rapidly in the past 20 years and even more so just in the last 10 years. Affordable color printing technology was not even available until the mid-1990s. Since then the technology has evolved rapidly and prices have dropped significantly.

When you are looking at printer features, pay close attention to how the specification is measured. It does you little good to purchase a printer that says it can print 20 pages per minute in draft mode unless draft mode is acceptable to you. Likewise, when you look at cost per page, consider that, in most cases, manufacturers use five percent coverage as a guideline. Five percent coverage is a short business letter with a small color logo. For full-page color, your cost per page will be much greater.