What is your print volume?

[sugarengine]

Hi, my name is James, I am new to the forum.

I have a general question for people.

What is your monthly print volume?

Is anyone doing ALOT?

I read through a lot of posts and the FAQ but it is hard to judge what the volume of printing by users might be.

Thanks,
James MacLeod

 

[Xalky]

I print at least 100 full color pages a month.

 

[sugarengine]

Cool thanks for the info.

I am curious if anyone is doing really high volume.

I want to custom print 11x17 covers in pretty high volume. They are not dense like color photos, but I need to do as many 5000 in a month, of about 40 different kinds.

 

[Xalky]

Cool thanks for the info.

I am curious if anyone is doing really high volume.

I want to custom print 11x17 covers in pretty high volume. They are not dense like color photos, but I need to do as many 5000 in a month, of about 40 different kinds.

You might be better off going to a print shop and running them off there. It'll probably be cheaper too.

 

[mikling]

Let's look at the math.
Suppose he uses one printer like say an i9900. How many can he pull off in one hour. Let me guess at 25 per hour. In 8 hours, he can print 200 prints. In one week, he will be able to print 1000 prints.

That puts him in the ballpark of 5000 a month, give or take. So it is possible to do it.

Suppose you wear out a head after 2 months of this, then that means a cost of $50 a month in the cost of a head. hmmm.. not bad. What if you wore out an i9900 after 6 months... Again, that's only $50 a month in printer costs.

What makes this attractive is that he would need 2 different files each day. The cost to do this the traditional way would be more costly because of the setup charges.

Choice of printers would depend on what type of media you needed to print and where and how it is destined to be used.

Conclusion: I think it can be done.

Quite a few people use consumer desktop printers and wear them out. They end up being cheaper than laser printing or photocopying especially when color is involved.

 

[sugarengine]

I would use several printers at the same time, probably as many as 10.

The problem is the runs need to be customized and many will be as small as 50, 100, 200. So a printer(offset) is not an option.

Also the color coverage is not great. There is no need for full bleeds or anything like that. These are technical diagrams so the coverage of the color part is VERY small.

I bet it isn't even 3%

 

[mikling]

If such is the case then you are all set. Go for it.

 

[alexandereci]

To give you an idea, I go through two reams of paper (8.5x11 inches) each month and I print on both sides of the paper, so that's about 2000 pages. There's a lot of color in those pages, some are even full-color illustrations. Still haven't worn out my el-cheapo Canon iP1200. I'm on my second ink cart though.

Higher-quality printers may allow you your volume, but you might have to buy more printers if the printer you select prints/spools slowly. As with everything, maintenance is key.