Print Cost Calculator Needed

Is there a calculator that will calculate the cost of a print for a client roll lets say 24" X 50' and out of that you do a 20x24 and lay the ink down, no post processing at all and its not your photo,

whats the best way to go about costing this print job?

Thx

5 minutes with Google and another 5 minutes with Excel and you will have your own calculator.

Lot's of data on cost of ink. Here's one: http://www.redrivercat​alog.com/cost-of-inkjet-printing.html
Not that ink cost varies a lot depending on the printer used.

You know what your paper costs are.

In Excel: Cost = (width X height) X (paper-cost-per-square-inch + ink-cost-per-square-inch)

Actually if you are doing this using a roll fed printer that is 24" wide then you would need the following equation, where it is important to use the longest image dimension as the length. This should paste straight into excel if you name cells Length, Width, Paper (which needs to contain the price per inch of the paper roll), Ink (ink cost per square inch), size (the maximum width the printer can print to), and feed, the length of paper that you need to waste to get the thing to feed though the printer.

=if(length>size, (paper*length)+(paper*​feed)+(length*width*in​k), (paper*width)+(paper*f​eed)+(length*width*ink​))

Redcrown wrote in post #17976812
5 minutes with Google and another 5 minutes with Excel and you will have your own calculator.

Lot's of data on cost of ink. Here's one: http://www.redrivercat​alog.com/cost-of-inkjet-printing.html
Not that ink cost varies a lot depending on the printer used.

You know what your paper costs are.

In Excel: Cost = (width X height) X (paper-cost-per-square-inch + ink-cost-per-square-inch)

An independent consumer testing and research organization confirms that some printers use much more ink than others in tasks such as cleaning print heads and for other maintenance chores, typically when the printer is preparing to print after sitting idle for some time. And Consumer Reports says ink cost can vary from about $15 to $75 per ounce! Results, based on tests of dozens of current all-in-one inkjets representing the leading brands, confirmed CR suspicions: In intermittent use, plenty of models delivered half or less of their ink to the page, and a few managed no more than 20 to 30 percent. With two specific printers, CR estimated the annual ink costs to be somewhere between $110 -230 !!!

PC World tracked the prices of 56 inkjet MFPs over a two year period, and the average cost per page for inks destined for a cheap printer (which they define as one costing less than $200) has consistently been higher than that for an expensive printer (one costing $200 or more). Yet the very inexpensive purchase price of a low cost printer offset its higher ink costs for someone with a very low print volume; the net cost switched, however, for medium volume printing!

Red River estimated an 8x10 costs for ink for two printers were $0.50 and $1.00, which is proof that ink costs CAN vary rather dramatically by the printer used.

Wilt wrote in post #17977183
An independent consumer testing and research organization confirms that some printers use much more ink than others in tasks such as cleaning print heads and for other maintenance chores, typically when the printer is preparing to print after sitting idle for some time. And Consumer Reports says ink cost can vary from about $15 to $75 per ounce! Results, based on tests of dozens of current all-in-one inkjets representing the leading brands, confirmed CR suspicions: In intermittent use, plenty of models delivered half or less of their ink to the page, and a few managed no more than 20 to 30 percent. With two specific printers, CR estimated the annual ink costs to be somewhere between $110 -230 !!!

PC World tracked the prices of 56 inkjet MFPs over a two year period, and the average cost per page for inks destined for a cheap printer (which they define as one costing less than $200) has consistently been higher than that for an expensive printer (one costing $200 or more). Yet the very inexpensive purchase price of a low cost printer offset its higher ink costs for someone with a very low print volume; the net cost switched, however, for medium volume printing!

Red River estimated an 8x10 costs for ink for two printers were $0.50 and $1.00, which is proof that ink costs CAN vary rather dramatically by the printer used.

All true, probably. But really - my printer prints 17 x 22 - and ink is 55 bucks a cartridge. There are nine of them, plus a maintenance tank. I can't recall ever printing an 8x10 or actually, anything smaller than 13 x 9.

More importantly I've never worried, even once, about how much an individual print costs. The cold hard facts of the matter are that this engineering approach to art misses the point entirely, just as a pixel counting does. Things cost what they cost. Does someone NOT buy a Canon L lens because it costs more than the plastic one? Or buy a rickety tripod because a better one costs ten bucks more? No. They don't.

Printing your images is not about counting pennies. It's about hanging yourself on someone's wall, possibly for much longer than you will be around. What's that worth?

Hen3Ry wrote in post #17977230
All true, probably. But really - my printer prints 17 x 22 - and ink is 55 bucks a cartridge. There are nine of them, plus a maintenance tank. I can't recall ever printing an 8x10 or actually, anything smaller than 13 x 9.

More importantly I've never worried, even once, about how much an individual print costs. The cold hard facts of the matter are that this engineering approach to art misses the point entirely, just as a pixel counting does. Things cost what they cost. Does someone NOT buy a Canon L lens because it costs more than the plastic one? Or buy a rickety tripod because a better one costs ten bucks more? No. They don't.

Printing your images is not about counting pennies. It's about hanging yourself on someone's wall, possibly for much longer than you will be around. What's that worth?

Your points are valid until you consider that the specific question raised by OP is estimating print costs so that one can price the resultant print in terms of price per square inch and sell to a client for a profit (not merely to get self satisfaction of simply knowing "my photo is on somebody's wall".

My post brought up past research indicating that ink costs alone can vary widely because

• ink costs, in cost per volume, vary by 5x
  
• ink waste by the printer varies, in percentage wasted by non-print related maintenance
  

My HP printers keep track of the amount of ink used per print. This amount varies by the amount of white or light space in the print and by the different paper types. I give a rough cost before printing and a final cost after printing using the actual ink usage for the print.

Hogloff wrote in post #17977451
My HP printers keep track of the amount of ink used per print. This amount varies by the amount of white or light space in the print and by the different paper types. I give a rough cost before printing and a final cost after printing using the actual ink usage for the print.

So as to have additional data points for discussion, when you print 8x10, on average what do ink costs run? or what range of prices, from low to high?

Wilt wrote in post #17977470
So as to have additional data points for discussion, when you print 8x10, on average what do ink costs run? or what range of prices, from low to high?

My HP Z2100 ink averages out at a fairly consistent NZ$1.80 per square foot, add to that the substrate, which could be anywhere between bugger all for plain paper to NZ$10:00 per square foot for a top quality canvas.

Prices for ink and papers/canvases are much cheaper in the US (I estimate by around 40%) compared to NZ and there are also considerable savings to be made for bulk purchases esp. for paper.

Below is a partial accounting screen shot from the Z2100 showing a variety of papers. Ink usage is in the region of 1 to 1.5ml per square foot and my currant price is about NZ$1.20 per ml.