Cost per print - what's yours?

Hi. I have a Canon i9950 printer and, over the eighteen months or so I've had it, I've kept a record of how many A4 colour prints I've done and the amount I've spent on ink. It works out at about 60p ($1.20) each page. Does this seem reasonable to you? Adding paper to that makes the total for each A4 print over £1.

My local lab cgarges £1.49 for up to 19 A4 prints (1 hour service), and at 20 it drop to 65p each. If you can get a batch together, it makes sense to use a lab, but you can't beat the conveniance of having your own printer.

That is interesting, but what I'm wondering is how much should a colour A4 should cost on a home printer - especially the Canon i9500. Obviously, if a lab is charging £1.49 for a print, a lot or that is profit.

Has nobody any idea what it costs them to print an A4?

I think POTN has finally let me down. I've never before known an occasion when the PTONers haven't provided an answer. Surely somebody out there knows what it costs them to produce their own prints?

I buy paper and ink when I need them and don't bother to keep track. For me, cost is not the reason for printing at home - it is convenience and control...

Right or wrong, I always assume each 8 1/2 X 11 sheet costs about US$1 in ink - divide by 3 for 4X6's or 2 for 5X7's or 1 for 8X10's - double for 13X19's. I use a Canon i9100 which uses 6 ink cartridges costing about US$12 each.

My favorite paper is Ilford Galerie Classic Pearl which is about US$.5 per 8 1/2X11 sheet.

Thanks EJ. Cost is also for me not the reason for printing at home, but I was interested to know if my costs were normal/average - and it seems that they are. Your estimated costs are just a liitle more than mine, which I would probably have guessed, as these things usually cost more here than in the US.

As a matter of interest, I also use Ilford Galerie Classic - but Gloss.

Thanks for your answer.

From someone who only prints at home when truly desperate...

I use CostCo and an 8x10 or 8x12 (closest to A4 size) is $1.49 + tax (about $0.13), so if you can print at home for $1.20 I'd say thats great.

I don't have a calibrated printer at home, so using CostCo with their published profiles and my calibrated monitor is just much easier for getting consistent output.

The figures I quoted are British pounds, which equate to approximatey $2 for an A4 print.

Hi Roy - I use a canon i9000, and find that a 4x6 cost me $0.35-$0.40 USD to print. This includes paper costs...I use 5-star kodak glossy paper, that I can by pretty cheap at Sam's Club here in the states. If you multiply that by 3 that about a letter size sheet, which would be about $1.05 to $1.20 per sheet. Sounds like that's pretty similar to what you're getting.

I as well print at home for control and convenience. Hope this helps

HI Mich - it seems similar, but I don't think it is. As I said, my figures are in pounds, so your costs seem to be about half mine.

I have an i9900, and I have averaged ten 8"x10" color prints per ink cartridge over 3 years and 260 cartridges. There can be wide variations in your usage, depending on what you are printing, however. A photo like this (http://hubblesite.org …la_collection/p​r2006001q/) will easily use 2x-3x as much ink, and high key prints can use only 1/4 to 1/2 as much.

Convert these values to A4 sizes, use your "per cart" price for ink and your paper cost to get your costs.

I know what my cost for an A4 is - I just wanted to know if it was reasonable (for instance is the Canon printer more expensive than others?)

With only about the equivalent of 35 A4 prints done up to now, my calculations are still very unreliable, but the total cost per A4 print on my HP Photosmart D7360 seems to point somewhat higher then the 2 EUR mark, using top quality HP paper.

That makes it over £1.50 for an A4 print, which is more than it costs me. Mind you, I use Ilford Galerie, which is probably cheaper than HP paper.