The Cost of Colour Printing

Lyra Research and Recharger Magazine have partnered once again to provide readers with their latest primary research. This time, the results of an exclusive survey of business colour printer users are featured in a new report, The Colour of Opportunity: The Lyra U.S. Office Colour Printing Survey, sponsored by MKG Imaging Solutions and G&G Ninestar. The report is currently available at www.lyra.com.

Lyra Research and Recharger Magazine presented a panel of 281 business users who have colour printers with a list of possible applications for colour printers and asked them to select all the applications for which they use their primary colour printing device. The survey found that the most popular colour printing applications vary by the type of colour printing device that respondents use: inkjet or colour laser. For example, 84 percent of colour laser printer users said that they use their device to print presentations, while only 53 percent of inkjet printer users said that they print presentations. On the other hand, 76 percent of inkjet users use their printers to print general correspondence, while only 62 percent of colour laser printer users said that they print general correspondence. The three most popular applications for colour laser printer users were presentations, internal reports, and charts and graphs, in that order. The three most popular applications for users of inkjet printers were general correspondence, Internet pages and presentations.

When asked which departments in their companies use colour printers the most, both inkjet printer users and colour laser printer users pointed to the marketing department. Forty-two percent of colour laser printer users and 30 percent of inkjet printer users named this as the department that uses colour printers the most.

There were, however, some significant differences between primary users of colour laser technology and primary users of inkjet technology. For example, while 20 percent of inkjet users said that their customer service department uses colour printers the most, only 8 percent of colour laser printer users named this department as their company's biggest user of colour printing. About 16 percent of inkjet users checked “other” as the department that uses colour printing the most and wrote in a wide variety of department names or job titles. Some examples include teachers, administration, IT, fulfillment, art department, and claims.

Cost Confusion

The Colour of Opportunity survey proves what many in the printer industry have long suspected: that the average printer user doesn't have a clue about actual printing costs. We asked survey respondents to tell us their perceptions of the cost of colour printing compared with the cost of printing in black and white. We asked them if colour printing costs the same as black-and-white printing, or if it costs two times, three times, four times, five times, or more than five times the cost of black-and-white printing.

A good measure of the confusion over the cost of colour printing is the fact that 18 percent of respondents said they were not sure or did not know. Only 7 percent of respondents said that colour printing costs four times as much as black-and-white printing, which most experts would agree is closest to the correct answer. A surprising 15 percent of respondents said that colour printing costs the same as black-and-white printing, and 39 percent said “twice as much.”

Here at Stinkyink Towers, we promote a range of remanufactured colour toner cartridges, which provide high quality results at an affordable price. We stock comprehensive ranges for HP, Epson, QMS Minolta, Oki and Brother Colour Laser printers.