How Much Does It Cost To Print Your Own Photos?

[TomHeaven]

How much does it cost to print your own photos?

I realize there are a lot of variables that go into the final total cost of a print, and the cost will vary with a number of factors, so please describe the parameters your cost estimate is based on.

Printer Cost. Brand, Model. Expected useful life of printer. Number of photos it will make.
Resale value at end of useful life, if any.
Cost of ink. Manufacturer's ink or aftermarket.
Cost of paper. Type of paper. Size of paper.
Number of photos (average) of a given size a set of ink produces.
Use patterns.
Variations in cost as a function of amount of printing done.
Cost of electricity to run printer.
Other. Specify

Compare Cost to sending out for inexpensive processing. Sending to professional lab.
Besides cost, for you, how does printing yourself compare to sending out?

 

[JerryG1]

What's the point of a survey, Tom?

For all reasonable circumstances the two dominant costs are ink and paper, and those are already well documented. For example Eric Chan estimates ink usage for the Epson 3800 at 2ml/square foot + maintenace use at 10-20%. Price of OEM inks currently are about $50/80ml . This works out to about $1 to fill an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper with an average picture's worth of ink.

Paper varies from about $.10 to $2.00 per " sheet. Add the $1 worth of ink to the cost of your favorite paper and you've got the two most significant costs.

Printers last years, usually becoming technically obsolete before non-fuinctional. Hardware depeciation over a lifetime of several thousand prints is only a few pennies or at most dimes per print for any sensible workload. All other costs are even lower

It costs me about about 2.50 for an 8.5x11 image on my $1/sheet Ilford Gold Fibre Silk.

Note that this does not include the cost of mistakes, which I prefer to call proofs. The cost of what goes in the garbage probably equals what I keep--such is the price of perfection .

Yes it's cheaper to go to Costco than to print my own. Cheaper, but not nearly as good.
--
JerryG

My galleries at:
http://www.pbase.com/jerryg1

 

[FRGorga]

If you are concerned about cost... Find a reliable service and send them out. There is no way you can do it cheaper yourself.

If you are concerned about control... do it yourself. No one cares about your prints as much as you do. You also have a much larger selection of papers available if you print yourself.

A direct answer to your question... I have no idea.

Photography is a hobby for me, as long as I don't "break the bank", the cost is not really a concern... rather it is about enjoyment.

My prints are a mixture of work sent out (to MPix mainly, maybe a 25% of the total) and stuff I print myself (75%).

--- Frank ( http://www.gorga.org/blog )

 

[Mike in Kansas]

Once you switch to non-OEM inks and either use refillable carts, or a continuous ink supply system, your ink costs drop significantly and to be honest now almost become negligible in the total cost. Good non-OEM inks and a refillable system cost less than 1/10th of OEM. For instance, a good replacement ink set for the Epson Claria dye-based system run $6.00 per 4 oz. bottle. The Epson pigment-based ink sets run $15/4 oz. bottle, still much much cheaper than buying OEM carts.

The initial investment into a refillable system (refillable carts with the first filling included, syringes, tubes, removable plugs, resettable chips and 4 oz bottles of refill ink) runs about $60 for the 6 color Epson Claria system, $100 for the Epson 8-color pigmented system and $120 for the Epson 9 color pigmented system. You can see that this is even cheaper than an OEM cart set, so you are already ahead of the game at Day 1.

The continuous ink supply systems run about the same to slightly more, and they include a refillable cart, resettable chip, tubing system, and external "tanks" (2 oz. bottles). However, sometimes you need to modify your printer in order to get the tubing into it.

If you are interested in learning more about printing, here is a good forum:

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/

 

[bluehighwayman]

Before I got a wide gamut monitor it was costing alot to have a print at least alomost match the monitor. Usually it took printing a few 4 X 6's. With the wide gamut monitor it now takes no more than one print usually. The control one has by doing the printing though far outweighs the cost.

 

[apaflo]

How much does it cost to print your own photos?

You will get answers that range all over the map because the question is not specific enough.

8x10 glossy prints on inexpensive paper with third party inks (meaning these are perfect for signs tacked to telephone poles, but are not exactly archival quality) will cost next to nothing.

24x30 prints on premium satin gloss canvas, using archival inks, suitable for gallery display are not cheap.

The answers will hit those extremes and everything in between.

Lets look at some perspective. I buy cheap 8.5x11 matte or glossy paper for $0.18 cents a sheet. But what I print on mostly is canvas. 24"x40' rolls cost $4.00 a linear foot for Satin gloss, and $2.25 per foot for regular Matte Canvas (plus shipping, so depending on location it can be a lot more).

Ink is the key though. As another poster has said, non-OEM inks can be inexpensive. If your prints require only short lifetimes, that is perfect. Flyers, posters, etc. But if you want archival quality, expensive OEM ink is the only way to go. And that affects which printer you might look at!

Ink cartridges for consumer printers are smaller and cost more per ml. Inks for an Epson 3000 run about $1.17/ml, so one 13x19 print will cost more than $5 for ink. But ink in 700 ml cartridges for an Epson 4900 or 7890 costs $0.40/ml.

The significance of the lower cost of ink in larger cartridges depends on the volume of printing you'll do. At more than something like 250 large prints the savings in ink pays for the difference in the cost of the larger printer!

I realize there are a lot of variables that go into the final total cost of a print, and the cost will vary with a number of factors, so please describe the parameters your cost estimate is based on.

Printer Cost. Brand, Model. Expected useful life of printer. Number of photos it will make.
Resale value at end of useful life, if any.
Cost of ink. Manufacturer's ink or aftermarket.
Cost of paper. Type of paper. Size of paper.
Number of photos (average) of a given size a set of ink produces.
Use patterns.
Variations in cost as a function of amount of printing done.
Cost of electricity to run printer.
Other. Specify

Compare Cost to sending out for inexpensive processing. Sending to professional lab.
Besides cost, for you, how does printing yourself compare to sending out?

I suspect that to get that kind of a report you will need to offer a consulting fee to someone that makes a living doing that kind of research. I don't expect anyone here to write a 50 page report for you...

 

[Twilight35]

There's a saying that pretty much covers 'Everything".

"If You Have To Ask How Much It Costs, You can't Afford It"

Fred

 

[GMack]

Depends on a lot.

Printer? You can buy a new printer off Craigslist like the Canon 9000 MK II for maybe $200 (off the retail $500) from someone who got it with their camera and doesn't want it. Helps them to recover the cost of their equipment purchase too.

Inks? Maybe do the refill thing as some 3rd party ink can be had for $8 pint so figure that into refilling your own carts. OEM is more like $1/ml of ink out of their carts which is absurd, imho. Most of the newer printers are trying to circumvent that refill thing by chipping them or adding batteries to their carts so you have to use their $$$ ink. Some can be defeated so read/research about it for your printer.

Paper? I've gotten some out of the local 99 Cent Store that turned out better than I had thought for 20 sheets of 8.5x11 inch glossy for only 99 cents (5 cents a sheet). Better stuff will cost maybe $1-$2 per sheet or more for same size. Going to the bigger and better stuff like 13" wide or more can cost you a lot if you don't do smaller trials at first. Some of the exotics and metal stuff can hit $250+ for a box of paper. I like to buy two boxes: a large and a small test print box of maybe 4x6 or 5x7 to test in on for that pricey stuff.

Longevity? Don't know nor really care about longevity as I print for myself most of the time and then file them in large folio cases to show later. Larger print sizes often impresses people too over my cell phone or iTablet "gimickery slideshow" folio. Besides, I throw stuff out when I get tired of it and I always find a reason to redo something in a day or two as it is. Too damn picky I guess. If it is a client, I 'might' give them the better stuff as claimed by the OEM and the longevity gurus. If they want it for some press shop, I don't care if it fades out in two months. If it to be hung, then the better stuff is called for. Some picky people familiar with prints maybe require you to give them the better stuff. Some may want the "Wow factor!" of metallics which can cost more. Depends.

Results? No matter what, you should be able to get prints at least as good as or better than a lab - unless your skill set is low, or you don't want to be a fussy nitpicker. That can lead to software and hardware purchases and a lot of testing to figure out what is wrong, and which can also cost a lot more money than the above items like the costs of paper, ink, and a printer too.

Mack

 

[Vernon D Rainwater]

How much does it cost to print your own photos?

I realize there are a lot of variables that go into the final total cost of a print, and the cost will vary with a number of factors, so please describe the parameters your cost estimate is based on.

Printer Cost. Brand, Model. Expected useful life of printer. Number of photos it will make.
Resale value at end of useful life, if any.
Cost of ink. Manufacturer's ink or aftermarket.
Cost of paper. Type of paper. Size of paper.
Number of photos (average) of a given size a set of ink produces.
Use patterns.
Variations in cost as a function of amount of printing done.
Cost of electricity to run printer.
Other. Specify

Compare Cost to sending out for inexpensive processing. Sending to professional lab.
Besides cost, for you, how does printing yourself compare to sending out?

Tom, This may seem to be sarcastic but definitely not intended as such.

Even if you could have such detailed information, then; what would you actually do with it. This appears somewhat like research for some type of very expensive venture plus even if possible it would then need to be verified to be really dependable and useful.

I summary, those that do their own processing and printing have much better control and usually better quality finished printed Photos than those that use many of the services that provide the "least cost" and (unfortunately) usually "least Quality" printing services.

The entire process (Exposure through the final Printed Photos) is required for superior quality. This isn't to suggest that there are NO Labs that have the capability to produce good Photo Printing, however; if we provide them images that are not the better quality we need not expect their final Printed Photos to be the best.

The old adage such as referred to in Computer Processing: GIGO -- Garbage in then Garbage Out.

Check the Red River site and they have some useful information that may help you at least with part of your inquiry.
--
Vernon...

 

[Ray Ritchie]

I'm not motivated to respond on all the details you've requested. I don't carefully track all those parameters. However, I will say that I print with an Epson 3800 on a variety of papers ranging in cost from pennies a sheet to several dollars, and I believe my costs run from around $.20 per square foot up to a little less than $3 per square foot. Average cost for a routine print on luster paper probably runs to a little less than $1 per square foot. That does not consider the cost of the printer itself.

I print myself, rather than through a service, primarily because I want to maintain control over the result, rather than because I am trying to save money.

Ray
My blog: http://www.rritchie.com/wordpress

 

[brucet]

Just for the hell of it I have been tracking my costs for the past two years.

Epson 1410.
I print 6x4. A4. A3. Mostly A4s.

I tried 'cheap' ink to save costs but that didn't work out for me.
I use a combination of Epson, Canon and Ilford paper. Gloss and semi gloss.

To make it simple all my costs are calculated at A4 prints.

Each A4 is costing me, Australian, $4.02 per print.

My prints are 'solid' colurs as can be seen on my web site. http://cre8ivephotography.com

regards

 

[DGordon]

Mike, you've touched on area that I wonder about. What I've been wondering is what issues to users encounter when refilling OEM cartridges, or even new refillable cartridges on their printers. In particular, do users encounter differences in the color of the refill ink vs. the OEM ink? Problems with clogging the print head? I tried buying refilled ink cartridges about 7-8 years ago, and wound up with issues with the print head on my Canon printer.

Are there any vendors selling continuous ink supply systems for Canon printers? Last time I looked, I don't think I found much in that respect.

Thank you.

--
azdgordon

 

[Mike in Kansas]

A lot of that has to do with the quality of the ink systems. I researched this for about two weeks on the website I referenced in my post above, as well as reading lots of reviews on Amazon, eBay and here. I decided to go with a system that a lot of folks have had great success with over the years, and the colors and longevity are supposedly the same as with OEM inks. It also appears that the quality has improved dramatically in the past few years, and a lot of things I read indicated that plugged print heads are a thing of the past.

There are lot of BAD refillable cartridges and ink systems - eBay is filled with them, with most of them coming from China. The better ones use inks from the US or Germany.

I also think that there is a very vocal group of folks who just can't believe that a 3rd party ink can have the same color, longevity or quality of OEM ink. I do not take that position, as I would bet you that not all of the printer manufacturers make their own ink anyway. SOme of the larger 3rd party ink suppliers do NOTHING but produce ink for all sorts of devices and applications. They definitely know what they are doing.

Some of the other problems that folks have with refillable cartridges involve the chips failing (or falling off), which then keeps the printer from recognizing that the cartridge has been refilled. Or letting the cartridge go dry and the lines fill with air can also cause lots of problems.

I know nothing of these vendors, but here are a couple who sell CIS systems for Canon:

http://www.inksystem.com/ciss/canon/
http://www.cisinks.com/for-canon-printers-continuous-ink-system-c-116_118.html
http://store.inkjetcarts.us/canon-c91.aspx

http://stores.ebay.com/PrecisionColors/Refillable-Cartridges-Canon-/_i.html?_fsub=1188651011&_sid=98545621&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

The last supplier is the one that I got my carts and ink from for my Epson Artisan. So far, so good!

 

[DGordon]

Thanks, Mike. I spent a fair amount of time after posting looking at info at the site whose link you posted. They appear to have a CIS system that may work with my Canon printer - at least the cartridge numbers are the same. Any thoughts on the quality of that company's products? That they only make their instructions available once you buy is disappointing; it would be nice to review model specific instructions before making the commitment.

I'll review the additional resources you suggested.

Thanks again!
--
azdgordon

 

[Vernon D Rainwater]

Thanks, Mike. I spent a fair amount of time after posting looking at info at the site whose link you posted. They appear to have a CIS system that may work with my Canon printer - at least the cartridge numbers are the same. Any thoughts on the quality of that company's products? That they only make their instructions available once you buy is disappointing; it would be nice to review model specific instructions before making the commitment.

I'll review the additional resources you suggested.

Thanks again!
--
azdgordon

Regarding your "specific instructions" comment -- Check with Ross Hardie at Inkjetcarts.
--
Vernon...

 

[Mike in Kansas]

I do not know anything about the other websites nor businesses; I only have experience with Precision Colors. They are the one with an eBay storefront, and a website here:

http://home.eol.ca/~mikling/index.html

I also know that Inkjetcarts and Ross Hardie come highly recommended as well.

 

[JerryG1]

...
Each A4 is costing me, Australian, $4.02 per print.
...

Interesting, Bruce. I wouldn't be surprised if much of the difference between your Australian $4.02 calculation and my US $2.50 estimate is due simply to local cost of materials and hardware.

--
JerryG

My galleries at:
http://www.pbase.com/jerryg1

 

[GMack]

Think I'll start a shop in Australia selling the 20 sheet box of "99 Cent Store" paper for $15. Should be worthwhile.

Actually, any start-up business model for Oz is: "Triple the cost. They'll pay." (sorry).

Mack

 

[ESfishdoc]

I have an Epson 4900...

This guy did all the work...

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/printers/the_epson_4900_printer_hands_on_and_down_to_work.shtml

But... I still don't know how much it "costs" but the good news is it isn't important to me.

I have a general idea when I print for friends at "cost"... but I make that up in a way...

I can't imagine not printing my own... I didn't wonder how much it costs to take a picture when I got my camera... but factoring in all my equipment and time..

How much does it cost to print my pictures..?

About 10K a year!



Richard

--
http://esfishdoc.com/blog

My Flickr Photostream Slideshow

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33755787@N03/show/

My Images at Photo.net
http://photo.net/photos/esfishdoc

 

[brucet]

I've been caught out trying to save money on cheap paper and cheap ink.
It's not worth it.

Why go to all the bother to take the photos and edit them only to risk it all with a poor print.

I don't like paying out/wasting money, but in the end I would rather pay a high price for quality than waste money trying to save money!