The Cost of
Printing Explained
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Color Laser
Printers Recommended for Refilling
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Monochrome Laser
Printers Recommended for Refilling
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Change, development and progress have not left
inkjet and laser printing technology untouched. Home and office
printing has become much more varied and sophisticated than before,
while high quality color laser printers and color inkjet printers have
dropped in price. In the mid-1990s, a color laser printer cost over
$10,000.00. But recently, some color laser printers from HP, Okidata,
Lexmark and other manufacturers have dropped below $500.00 and even
substantially below.
Though printers themselves cost dramatically
less, consumables and supplies prices are about the same as a decade
ago and often more. Therefore operating expenses make up a
dramatically higher percentage of total printing costs. Keeping this
truth in mind is important when selecting a printer.
For example, consider the HP Color Laserjet
4600 and 4650 series color laser printers. The black toner cartridge
retails for around $150.00 and each of the color toner cartridges
(cyan, magenta and yellow), for $200.00 or more. An OPC (Organic
Photo-Conductor) drum is built into each cartridge. Hence there is no
separate OPC drum unit, though there is a user-replaceable image fuser
kit. We will focus on just the color toner cartridges as they are most
frequently replaced and directly affect total printing costs.
The black C9720A HP toner cartridge is rated
for an average yield of 9000 pages (8 ½" by 11") at 5%
density. The color toner cartridges are each rated for 8000 pages at
5% density. At an average print density of 5% per color, the average
cost of toner per page would be around 9 cents if you use only OEM HP
toner cartridges. Note that an average page of text equals about 5%
density, so if you are printing lots of photos or graphics, the cost
per page could increase dramatically.
If you refill your C9720A, C9721A, C9722A and
C9723A toner cartridges with our color toners, designed specifically
for use with the HP CLJ 4600 / 4650 toner cartridges, you can save
dramatically over the cost of new OEM cartridges. At an average print
density of 5% per color, the average cost of toner per page is reduced
to only 2 cents per page.
There is a hidden cost to the OPC drum
cylinder in these cartridges and drum cylinders do not last
indefinitely. Frugal consumers can replace the drum cylinder
themselves and further extend the life of their cartridges. Various
small replacement parts are equally available. Some users may not want
to disassemble their cartridges to replace the internal parts, and may
simply buy a remanufactured cartridge when needed.
In summary, even factoring in the consumables,
color laser printing can be made affordable for every one. User can
choose from a wide range of color laser printers currently on the
market, e.g. Okidata, Konica-Minolta, HP, Lexmark and Xerox that offer
a selection of choices in price range, paper handling, print speed and
other features. We support most of them and will continue to add new
ones and strive to aid our customers and substantially reduce their
printing costs.
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