Ink vs. Toner

There's a lot of talk about laser printers and inkjet printers in our industry, and though I think most people IN the industry know the differences and pro's and con's, there are probably a lot of everyday consumers who don't.

Traditionally (meaning since the beginning of the boom in "personal computers" and word processing), most people used inkjet printers in their homes and offices. Many people still do. I remember finding a perfectly good printer at K-Mart for 50 or 60 bucks in my freshman year of college. Of course I bought it, figuring there's no way I'd find a better deal. Little did I know I was just a pawn in Lexmark's marketing strategy.

Perhaps Jeremy Shulman, vice president of Reink Technology in Tempe, Az., which makes re-manufactured ink cartridges under the Vibrantink brand name, put it best: "The general rule of thumb is that the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the disposable costs for refills and so on." (Full article)

Maybe you've had the same problem. You buy a cheap printer and then find out it costs more money to refill the ink cartridges than it did to buy the printer (and ironically, the printer came with ink cartridges when you bought it).

In this sense, laser printing is much cheaper. Rather than using traditional ink, laser printers use toner. Toner is a dry powder composed of carbon and polymers that, when heated, bind with the paper, essentially acting like ink. What's the catch? It's much faster and cheaper than ink and generally matches or beats the quality. The laser printers cost quite a bit more than inkjets. But your overall cost is much, much less.

For more information on the relationship between ink and toner, check out this article.


Cheap, High-Quality Color Copies

Xerox Proclaims 'Color Copies for the Same Price as Black and White' -- What This Means for Us

Xerox has recently unveiled their Phaser 8860 and 8860MFP printers. With these new products, Xerox claims that you can now "add color to every document you produce and no longer worry about how much it costs."

What does this mean for Docucopies.com, or for your color copying and digital printing company?

Well, we're not too worried about it. While Xerox claims their machines are economical (to the point where color and black and white cost virtually the same), it's clear to see that these copy-printers are intended for consumers, not providers. These are aimed at small- to medium-sized office work groups whose needs are more or less restricted to business meetings, reports, charts, etc. They are clearly NOT intended for large-scale copying companies. This is evidenced by the price as well as it's multi-functionality (e.g. scanning, faxing).

So if you're an executive of a color copying or printing company, you can stop shaking in your boots. This product is not going to put you out of business. You may lose some customers from the small- to medium-sized work group demographics, but your big expensive jobs will keep coming in, because this machine just isn't designed for them.

Furthermore, an article by Nanette Byrnes says, "Xerox's new machine makes a color copy at five cents, about half of what printing it on today's machines costs." At first glance, you may be thinking, "Five cents, hey, isn't that the same price Docucopies offers?"

Yes and no. The five cents per color copy that this machine offers does not factor in the maintenance and repairs that the owner will almost certainly suffer over the course of the machine's life. At Docucopies, that's already figured in--when we say five cents a copy, we mean it. Most companies do not want to worry about the constant upkeep involved in having their own machines, and that's why they will keep coming to us.

The Xerox 8860MFP is very new, and there doesn't appear to be much for customer reviews. If any of our readers have an experience with this machine they'd like to share, please post.

Check out our related blog on the differences between printing with ink, printing with toner, and printing with what Xerox calls "solid ink" (which they claim to offer exclusively).


Cheap, High-Quality Color Copies

Why Are Copy Shops So Expensive?

So if you've been reading our blogs, visited our site, or placed an order with Docucopies.com, you've probably noticed by now that our prices for color copying (5 to 13 cents per 8.5" x 11") are really, really low, especially when compared to giants like FedEx Kinko's. So the obvious question: why?

Why is it that an international chain of copy centers can charge upwards of 49 cents a page for mediocre color copies?

The biggest reason is, Kinko's main target is consumers, not businesses. Kinko's wants to reign in the church leader or college student who needs thirty copies, not the executive who needs 30,000. By doing so, they are able to charge outrageous prices for color copies, knowing that most of their jobs probably won't be for more than $50. They need to make it worth their time to run the machines.

At Docucopies, the situation is a bit different. We happily serve average consumers just as quickly and professionally as businesses. But we do it differently. Our customers don't walk in with a stack of papers. They upload their files from their homes or offices. So there is less need for in-house customer service reps. Secondly, we have a $70 order minimum. To some, this may seem steep, but for anyone doing any serious copying, it's peanuts compared to the savings: $70 at Kinko's will get you roughly 140 color copies. $70 at Docucopies will get you over 500 color copies.

Don't believe me? Check out our cheap color copies for yourself.

Printing and Copying in the 21st Century, pt. 2

Printing and Copying in the 21st Century - Part 2

Tips, tricks, comments, and anecdotes on survival in the color copy business.

Know your market. Do you print big jobs for universities, businesses, and organizations, or do you focus on consumers who need personal jobs done? Knowing your market it essential to survival. Picture a wolf that doesn't know it's supposed to be hunting deer instead of mice. It will never survive. Nor will a bobcat that's trying to take down a moose.

Focus on your market. The world is too big to market your services to everyone. Once you've analyzed your market, focus on them. Don't waste time doing $20 jobs for the guy down the street if your color copy machines are going to be busy doing that big job for the law firm downtown. Likewise, don't take on a $10,000 job from a big corporate entity if you don't have the machines and manpower to get it done on time.

Cheap, High-Quality Color Copies

Printing and Copying in the 21st Century, pt. 1

Printing and Copying in the 21st Century - Part 1

A different kind of climate change...

Anybody with even a modest understanding of the print and copy industries should be well aware that the climate has changed dramatically in the last decade, washing thousands of mom-and-pop businesses out to sea and leaving countless others to claw at the sand for dear life.

Why is this happening? Why is it that printing, an industry that has been on a steady rise since Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type printing in the 15th century, is suddenly suffering? Obviously the Internet, which bombards us with millions of gigabytes of information without asking for a single piece of paper in return, has played its part. But there are other players in this Darwinian battle of the industries which must not be brushed off lightly.

For one thing, the cost of machines has gotten progressively cheaper -- so much that many companies who need regular copying done have invested in in their own copiers rather than pay the outrageous prices toted by companies like FedEx Kinko's. Meanwhile, companies like Docucopies.com have carved out a new market by marketing their services over the Internet, focusing largely on businesses that need big copy and binding jobs. As for the printing industry, many small-scale operations can't keep up with the progression of digital imaging, which is often able to replicate the quality of offset printing presses at a fraction of the cost and setup time.

With such a glum forecast, how can any small- to medium-sized business in the industry hope to survive the next decade in what promises to be an even more cut-throat marketplace?

Keep reading posts in this blog to learn some tips about how to survive in the Brave New World of copying and printing.

Cheap, High-Quality Color Copies