How much do inkjet prints cost. How much does a print on your printer cost?

If you're looking to sell prints, it helps to know your costs. Using the Canon PRO-300 as an example, Keith answers some questions he's often asked about selling your work.
There is very little direct cost of printing information available, but there is one particular web site Keith often uses. It's Red River paper in the US and the page he refers to in the video is:
www.redrivercatalog.com/rr/co...
Test images are available at:
www.northlight-images.co.uk/p...
This is part of Keith's Business of Photography' playlist.
All of Keith's photography business related articles and videos are referenced on the Northlight Images site at:
www.northlight-images.co.uk/b...

[@kimsmith6648]

You said it yourself the printer is not worth anything on the second hand market because of the cost of the inks, but to many people who just want to print there own work( not to sell ) its great but from what I understand the problems arise because of lack of printing. The capital cost must be taken into consideration which should you print say 50 A3 over the first year will add an extra 20 pounds to the print as at the end of the first year the printer is worthless even if it goes on for a few more years the ink/maintenance costs are high. Also any movement of the printer can cause problems. Thanks for the good video. I wish Canon would lower the cost of the printer and raise the cost of inks as so many photographers like myself could enjoy printing large prints and feel better about the investment.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes, I've noticed wildly varying views/approaches on how people factor in costs/depreciation [if at all]. I've given away large printers just because of the costs of movement/set-up made them worthless.

[@JEmmertz]

You do have a very good and solid thinking behind all this! And, indeed, most of us don't value our time appropriately - we have fun doing something that we like, and thus we kind of wave it off as something negligible.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - Yes, it's always a problem for people looking to work as photographers too. Nothing wrong with it when it's a hobby, but not if it's a serious business ;-)

[@grahamjones9888]

Excellent video. Calm, considered and thoughtful. Thanks.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jbairdexp]

In the past I've had a stab at working out ink costs based on Canon's published yields,but that's like looking at what the manufacturer of your car says about MPG.....what you get really depends on whole lot of factors. As I print mostly for fun, I don't worry about the cost of print as much as someone who will sell their prints. And besides, compared the cost of petrol to getting to some of the locations I shoot (even the local ones), making a print is relatively cheap.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes, these numbers definitely involve a degree of handwaving ;-)

[@shamhussain]

Great video Keith, very insightful.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@sjenkin88]

Hi Keith, this has been an extremely interesting and informative watch! I'm currently waiting for Black Friday deals before making my Canon Pro-300 purchase. I'm mainly buying into a home printing situation to produce work/s for exhibition, as I see going to back and forth to the lab more expensive in the long run, plus I'll have greater control and reduced feedback time when printing from home. I do want to sale some prints to help recover the cost of the printer, and for the maintenance going forward. Ideally, producing work for exhibitions would 100% be covered by the fine arts print sales. If I'm super happy with the quality and cost of the prints, I might even offer a printing service to my photography peers, although I fear this might be considered as undercutting the print labs... Thanks again for the content, I'm sure I'll be watching more of your videos going forward.

[@KeithCooper]

Glad to help! I've quite a few videos about selling prints too See the full index for all my videos I recently created www.northlight-images.co.uk/keith-cooper-photography-videos-index/ Who cares if you undercut the labs? To me this would just say that you are likely not charging all your true costs ;-)

[@christophernation4793]

Cutting a long story short, the Red River costs in US$ works out like this at exchange rates of XE Currency today, 21/04/2024 - Print A3+ GBP 2.18/ €2.54. Print 14" x 11" GBP 1.36/ €1.58.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - the details are indeed left as an exercise to the viewer ;-)

[@martindalpe.photography]

for the pro-1000 there is the accounting manager that calculate the cost per print ( ink + paper ) , never test it ( just receive the 1000 and still in the box ) but I saw video and it look like it's working fine.... to be tested.

[@KeithCooper]

That's useful in some respects, but I found you do need to take time to understand the full use of it - it's covered in my detailed PRO-1000 review www.northlight-images.co.uk/canon-pro-1000-printer-review/

[@RonK]

Thank you for these insights. I happened to stumble over the Red River-numbers a couple of weeks ago, and it made frown a bit. I was checking the numbers for the Canon PRO-200 and the Canon Pro-300, since I'm still undecided which to buy. Red River noted the following ink costs, on average from five paper-formats, recalculated to square meters, paper-costs not included: - Pro-300 / Matte: $13.2 vs. Pro-200 / Matte: $12.9 which means less than 2% price difference between the two. - Pro-300 / Luster: $15.7 vs. Pro-200 / Luster: $11.4, meaning a) Pro-300 / Luster is 38% more expensive than Pro-200 / Luster b) Pro-200 / Luster is 12% CHEAPER than Pro-200 / Matte c) Pro-300 / Luster is 19% more expensive than the Pro-300 / Matte In other words - dye for Luster or pigment for Matte; if you switch them out you pay significantly more, and if you use both papers evenly, the pro-300 would be almost 20% more expensive when it comes to ink cost during prints

[@KeithCooper]

Ah, one of the reasons I quote the RR numbers (or at least suggest them) is that I genuinely have no idea about ink costs - the sort of testing I do is so varied that no meaningful quantitative observations can be drawn from my ink use. Ink/paper prices vary so much around the world that I make no other claims to the RR stuff, other than it seems reasonable ;-) The lustre/matte differences are likely due to the use of the CO ink on shiny papers

[@marksalmon5084]

I suggest don't read too much into the RR figures, and treat them as rough guidelines. The RR methodology has a basic flaw in that "It was assumed that the Status Monitor display offered an acceptably accurate account of how much ink was in the cartridges." This for some printers, like the P900, is not an accurate assumption. The status monitor on the P900 greatly underestimates the amount of ink left (which can be verified by weighing the cartridges), and thus the costs are overestimated. What they should have done was weigh the cartridges before and after. I have been tracking ink costs on the P900 over about 1000 prints, and am coming out with about $0.40 average ink cost for an 8x10 equivalent, somewhat lower than RR states (about $0.60). btw, the cost for a normal printhead cleaning (not power cleaning) is about $3 in ink.

[@KeithCooper]

@@marksalmon5084 I note that the basic methodology is quite good. - they acknowledge sources of error and say "Given possible sources of error, it is fair to attach a margin of error of +/- 10% to our results." With sufficiently accurate scales, weighing carts would probably yield better data, but given the costs and time, I can't see anyone trying it... Yes, the numbers are only a guide and potentially improved, by someone with the patience and perseverance to actually do such analysis - that is never going to be me, so I'll continue to point to the RR figures as a starting point ;-) The biggest problem in giving figures is that many people read far more into them than is actually warranted - that's not RR's fault though, and is one reason I include very little quantitative data in any of my reviews

[@sidtp7307]

You have the best videos

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@randytaylor4766]

Nice video Keith! I picked up an Epson 8550 recently, and I've been trying out a few different brands and types of photo paper. I've had pretty good luck with HP, Canon, and Epson so far. I just ordered some ILFORD paper and am looking forward to trying it out too. Curious what brand, and where you buy the majority of your paper? Not sure if I will ever try to sell any prints yet, but if I do, I want to use the best paper for the money.

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks - Quite a variety of papers from local UK suppliers - just got two new ones from Innova I'm going to be trying out on the P5000

[@timothy790110]

very good!

[@KeithCooper]

Thanks!

[@jpdj2715]

Many (people in) businesses cannot make proper cost calculations. We can determine a price bottom-up or top-down. In the case of bottom-up, we take a cost+margin approach, and have to include all direct and indirect costs. Top-down, we lok at competition and set out price at that level, a bit above or underneath depending on strategic choices. Ideally, we do both and thus check feasibility and how attractive printing is as a business to us. Well, cost calculation is where most people flaunt. If you cannot be profitable from the get-go, then don't do it if you treat it as a business model. Or, if you have a modern startup concept, you may need to make some debts first and get investment money later, but at some point profit should come. The price of an inkjet print? I probably overlooked something - let me know in a response comment. Direct print costs: Paper Ink Printer’s depreciation Printer’s energy consumption Indirect printer costs: Square meters of real estate - monthly rent - associated with printing Cupboard holding consumables Heating or cooling of the workspace or to keep the printer/printing within operating temperature Direct printing costs: Labour associated with printing - the operator Indirect printing costs: Calibration work and devices Test prints - work and consumables, total costs Image-to-be-printed costs

[@KeithCooper]

A good overview - I get the impression that relatively few who ask me for 'the best printer' in a business context, have explored costs in this much detail...

[@robertnystrom289]

Hi! About changing ink- I believe on the garden variety 4 tank types that changing one primes them all, wasting ink. I remember one printer where 7 'primes' would deplete a new cartridge; the moral being if any others were modestly low, it was cheaper to just change them at the same time as the 'out of ink' tank. I recently purchased an Epson P900. I believe changing one ink cartridge only primes that cartridge. Is that true? I seem to remember Epson making a big deal about that many years ago when they went to the first multi-multi ink tanks. I'm trying to work out a strategy on the P900- replace only the 'empty' one, or the empty plus any others that are 'low'. Cheers!

[@marksalmon5084]

On the P900 definitely only replace each cartridge when each cartridge is actually empty. The "ink low" is determined by an ink consumption counter, whereas the "ink empty" is determined by physical sensors on each ink buffer that detects when each ink buffer has started to deflate (i.e. when the ink buffer is actually no longer able to receive more ink from the cartridge by the decompression pump). This is from the P900 service manual. The time between "ink low" and "ink empty" can be many prints, and can vary greatly so is not predictable.

[@KeithCooper]

Yes, if I knew the state of the ink carts (freshly at low or low for some time) I might well change several. In this instance I was just following the printer replacement requests, since I was unsure of the state of the printer.

[@karstennevepetersen]

You should somehow also include some of the cost of your Camera gear and time Svend on photographing and editing the photo…

[@KeithCooper]

Oh yes - there are lots more costs... I didn't want to cover too much I've already looked at in some of my more photography business oriented videos and articles.

[@beatrizparejo6398]

Hi Keith, I want to launch an online shop to sell art prints of my original paintings, but I want to make them myself. After watching your wonderful videos it is clear to me that must be a pigment ink printer. My question is about the ink cost comparing the Canon ImagePro 300 with the Epson ET P700, as I don't know the volume of reproductions I'm going to make, could you recommend me which one is more efficient in terms of ink consumption and cost? I would be very grateful. Best regards and thanks Beatriz

[@KeithCooper]

See the linked web site - that should be your starting point in any calculations...

[@beatrizparejo6398]

@@KeithCooper Thank you'

[@marcusbunce3406]

Yeh,,, 😤 the commission markup by some shops just takes the biscuit sometimes,,, how artist are supposed to make any money is mind boggling,,, I recommend any client to mark up 400% on anything I produce for them,, or ,, be prepared to make only a few quid,, or pennies

[@KeithCooper]

Yes, the whole idea of charging properly still seems something to be avoided, by some people supposedly wanting to sell as part of a business

[@oneeyedphotographer]

What I need is not the cost in Pounds Sterling or in US Dollars/ I need the cost in Australian Dollars. The easiest way for you, or Red River, to tell me is how much ink was used. I suspect that ml of ink per A4 page is fairly constant across printers, it may vary a little across papers. Probably, the volume of ink doesn't change much between printing black and white, and colour. The volume of ink would be constant across the life of the printer. I could then go to my Australian suppliers and price the ink in Australian Dollars, just as I can sheets of paper.

[@KeithCooper]

I'm afraid costs in other currencies than US$ need a calculator, and local prices to feed into the data on the RR site ;-) The RR info is simply the best starting point for accurate usage info I know of. Other currencies are very much left as an exercise for the reader... I simply don't have the printers, the ink, the paper or if I'm honest, the patience to work out such stuff, so it's never info I'll be producing ;-)

[@oneeyedphotographer]

@@KeithCooper I asked for the volume of ink used, explaining can convert that to Australian dollars. My printer takes nine 25ml cartridges. If your test, or RR's test used 25ml of ink, the cost to me is the price at my chosen supplier, in Australian dollars, of one cartridge. In France or Germany or Greece, it would the cost in Euros of one cartridge of ink. Approximately. I went to eBay to fill my immediate needs, and prices of different colours did vary, but I don't think that's usual. And there's wastage, but I don't expect that would vary hugely.

[@KeithCooper]

I've no tests whatsoever relating to this - my ink usage in printer testing is too varied to produce any meaningful data. You need to read up the full methodology used by RR and then try to reverse engineer the RR data into your currency - it's their work [in the US], nothing to do with me. I've always thought it most useful for giving relative expenses between printers, which will vary considerably... If you find another source of data then do let me know, but the RR data is the only place I know of to start.

[@oneeyedphotographer]

@@KeithCooper I have seen this sort of information before, I don't remember whether it was RR. There is a problem with the RR data, even for Americans. It assumes that the cost of ink for any particular printer is constant. I've not shopped for ink in the US, but I do know prices for anything in Australia vary between retailers. You did explain your reasoning for not giving the volume of ink you used but that doesn't make it more useful for me. I think you said the ink for your test cost 80p. If I knew how many ml of ink 80p buys you, I could compute an estimate for me. I would have to check what size prints you made. I wonder whether local print shops have any idea. Or Christian Fletcher, his print size wouldn't vary so much.

[@KeithCooper]

You'll need to ask RR fo more data... Any cost I might mention is pure guesswork [especially in any video - they are unscripted and shot in one take] - I've not properly calculated ink costs for years. I long ago came to the conclusion that experimenting costs money, and that if ink costs made a significant difference to my print sales bottom line, all it indicated was I was selling prints too cheaply ;-) A better place to ask would be on the printing forums at Luminous Landscape and DPReview - costings are something I generally avoid in my videos since I have an international audience and prices vary so much.