Can Anyone Help With Printing Calculations??

ksh123

Hi
A friend has asked me to put together a little newsletter for her business. She will probably need 100-200 (depending on price) double sided A4 pages, full colour. There will be 4 pix included.
Trouble is I don't know if it would be more cost effective for her to contract out the printing (after I've written, designed it etc.) or for me to do it on my printer? And if I do it on my printer how will I work out what to charge for the printing (cost price only)?
To help with any calculations I have a Brother DCP115C.
Any help/advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

droopsnoot

Very, very hard to say on a printer like that, and without much more detailed information. The ink usage varies a great deal from a standard letter (which is usually ~ 5% coverage) to an illustrated newsletter which can be closer to 60% or 70% coverage. On some higher-end printers, you can print one copy of a document and it will show in the status page just how much of each colour ink was used, you can then calculate exactly what it will cost and go from there, unfortunately I doubt the DCP-115 has such a feature. I suspect the only way is to agree that your friend will buy the ink cartridges for the print run, and then you're not taking into account the wear and tear you're putting on the printer, possible mis-feeds and misprints during the run.

There seems to be a growing number of on-line print shops now, where you simply upload your document in the required format, fill in the forms, and they print and despatch them to you. I had a quote for 5000-off 1-sided A5 leaflets from a printer we've used a lot, the first on-line company I found wanted roughly 30% of the price. I had a quick look on one (www.47print.co.uk) and they're asking just under £200 for 2,500 copies of A4 double sided full colour.

Poppycat

theprintinghouse promoting your own buisness isnt allowed