Photo copying v Laser printing- Which is cheaper??

dickey

Hi don’t know if anyone knows the answer to this question but which is cheaper photocopying or printing on a laser printer???

I’m talking about simple black and white normal quality copy on 80g paper.

I know it all depends on your printer, price of cartridge, paper, etc but on average how much does a simple black & white print cost from a laser printer??

Hope one of you geniuses can help??

dc

The cheapest way to print by laser is to watch out for loss leader printer offers from the big retailers, e.g. PCW or Staples. Usually half price or even less, the offers occur regularly at sale times and prior to bank holidays. E.G. the smaller Samsung and Brother ones were regularly on offer around £39.99, these are considerably cheaper than the cartridge costs alone, though often not fully filled and will print around 2000 to 3000 average pages. approx 1.5p a page

Canon and HP seem to have recently joined in and the best offer this year was a Canon LBP2900i at PCW for £49.99 with a mail in offer for a free replacement toner cartridge again at £65, more expensive than the printer. so for £50 you got 6 to 7000 pages. approx 0.75p a page

Replace the printer with another offer when the toner runs out, sell the old one cheap or refill your own with powder for less than a tenner if you are brave.

Even buying a new toner cartridge for say £60 which gave 3000 pages that would then run as 2p per page, whereas a £10 diy refil would set you back a miserly 1p for 3 pages.

Hence laser printing seems cheaper than copying with these methods. Unless you do yours at work :lipsrseal :lipsrseal :lipsrseal

The free toner is still on offer, not sure if the printer is.

As dicussed on grabbit board here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=665949&highlight=canon

snidey

Copying is more expensive, especially if you lease a machine.

Usually you are tied in for a year. Example, when you sign up you may say you'll copy 10K pages in a year, youre lease is worked out for that. If you go over, you are stuffed as they charge the earth. The next year they look at what you've done and charge accordingly.

You are forever paying until the contract runs out.

Better to buy a laser and print what you need and change the printing settings accordingly, maximising the amount of toner you use.

I have people buy from me who are on lease as they prices they are charged are too high.

weegie.geek

A laser printer will probably be cheaper, and will definitely be better quality.