Epson R2400 – The cost of Printing (my own analysis)

I have owned the Epson R2400 printer for a while now, and been wondering how much it really costs to print at home. Before buying I researched the topic, but found nothing really definitive on this topic. After running through 25 ink cartridges I thought it was worth to do some math and come closer to estimating the real cost of printing. There are obvious benefits to controlling your workflow end-to-end, but I wanted to know how much this was costing me.


Overview:
With a sample of 137 prints of diverse sizes and a few paper types, my preliminary conclusions are that it takes 0.03 of an ink cartridge to print a 4x6, 0.13 to print an 8.5x11 and 0.34 to print a 13x19. Estimating the prices of each ink cartridge at USDs 15 (I know this might vary slightly, but just as reference), the ink cost (not taking into account paper – more on this later) of a 4x6 would be USDs 0.45, 8.5x11 at USDs 1.95 and a 13x19 at USDs 5.10. [Note. More detail on the methodology I used to calculate this below].


Methodology:
So even though this is not a strict scientific approach, I think it provides a reasonable estimation to the cost of printing.

I used a sample of a 137 prints, distributed in 23 (17%) 4x6; 68 (50%) 8.5x11 and the remaining 46 prints (33%) 13x19. All the 4x6 were printed in Ilford Smooth Pearl Paper, while over 95% of the remaining prints were done in Epson Premium Luster.

In order to understand the cost, I decided to perform an analysis based on the printed area. I calculated the printed area for the 137 prints, totaling 18.272 square inches. Below, you can see a breakdown by print size.




Since I did not want to have to deal with the variances in color balance of the sample prints, and since the cartridges cost all the same price, I eliminated from this first part of the analysis the breakdown between color cartridges.

In order to print this 137 prints, I used a total of 25 ink cartridges. Simple math concludes that if 25 cartridges were required to print 18.272 sq/in, a 4x6 (with an area of 24 sq/in) would require 0.03 of an ink cartridge; 0.13 for an 8.5x11 (93.5 sq/in) and 0.34 for a 13x19 (247 sq/in). At an estimated USDs 15 per cartridge, the ink cost of a 4x6 would be USDs 0.45; 8.5x11 would come up to USDs 1.95 and the 13x19 to USDs 5.10. Note. One of the elements that might have an impact on these measurements, it’s when to replace the ink. The Epson driver advises of low ink, yet I tried to push as much as it seem reasonable before exchanging it. Yet, I did not allow it to get to the point where the printer forces you to replace the cartridge before continuing.

Finally, I added the cost of paper, to get the whole picture. The 4x6 Ilford Smooth Pearl Paper (30 sheets) costs approximately USDs 11 (tax included). The Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper in 8.5x11 (50 sheets) costs approximately USDs 17, and the 13x19 (50 sheets) costs 107.





Just as reference, my local professional lab, prints an 8x10 for USDs 10 (in a direct to printer mode, without any human intervention), or at USDs 0.13 per sq/in. Comparatively, I am printing at 0.02 per sq/in, or 80% less.

Conclusions:
As I said before, even though there are many areas of improvement for this study, it does provide a reasonable basis for comparison and thus for supporting the decision making process of purchasing and owning a printer.

If you have done some sort of analysis yourself, or have gotten access to one, please don’t hesitate to provide me a link to it.

Please send any comments to Martin Herrera | Martin@MartinHSphoto.com | www.MartinHSphoto.com.