During the last few years, office printing costs have become one of the most significant budget items. Indeed, according to experts, office printing costs comprise of 1%-3% of total corporate revenues. Analysts also evaluate that office printing costs are increasing at an annual rate of 30%-40%. Overall, the cost of printing is the direct outcome of printing volumes, it is calculated that an average office printing is done between 10,000-20,000 pages per year. If the number of pages is multiplied by the cost of consumables per page, the basic tangible cost of printing will be generated.

The average cost of consumables per page can be evaluated by adding up the cost of a toner or Inkjet Cartridges divided by the real pages yield, along with the cost of a drum divided by the real pages yield and the cost of a refill kit divided by average yield per kit. Remember that the printed page has average actual coverage of around 10%, meaning that a cartridge that is expected to yield 6000 pages at 5% coverage will effectively yield only over 3000 pages in a real office environment.

If we evaluate cost by class of printer, then the average cost to print a page will be-

• For desktop monochrome laser printers, consumables will range from 2.5 cents to 6 cents per page.
• For color laser printers, consumables can be expected to range from 5 cents to 12 cents per page. Color printers require ink supplies including cyan, yellow, magenta and black.
• For personal and workgroup inkjet color printers, consumables can be expected to range from 9 cents to 20 cents per page.