Calculations to do with printing cost for music

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Hector Pascal
Posts: 432
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2016 11:43 pm
Finale Version: Finale 26
Operating System: Mac

Post by Hector Pascal » Tue Sep 08, 2020 7:03 am

Hi everyone,

I'm working out the cost per page of printing my Finale score...

With regard to laser printer toner cartridges, the one I am researching says it's good for 15000 A4 pages at circa 5% coverage.

Do you think that printing music would also be 5% page coverage, generally speaking?

If so, $455 toner / 15000 pages = $0.03 per page.

Now, I print on A3, so that would be $0.06 per page.

The cost of A3 paper stock must be added ($15.00 / 250 sheets = $0.06 per page).

Total printing cost = $0.12 per page.

Trying to refine the calculation gets a bit tricky after that, because there is the question of whether the cost of the electricity/other printer consumables/etc should be factored in? Where does one stop?! But I just thought it was an interesting calculation to do.

If anyone else calculates the cost of printing their music, feel free to share your thoughts.

Cheers,
Hector.


User avatar
motet
Posts: 8225
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 8:33 pm
Finale Version: 2014.5,2011,2005,27
Operating System: Windows

Post by motet » Tue Sep 08, 2020 3:32 pm

I think the coverage of music is much more than 5%, so you'll get far fewer pages per toner cartridge. It will still be much cheaper than inkjet printing, though.

bakkumd
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2020 12:25 am
Finale Version: 25, 26, 27
Operating System: Mac

Post by bakkumd » Tue Sep 08, 2020 5:09 pm

If your printer is larger than a typical "office depot" type... you should add in all of the printer's consumables...

Fusers, transfer belts, waste cartridges, developers, etc...

Figure out all of the items eventually needing replacement, add them together, divide by manufacturer's length of life (page count), and then add your toner and paper cost.

For me - each fuser/developer (includes 4) is $400, transfer belts are $300, and waste cartridges are $60 each - then I add in the toner costs. This at least keeps you from losing money...

This is why Fedex Kinko's charges $.99 per letter sized single sided B/W page...

Add in service calls and any service agreement costs too...

Also - sometimes manufacturer's web sites will list the true cost per page in the support section - or call a customer service rep.

Good Luck!
Finale 25, 26, 27, Patterson Plug-ins, JW Plug-ins, TG Tools, Perfect Layout Gold, Keyboard Maestro, Adobe CS6 - CC, MacOS Mojave through Monterey. NotePerformer 3, Dorico 4, Sibelius Ultimate.

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