print Cost estimator

[theNewerGuy]

Thank you, finally a real answer. WOW!

So I took your advice and again I'm new very new so heres what I did. I ordered a poster of size 36"Length x 24"Wide from a very well known printing company and they told me to make my file 150dpi so I did. They charged me $40.00 for that poster. So by doing the math I figured out that they are charging about $13.33 per linear foot.

This is exactly what I wanted to know. Now after ading up the cost of my cartridges and my paper I found that I would make a very nice profit and I could charge just a little bit more since I have a store front and I will give my customers their prints within 30 minutes to an hour.

Thank you for your advice and I accept it as a real solution that solves a real problem one that highly trained individuals cant seem to figure out.

[SHThompson]

HP can't figure it out because they don't know how much ink you're going to use on any given picture.

I've seen 24 by 36 pictures that probably only had 5% of the page covered with ink and others that had a hundred percent of the page covered with it and a clear coat on top.

The ink for the hundred percent coverage page probably cost about 20 times what the 5% coverage page did.

[theNewerGuy]

Yes, I understand that from your original post however that still doesnt help anyone. A print shop needs a way of determining "even if it's based on averages" their cost to print. You say a print with 5% ink would be one cost and a print with 10% ink would be another.

1% INK = $0.01

2% INK = $0.02

3% INK = $0.03

4% INK = $0.04

5% INK = $0.05

6% INK = $0.06

7% INK = $0.07

8% INK = $0.08

9% INK = $0.09

etc...

So what if it's a guesstimate, as long as the guesstimate is based on enough research. Share that reasearch so shops can create real estimate forms or spread sheets or software. I found software that does this very thing. I think the key thing to remember here is that it's an estimate.

[Mikeg81]

Hi,

As mentioned before, there is no way to give you an estimate if you dont know what your are printing

How print shops estimate the cost of a print.

They use software that calculate the ink that will be use and the media

HP provides the DesignJet Accounting Tool that will tell you the ink and paper used on each print AFTER you print. You will enter the cost of the ink and media and it will give you the cost of the print.

https://h71044.www7.hp.com/ga/2009/us/en/designjetaccounting.php

Compatible with the following printers: HP DesignJet 4000/4500/4020/4520, HP DesignJet Z2100/Z3200, HP DesignJet Z5200, HP DesignJet Z6100/Z6200, HP DesignJet T1100/T1120/T770/T1200/T2300/T1300/T790, HP DesignJet T7100, HP DesignJet T920 (only PostScript)/T1500/T2500, HP DesignJet T930/T1530/T2530.