Printing Costs - Advide needed

[russ_e]

Just wondered if there are any printers on here. Im looking to setup a small digital art printing firm, mainly selling prints like this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=72173&item=7329395022&rd=1

but at local car shows and art fairs etc rather than ebay which is a bit saturated.

I'm trying to work out the costs at the moment but finding it difficult to calculate the ink costs and wondered if someone with a little more knowledge could estimate how much the print on ebay would cost to produce.

thanks in advance

russ

[wanty1974]

Well... it's effectively an A3 print, give or take. I get about 100 A3 prints out of my printer on the highest quality setting from a set of six colour cartridges. A set of six carts is about £110 if you shop around so ink alone is £1.10 per print. This does not include paper or the occasional replacement printing head, based on an Epson A3 inkjet printer. I stress again this is at the highest possible resolution.

Hope that helps.

[russ_e]

many thanks for the information

so im probably looking at between £8 and £9 for the complete product.

[golfman]

russ_e said:

many thanks for the information so im probably looking at between £8 and £9 for the complete product.

I can print onto anything. We are experimenting at the moment with different types of canvas.

I would be pleased to team up with photographers as we can produce some stunning stuff with the right pictures.

e.g.: 1.3m wide x say 5m long, onto substrates that are fully waterproof, uv stable etc etc.

[simpo two]

russ_e said:

so im probably looking at between £8 and £9 for the complete product.

You can buy an A3 print (or any other size) on photographic paper for a lot less than that at Photobox or Pixaco. Plus you don't have to sit there watching it grinding out for hours, or throwing one away when a cartridge runs out one inch from the bottom. I use Photobox for my exhibition prints; 20 x A4 at £1.54 each. Fantastic quality.

[jon h]

If you are doing small format inkjet to say A3 size, using something like an Epson, get a bulk ink conversion kit from Lyson (www.lyson.com) about £250 for the kit plus inks, but you will slash ink costs compared with cartridges and the ROI is quick if printing in any volume. They also do some nice inks such as quad tone black inks for really pukka arty black & white images. Generally, the more money you throw at the printer, the faster it is and the print cost comes down, for example, one of my inkjet printers prints at up to 100 square metres per hour, with the ink costing about £20 per litre, but on the down side the printer was £350 000. Horses for courses, but if you want some advice, drop me a line

Jon H

[russ_e]

many thanks jon