EPSON 9900 Ink usage per sqft??

[abccolor]

We are calculating our total cost per print and are wondering if anyone has experience determining an ink volume per square foot on the EPSON 9900? We are using Matte Paper, but information or techniques for any paper type will be helpful.

Suggestions are always appreciated.

 

[caveman]

In the printer menu, under Printer Status you can find the Job History sub-menu. This menu stores the last 10 printed jobs (0 is the last printed) and reports paper and ink consumption. Based on these values you can calculate the cost per sqf. Notice that when it comes to paper consumption, the printer calculates not the inked area or file size but the roll's width and printed length. So, even if you print an A4 file on a 24'' inch roll the paper consumption would be 24'' by 9''.

 

[PrePress Guru]

If you are using a RIP that has ink calculations, you can set it up to tell you how much the ink would cost for the print.
I use Onyx ProductionHouse and it has ink calculations built in.
You have to set your ink cost per ml in the printer setup. Its not 100% accurate but its close enough.
A bunch of other RIP’s also have ink calculations or estimations. Also as caveman mentioned, Epson has its ink consumptions stated.

 

[William Campbell]

I can't tell you how I came up with the figure (it's been two years now), but when I did pricing for our Epson, somehow I determined the average cost for ink was $0.003958 sq in. That was October 2008. ??? No guarantee that figure isn't whacked, since I can't rememeber. Maybe that helps, maybe not.

 

[TerryWyse]

We are calculating our total cost per print and are wondering if anyone has experience determining an ink volume per square foot on the EPSON 9900? We are using Matte Paper, but information or techniques for any paper type will be helpful.

Suggestions are always appreciated.

Can't say for the 9900, but ink usage in most Epson printers typically runs around 1.7-2.4 ml/sq.ft. for heavy coverage like photographic prints.

Like someone suggested, you can run a few sample/typical prints and then print the Job Information page from the front panel which will list the last 10 jobs and the ink usage for each job. Add perhaps 10-15% to those figures to account for nozzle checks/cleaning cycles and the like.

Regards,
Terry Wyse

 

[TerryWyse]

I can't tell you how I came up with the figure (it's been two years now), but when I did pricing for our Epson, somehow I determined the average cost for ink was $0.003958 sq in. That was October 2008. ??? No guarantee that figure isn't whacked, since I can't rememeber. Maybe that helps, maybe not.

Maybe not.

Seriously, that sounds seriously low (seriously).

Based on your figure, that's about $.57 $/sq.ft.

Figuring about $.40 per ml for the larger cartridges, I come up with a range of about $.70-1.00/sq.ft....that's for typical photographic print coverage (near 100%) but if you're proofing print jobs, especially impositions where there tends to be a lot of white space with less ink coverage......

......OK, maybe you're not all that far off Mr. Campbell.

Very helpful William, SERIOUSLY.



Regards,
Terry

 

[unoprint1]

It depends on how heavy the coverage is. So we log in sales as we send the order to the printer and keep track of ink usage during the month to get a cost to sales number we use to make sure we have a handle on our cost.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Taken with a grain of salt:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id523592014?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=4

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.uk.co.signals.epsoninkcostcalculator&hl=en


Stephen Marsh