When you set out to buy a new printer for your company, one consideration that you will encounter is whether to buy one with full color capabilities, or just black & white – also known as monochrome.
While cost will always be one of the arbiters for which printer you will choose, a number of other issues make the decision less than straightforward and are worthy of consideration.
Choosing between color and monochrome begins with determining how you will use the printer. Declaring the full scope of print jobs you have planned will help you determine which solution is the most cost effective.
• Output: What will you print with the device? If it will solely be used as an invoice printer, do you need color? If you’re going to print photos and presentations, will monochrome be sufficient? Don’t just base your decision on what you’ve printed up to this point. Try to think about what you might be printing two years from now.
• Productivity: How important is print speed to your business? If it’s an issue, monochrome might be the better choice. For example – if you regularly print 1000 invoices at a time, a monochrome printer will complete the job quite a bit faster than a color printer.
• Print and consumable costs: The cost of printing a monochrome print on a color printer is approximately the same as on a monochrome printer if your monthly print volume is low. At higher volumes, though, cost differentiation begins to build. Even at the most basic level of use, having to replace multiple color cartridges will cost more than a single black cartridge. Of course, a monochrome printer will drain a black cartridge much quicker than a color printer will. Again, it all comes down to predicting your anticipated usage.
Choosing a color and/or a monochrome printer depends on what you expect your output to be, what volume of output you expect to print, what individual print costs your budget can absorb, and what print speed you require.
For more information on choosing between color and monochrome printers, please contact us.