Printing Costs

[galowgala]

I want to print some coloured A4 flyers, about 1000 every month, would it be cheaper for me to buy an ink jet printer, Or go to a printers

[RKASA]

That is a lot for most little printers, but maybe no enough to warrant a better printing system. It might take a month to print them - I would out source even if it was a bit more per sheet - just because of the time required.

[astral]

Even if the ink jet printer can manage the job, they are not generally built for the load,

it would be a lot of ink refills...........

This might help you decide http://www.nifty-stuff.com/inkjet-printer-tco.php

found from googling "ink jet printer pages per refill"

[CXinCNX]

Depends on ink coverage, inkjet ink is expensive and for that quantity a laser maybe better.

The other factor is quality, a printer would produce a much better product and if image is important than that is the route to go.

[BB1950]

The ink jet printers wouldn't be appropriate for flyers unless you used photo paper, because the ink would smear when it got wet. By going to a print shop they would use a non-water-based ink, rather than water-based ink used in the ink jet printers. Thus it would be cheaper to go to a print shop. The flyers also printed by a print shop would be much more attractive.

[innerspace]

Some of the comments above rule out the possibility of inkjets due to price and speed, these are not true.

You certainly can print them yourself fairly cheaply, I did it for several years.

If you do go the inkjet route then make sure that you get a printer with a good CISS (Ink supply system).

You can find ink tank systems easily in thailand and the bottled inks make mass home printing affordable, buying cartridges forget it!

Also when getting a ink system make sure the the cartridges are proper, transparent, specially made for the job types.

Some systems will use the original printers cartridge with a hole drilled and a tube stuck in, don't even consider buying these!

My old 2000 baht inkjet used to do a full colour page in around 40 seconds, so around 100 per hour.

If keeping an eye (or ear) on the printer for a day while doing other things is no problem then you could do 1000 in a day easily enough.

That said it will involve a fair bit of effort in refilling paper/ink, restarting print jobs, clearing paper jams etc.

As has been said by the other posters, you will get a better quality paper and ink from a professional shop with a higher quality appearance all round.

But a print shop will certainly cost more and most likely take longer.

5-10,000 is normally the mark where print shops become much more affordable.

Another tip if you go the inkjet route, try to source some bulk packs (500+) of proper inkjet paper.

You can get stuff from 90gsm upwards which is much, much better than your standard DoubleA copy paper.

You notice a dramatic difference in both appearance and feel. It adds a bit to the cost but would most likely be cheaper than the print shop.

[Crushdepth]

If you want commercial grade printing, ask for quotes on digital production. It's a lot cheaper for small print runs because they don't make plates and the quality is pretty good. If you don't care about quality head down to Pantip or whatever and get an inkjet job done, but you might want to hassle them *not* to print in draft mode