TCPglobal - news, views and issues on total cost of printing

Issue #0715/2 - Last week’s TCPglobal made reference to no multi-packs from Hewlett-Packard on its HP 363 and HP 88 individual ink sets. A reader points out that there is an HP 363 photo multi-pack – but it does include photo media. So we take the opportunity to look at the value of photo value packs.

It has been brought to my attention, by a retailer, that buried deep within the Hewlett-Packard inkjet media product range (rather than the inkjet cartridge range) is a multi-pack containing one of each of the HP 363 ink tanks and 150 sheets of 10×15 glossy photo media.

So, apologies to Hewlett-Packard for the inaccuracy in last week’s issue of TCPglobal "It’s the RGB revolution! You choose, Hewlett-Packard supplies." when we said that there is no HP 363 multi-pack.

This type of photo value-pack was not actually the intended target of the comment, which was orientated in the direction of ink-only multi-packs. However, I had missed this particular product when undertaking the check on multi-packs and photo value-packs are certainly very relevant to the Total Cost of Printing scenario.

This particular pack (Q7966EE) emphasises the potential value of buying in this way. The user will save around 54% by buying the value photo pack in this way instead of buying the full set of cartridges as individual items and 150 sheets of photo media (premium glossy).

In point of fact, these photo value-packs represent increasingly good value for money and offer a high level of convenience to the photo enthusiast or volume home snapshot photographer. Although it does not bring the cost per photo down to the level of printing volume photos in some high street or online outlets, it has closed the gap sufficiently for a user to think a little more carefully about either making the trip to the high street or waiting a couple of days for online prints to be returned.

It is this HP 363 kit that stands out in the line-up because its cost per photo is the lowest, albeit only by 6.5% over the HP 343 kit with 120 sheets of 10×15 glossy media. At the other end of the scale, the HP 343 kit with 60 sheets of 13×18 media is the only offering from any manufacturer that provides the slightly larger media. This is because Hewlett-Packard has the only portable photo printer on the market to offer this format (7×5in) - Photosmart A710.

This pricing is manufacturer’s recommended selling price so, by careful selection of high street or online store for the purchase, it should be possible to reduce this cost further, bringing it more into line with high street or online photo printing services. Where the HP 363 kit is concerned, pricing has been found that brings the per photo cost down to just 16.1 pence by the time post and packing has been included as well as tax.

Some other inkjet manufacturers also offer photo packs, including Canon, Epson and Lexmark. Brother, although its latest inkjet AiO range is highly photo capable (see TCPglobal issues #0706 to #0710), currently offers cartridge multi-packs only but no photo value packs.

Canon’s CL-41 photo value pack is based on that low-yield cartridge (CL-41 - 120 photos) rather than the high yield version (CL-51 cartridge that is rated at up to 198 photos per cartridge).

Per photo, the CLI-8 photo pack comes in as by far the most expensive pack of all. However, there is some justification for this as the pack includes a black cartridge and only 50 sheets of glossy media. The colour cartridges should each produce upwards of 240 photos (depending on printer and colour). So, for Canon to include only 50 sheets of media, indicates that the pack is not intended purely as a photo pack but as a general multi-pack with provision for photo printing – good idea! The user is actually getting the photo media free of charge, which perhaps also helps explain the limit of 50 sheets.

Just to be perverse, Canon also has the lowest unit cost photo pack – the CLI-36 pack that come in at only 18 pence per photo.

Epson offers photo value packs for its PictureMate range of compact portable photo printers only. There are no packs for A4 desktop inkjet printers.

Lexmark has a wide range of photo pack products for use on its inkjet printers and AiOs. Interestingly, these include packs that include both the #33 moderate yield tricolour cartridge with only 20 sheets of media and also the #35 high yield cartridge with 140 sheets.

This is quite unusual and surprising but does offer a flexibility for home photo users that is not available from the other manufacturers. At the end of the day though, these low yield packs are horrendously poor value for money and any user would be well advised to visit the high street or use an online service for all but the most urgent and unplanned photo prints.

Overall, the cost of photo printing is coming down, mainly through the availability of these photo packs. As emphasised in last week’s issue of TCPglobal, costs do vary enormously and users must be sure to choose their printer carefully if they wish to take advantage of low-cost printing.

Despite the increasing competitivity against the high street and online services, home photo printing does not yet compete with the sort of pricing available from these high-volume providers. The user decision regarding competitivity and whether to go to the high street, order online or to print at home is very much dependent on the printer that is owned.

We see costs ranging from 18.0 pence per photo (Canon CLI-36 pack) right up to 74.0 pence (Lexmark #33 pack) – leaving out the Canon CLI-8 pack with its clear intention to primarily service document usage.

Most of the packs place the cost per photo within the range of 20 pence to 30 pence, which is down from a cost that fell more in the region of 30 pence to 35 pence a few years ago.

Inkjet technology is not quite as predictable as dye sublimation technology regarding the yield of the supplies. However, in most cases, the cartridge supplied in the photo value packs should provide enough ink to print the number of photos that the media provides – with some to spare. With some packs, there should be plenty of ink left over that can be used for office printing after using all the glossy media for photographs.

Home photo printing offers users a number of potential advantages, the most important of which are spontaneity and size flexibility. To see the cost of home photo printing beginning to fall closer to high street levels is great progress but the cost is never likely to reach the same levels, so users will always be well-advised to go to the high street or internet when volume is an issue but spontaneity and speed are not.

In terms of the actual products available, I would still like to see ink-only multi-packs for HP 363 and HP 88 ink sets so that business users can take advantage of the bulk purchase without having to buy media in the package.

~End~

This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 12:02 am and is filed under Pricing, Comparisons, Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.