Some folks confuse offset printing with copier printing, meaning clients that are doing a copy job sometimes feel the price of service should trend downward when less color is used. Pricing according to the number of colors printed is a model that is used in offset printing (i.e. a 2-color project costs less than a 3-color project).

Copiers work on a per-click model. Everytime a service provider prints an impression (one side of an 8.5 x 11 page), they are charged a click, and each click costs a contracted amount of money (usually cents). Regardless, of how much toner is being used or not used, the click charge remains the same. Thus, service providers usually have a low and high range of what they are willing to charge per impression, but the price does not change based on what color is being used.

The low range tends to be around .39 per copy, but that price is misleading because it is based on each impression (single side), so a client would need to double that price for double-sided documents. Also, that price is usually a temporary loss leader anyway. The high range is typically around .88, and this does not matter if it is a single-sided document or double-sided document, so a client ends up spending more than they need to if they are printing single-sided documents.

Contact us at questions@makepapereasy.com.