[Web4lib] managing colour printing by the public

[dan at riverofdata.com]

----- Original Message -----
From: John Fitzgibbon jfitzgibbon at Galwaylibrary.ie
> we have the option of colour the issue of charging different rates
> arises. The colour printer uses four toners (cyan, magenta, yellow, and
> black) whereas the black and white printer uses one toner. This
> presumably will not quadruple the cost.  Few colours will require the
> use of all four toners and four popular colours require only one toner.

Actually, it will use much MORE than four times the toner.  Why?  Many of the things they'll print in color are images which require toner to cover the whole paper.  In typical black and white text it is about five percent coverage with toner. 

Also, almost all printing will require multiple colors.  It would be rare indeed for many of the things to be printed to be exactly one of those four colors.  Out of sixteen million colors, you've got only four of them there.  Sure, an ocean picture will be mostly blue, but not JUST the one color of blue. 

> We are thinking of charging three times as much for a colour copy as for
> a black and white copy. Are our assumptions correct? Does colour
> printing cost approximately three times as much as black and white
> printing?

Check with your local printing businesses that do walkin copying or printing.  My observations are that it is more like ten times the cost.  On our campus the color printing is from fifty to seventy five cents, depending on what printer in what location. Regular laser printing is five cents per page, seven cents if printed duplex.

> the option of choosing colour or black and white. Is there any software
> that will do this for us? At the moment the user has to go into
> properties and make the change here. It is difficult to always remember
> to do this and it is somewhat unfair to penalize someone for this
> oversight. 

Make it default to black and white, which should be a standard option in the printer setup.  Then let the ones who want color make the change.

dan (Boise State U, Boise ID)