Key factors to consider when buying a wide format printer – Part 3

Color vs. black & white

 If you primarily work in the design side of the business, i.e Architect, you probably need to print the majority of your plans in color, and a color printer is most likely the best choice.  

However, if you print a combination of black & white and color such as might occur in the Construction / Contractors office, where the majority of the drawings printed are in black and white, with a much smaller percentage, needed in color, (a good rule of thumb is the old 80/20), then you will be more efficient and more cost effective if you use a low volume LED printer with the ability to interface with a color inkjet as required. Allowing you to print productively in monochrome to the LED , and when circumstances dictate, print to the color inkjet, only printing on the higher cost device when absolutely necessary.

Color printers typically use inkjet technology. Modern inkjet printers utilize both a printhead and a ink cartridge, which are considered consumables. Because there is generally no way to know when either one of these consumables will run out or expire, it is good to have a spare set of both on the shelf, just in case. Of course the big issue with that scenario is that there are at least 4 Colors,(sometimes six or eight), and you will need both a printhead and a ink cartridge, and that can run into the hundreds of dollars, sitting on the shelf.

Low volume monochrome solutions today offer a tremendous amount of flexibility and capability when it comes to interfacing with third party color inkjet printers. The most basic systems allow you to configure the color scanner on the LED printer to copy to the color inkjet. This is accomplished in one of two ways:

 1. The user scans directly to the print controller on the inkjet, allowing the inkjet to process the data exactly as it recieves it, with no way to change output options. Additionally, the sender of the print has no way of knowing if the correct paper is loaded, or if there is enough ink to complete the job.

2. The monochrome device is in constant communication with the inkjet device, allowing the user to see on the LED printer interface, the consumables status on the inkjet, paper, ink levels etc. Error messages or service conditions can even be seen from the interface of the black and white machine. In addition to the communication capabilities, the job configuration functionality provided on the LED device, can be used to configure a job to be printed on the inkjet in color, i.e multiple copies, reduced to 50%

A number of LED monochrome solutions today will interface with most, if not all existing inkjet installations out in the field today, so it is entirely posssible that other than the cost of the LED printer, you could not only dramatically improve your productivity, but also lower your cost of operation, while at the same time print what you need in color.

Sounds like a Win! Win!