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Printing costs and how to estimate these ahead of time
Thread poster: Vivien Green
Miguel Carmona
Miguel Carmona  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 19:16
English to Spanish
... Dec 16, 2014

Lydianette Soza wrote:

Should I charge my clients for printing costs?

Well, actually and most of the time I email most of my translation works to my clients but I would like to know how do you handle it when it comes to printing full-color extensive documents required by your clients.


Why would you do that for your clients? Do you have professional printing equipment for handling that task?

Isn't it much more practical and economical for the clients to do their own printing or outsourcing it to a nearby printing shop?

If no professional printing equipment is required, then most surely your clients have equipment at least as good as yours.
 
Neil Coffey
Neil Coffey  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:16
French to English
+ ...
I'd suggest simply... Dec 16, 2014

...that if your printing costs aren't negligible, you're probably doing something wrong.
 
Germaine
Germaine  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 22:16
English to French
+ ...
About the cost... Dec 17, 2014

To answer your question, this is how I determined my costs of printing:

1. Cost of printer divided by life expectancy = cost per year
2. + Cost of service contract per year
3. Divided by the number of pages you estimate you will print in a year.
= cost of printing one page in a year.

I estimated how many pages I would print in a year based on the invoices for paper that I already had in file (naturally, you may use your stocks of printed documen... See more
To answer your question, this is how I determined my costs of printing:

1. Cost of printer divided by life expectancy = cost per year
2. + Cost of service contract per year
3. Divided by the number of pages you estimate you will print in a year.
= cost of printing one page in a year.

I estimated how many pages I would print in a year based on the invoices for paper that I already had in file (naturally, you may use your stocks of printed documents or read your printer counter).

4. + cost of toner divided by the number of pages printed from a cartridge.
= cost of printing one page

At the time, I had a HP Laserjet and (I checked!) I would get 5000 printed pages from a cartridge. I now use a Ricoh Aficio MP 171 and print 8000 pages from a cartridge (at an even lower cost!).

5. + cost of a sheet of paper (right now: CA$55/5000 = $0.011/page)
= cost of printing per page

You (at least) double that cost if you are to charge for printing a document.

Note that my situation if different since I also offer word processing and other office services. I don't charge printing to my translation clients as translations are usually delivered by email (and I consider that my rate covers the printing of the source document, should I decide to print it instead of displaying it on a second screen).

Just make sure that your printer has the capacity required to respond to your needs. Check for duplex capacity as well (some printers leave an invisible film of oil on the paper which keeps you from printing both sides (recycling) of a page. I'm sold to Ricoh products, but my second choice would be HP.


[Edited at 2014-12-17 02:17 GMT]

[Edited at 2014-12-17 02:24 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
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Printing costs and how to estimate these ahead of time







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