每个人都听说过这样的格言,即主要的喷墨打印机制造商——兄弟(inkjet printer manufacturers—Brother)、佳能(Canon)、爱普生(Epson)和惠普——(HP—make)从维持打印机运转的墨水中获得的收益比从打印机本身的销售中获得的收益更多。这不仅仅是一个公理。这绝对是真的。
打印机墨水(Printer ink)并不是提高特定行业利润率(profit margin)的唯一消耗品。另一个经常被吹捧的例子是剃须刀片更换墨盒。(你(you)还能想到多少其他人?)
不过,在很长一段时间内,我们唯一的选择是(除了使用第三方墨盒或翻新墨盒,但那是另一回事)吸干它并付出代价——也就是说,如果我们想继续打印的话。然而,在过去的几年里,主要由于来自消费者和技术记者的压力,打印机制造商现在为我们提供了很多选择。
这一切都始于惠普的Instant Ink 订阅(Instant Ink subscription)计划,但现在每个打印机制造商(printer maker)都提供某种“散装墨水”产品,至少可以减轻墨水本身的价格,更好的是,提高了实际成本的透明度让您的打印机不停运转(printer churning)。
每个打印机制造商(printer manufacturer)都有自己的散装墨水产品,如下所示:
- 兄弟(Brother)
= INKvestment 坦克
- 佳能(Canon )= 巨型坦克
- 爱普生(Epson)
= EcoTank
- HP = 即时墨水
除了EcoTank 和 MegaTank 之外(EcoTank and MegaTank),这些产品在方法上以及在每页墨水成本方面实际上为您节省了多少。根据您打印的方式和内容,每种产品都有其独特的优点和缺点。
在墨水桶上(Over an Ink Barrel)
毫无疑问,打印机墨水(printer ink)是地球上最昂贵的液体之一,甚至可能是最昂贵的物质之一。您为每盎司打印机墨水(printer ink)支付的费用比购买汽油、最高档的葡萄酒、大多数高档香水,甚至在某些情况下购买的黄金要多得多。
传统上,我们通过每页成本(per-page cost)或“每页成本” ( CPP )来量化墨水成本。多年来,我一直在撰写有关信息技术(information technology)的文章,我(以及我的许多同事)最大的抱怨之一是打印机行业(printer industry)过高的CPP,尤其是(CPPs—especially)家庭和小型企业办公设备(office appliance) CPP(CPPs),又称“运行成本”。
包括打印机价格、容量等级(volume rating)等在内的几个因素会
影响机器的整体运行成本,一台机器与另一台机器的运行成本之间的差异可能高达每台 2 到 5 甚至 6 美分单色页面(monochrome page),甚至比彩色(greater—for color)页面还要大——通常要大得多。
你说听起来不多?只是几分钱!从这个角度来看:每打印 100,000 页,一台打印机与另一台打印机之间 1 美分的差异将使您额外花费 100 美元。
是的,我知道,就此而言,您可能不会每月打印数千页或每年数万页。那好吧(Okay)。试试这个场景:如果您每月打印和复印 2,000 张彩色页面,则 5 美分的差异将花费您 100 美元,即每年 1,200 美元。
想想你可以用这些节省购买多少消费级或小型办公级打印机......正如我在数百个打印机评论中不断指出的那样,通常,使用一台打印机的成本远比使用多少更重要机器本身的购买成本。
好消息是,当今所有的喷墨打印机打印效果都比较好,因此您可以更加担心功能和运行成本。如果您经常使用打印机,以下一种或多种散装墨水产品可以为您省钱——有时是大笔钱。哪种散装墨水产品适合您,取决于您打印的数量和内容。
兄弟的INKvestment坦克(Brother’s INKvestment
Tank)
最新的散装墨水技术,Brother 的INKvestment Tank是从之前的产品演变而来的,该公司简称为INKvestment,该产品仅需要以足够低的价格出售传统的高产量墨盒,从而降低运行成本。
换句话说,INKvestment AIO带有大量墨水,当需要购买新墨水时,每页的成本很低——非常低,单色页不到 1 美分,每色大约 4.75 美分页。
INKvestment的第二个迭代,INKvestment Tank(INKvestment Tank),由一个水箱中的一个水箱组成。这个最新版本的技术名称兄弟(Brother)称为INKvestment Tank Extended Print,或者简称INKvestment Tank。
如上图所示, INKvestment Tank(INKvestment Tank)是标准墨盒和一组机载储液罐的混合体。当您的墨水量不足时,您仍然可以像往常一样购买和安装墨盒,但墨盒会卸载到内部辅助储罐中。
在外部墨盒和内部容器之间,打印机可容纳数千页的墨水。而且,INKvestment Tank传感器不会在(INKvestment Tank)控制面板(control panel)或打印机的内置网页上显示那些令人讨厌的不准确墨水量(ink volume)指示器,而是跟踪您已打印的页面数量,然后估计剩余的打印数量,如下图所示(image below).
此外,类似于 HP 的Instant Ink 程序(Instant Ink program),INKvestment Tank 会监视(INKvestment Tank)墨水量,在墨水量不足时发出警告,并提供直接从机器的板载网站或其控制面板(control panel)订购替换(order replacement)墨盒。
您可以在标准INKvestment Tank 或 INKvestment Tank XL 迭代(INKvestment Tank or INKvestment Tank XL iterations)中购买 Brother 的 Business Smart 和 Business Smart Plus AIO ,不同之处在于后者配备两倍的墨水或两组墨盒。
根据Brother的说法,根据每月 300 次打印、60% 的黑色页面和 40 (Brother)% 的彩色(percent color)页面的计算公式,每套墨水盒可容纳一年的墨水量。这远低于大多数Brother打印机的最大每月(Brother)工作周期(duty cycle)和/或推荐的每月打印量(print volume)。
如果您使用机器的设计用途,您很可能会在墨盒额定使用的一两年之前购买墨水。好消息是,单色页的每页成本(per page cost)(就像最初的INKvestment 产品(INKvestment offering)一样)仍然低于 1美分,而彩色页面(cent and color pages)仍然低于 5 美分,这使得 Brother 的INKvestment Tank打印机具有非凡的价值。
佳能巨型坦克(Canon MegaTank)
在四大喷墨打印机制造商中,佳能对大容量墨水打印机和(inkjet printer)AIO(AIOs)的承诺最不温不火。与爱普生的原始EcoTank产品一样,车载储液罐是用瓶子填充的,佳能的MegaTank产品是明智的、易于使用的且具有很高的成本效益。
不幸的是,自几年前发布以来,我们只看到了五台MegaTank机器,其中一台Canon Pixma G4210 MegaTank 无线一体机打印机(Canon Pixma G4210 MegaTank Wireless All-in-One Printer)是对原始四种型号之一的更新。
该公司的每款MegaTank或 G 系列Pixmas虽然都具有略微不同的功能集,但运行速度、容量和音量等级相同,尽管Pixma G4210 ,这四款产品都是供家庭和家庭使用的支持以太网(Ethernet)并带有自动
文档进(document feeder)纸器,用于将多页文档发送到扫描仪。但是,与其他设备一样,除了小批量打印和复印(printing and copying)之外,它对于其他任何事情都太慢了,这使得它对于大多数商业环境来说都不是理想的选择。
尽管它们的售价通常比非 MegaTank 同类产品高出两到三倍,但 MegaTank Pixmas(MegaTank Pixmas)的包装盒中包含数千页的墨水。例如,佳能(Canon)G4210包含的墨水量(G4210)足以与公司所说的打印多达 18,000 张黑页和 7,000 张彩页的墨水相当。
这足够黑色墨水在三年内每月打印 500 页单色页。无论如何,无论您是否使用打印机附带的所有墨水并且必须购买更多墨水,黑页和彩色页的每页成本都低于 1 美分。
这不仅是一个了不起的价值,而且没有比这更好的了。然而,在 MegaTank 机器上每月打印 500 页,虽然它很可能有能力,但会将这些小
Pixmas中的一个推到极限。
爱普生的EcoTank(Epson’s EcoTank)
当然,爱普生(Epson)是第一家提出用瓶子重新填充车载储液罐的公司,该公司对其EcoTank 产品(EcoTank product)线做出了重大承诺。
EcoTank一体机和独立打印机有各种形状和尺寸,从公司的低端家庭和家庭 Expression(home and family Expression)和Expression Premium Small-in-Ones到一些相当强大的面向办公室的WorkForce Pro 办公(WorkForce Pro office)设备。
该公司还设计了一个稳定的高端混合EcoTank WorkForce Pro迭代,从大铝袋而不是瓶子中获取墨水。这些是激光替代机器,旨在取代工作场所的激光打印机。该公司的两种单色激光替代品WorkForce Pro WF-M5799 和 WF-M5299(WorkForce Pro WF-M5799 and WF-M5299)支持最多可容纳 40,000 页的XXL袋。(support XXL)
与MegaTank机器一样,EcoTank型号的成本通常是非(EcoTank)EcoTank同类产品的两到五倍。根据容量和功能的不同,消费级和小型企业级台式机的价格从大约 300 美元到 1,000 美元不等,而且,与MegaTank同类产品一样,它们的包装盒中也装有价值数千页的墨水。
根据相关产品的特定配方,爱普生(Epson)声称每个EcoTank 型号(EcoTank model)都配备了相当于两年的墨水。但是,这些公式通常基于相对较小的每月配额。
但是,与MegaTank机器一样,无论您是否使用打印机附带的所有墨水并且必须购买更多墨水,单色和彩色页面(monochrome and color pages)的每页运行(per-page running)成本都低于 1 美分。(不过,铝袋混合动力车的CPP(CPPs)比这要高一些。)
诚然,如果没有升级 EcoTank(EcoTank upgrade) ,通常花费400 美元或 500 美元购买一台打印机可能很难证明其成本会降低 2 到 3 倍——您当然不会获得 400 美元或 500 美元的同等功能、体积或容量;你只会得到非常(当然,相对)便宜的墨水。
请务必注意,EcoTank打印机并不适合所有人,但如果您计划每月打印数百(或数千)页,它们将在非EcoTank的整个生命周期内为您节省数百(有时甚至数千)美元兄弟姐妹和竞争对手。打印的越多,节省的就越多。期间(Period)。
惠普的 Instant Ink(HP’s Instant Ink)
惠普几年前开始了散装墨水趋势,现在。其 Instant Ink 订阅(Ink subscription)计划以按页的统一费率提供墨水,每页的成本取决于(page dependent)您承诺的每月订阅水平。(subscription level)多年来,各种程序发生了变化,但在我撰写本文时,公司根据您拥有的打印机提供六个订阅级别(subscription level)。
- 免费打印计划(Free
Printing Plan):每月 15 页,免费
- 不定期打印计划(Occasional
Printing Plan):每月 50 页 2.99 美元,每增加 10 页 1 美元
- 中等打印计划(Moderate
Printing Plan):每月 100 页,4.99 美元,每增加 15 页,1 美元
- 频繁打印计划(Frequent
Printing Plan):每月 300 页 9.99 美元,每增加 20 页 1 美元
- 商业计划 1:(Business
Plan 1: )每月 500 页,14.99 美元,每增加 20 页,1 美元
- 商业计划 2(Business
Plan 2):每月 700 页,19.99 美元,每增加 20 页,1 美元
这里最小的计划每页大约 6 美分,最大的计划每页大约 2.9 美分,每多打印一次,超出最初的 700 份,每张 5 美分。
与其他一些可能看起来不太划算的计划相比,Instant Ink要记住的是,统一费率适用于任何页面,黑色或彩色,5 % coverage或 100 % coverage。
Instant Ink的一个优势在于,与此处列出的其他产品不同,这不是一种万能的解决方案。它可以根据您的打印和复印需求(print and copy needs)如何发展而增长或缩减。
但是,如果您打印大量照片,尤其是信纸大小(8.5 x 11 英寸)的照片和/或整页图形,价格可能很容易达到 2.9 美分的 10 或 20 倍。(terrific bargain)与INKvestment Tank一样,使用Instant Ink,打印机会监控您的墨盒,并在墨盒开始用完时从 HP 订购新墨盒。
这里一分钱,那里一分钱(A Penny Here, A Penny
There)
正如我在猛攻时所说,这些散装墨水产品中的哪一种适合您,主要取决于您打印的内容和数量。然后,还有特定打印机和AIO(AIOs)本身的适用性。
例如,佳能的MegaTank产品虽然是不错的打印机,并且在其狭窄的目标市场(target market)中具有很高的价值,但不适合任何打印和复印(printing and copying)量的商业应用程序(business application)。
底线是,如果您每个月只打印几页,那么这些产品中的大多数(可能是最小的 Instant Ink
订阅除外)都是无关紧要的,并且在某些情况下是浪费金钱。例如,如果您每月只打印 10 页,您不会愿意花 500 美元购买盒内装有数千页墨水的EcoTank AIO 。
至少现在你已经摆在你面前的各种产品——如果你愿意的话,那是一层神秘的面纱——让你可以应用适合你特定应用的经济学。
Printer Ink Wars — EcoTank, Instant Ink, MegaTank, INKvestment Tank , Instant Ink
Everybody hаs heard the adage that the major inkjet prіnter manufacturers—Brother, Canon, Εpson, and HP—makе more frоm the ink that keeps thеir рrinters going than from the sale of the printerѕ themselves. This is not jυst simply an axiom; it’s absolutely true.
Printer ink is not the only consumable that fuels the profit margin of a particular industry. Another often-touted example is razor blade replacement cartridges. (How many others can you think of?)
For the longest time, though, the only choice we had was (except for using third-party or refurbished ink cartridges, but that’s another story) to suck it up and pay the price—if, that is, we wanted to keep printing. Over the past few years, though, due primarily to pressure from consumers and technology journalists, printer makers now offer us choices, many choices.
It all started with HP’s Instant Ink subscription program, but now each printer maker offers some kind of “bulk-ink” product that provides at least some relief to the price of ink itself and, better yet, increased transparency into what it actually costs to keep your printer churning.
Each printer manufacturer has its own bulk-ink product, as
follows:
- Brother
= INKvestment Tank
- Canon =
MegaTank
- Epson
= EcoTank
- HP =
Instant Ink
Except for EcoTank and MegaTank, these products are quite
different in approach and how much they actually save you in terms of the
per-page cost of ink. Depending on how and what you print, each product has its
own distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Over an Ink Barrel
Without question, printer ink is one of the most expensive liquids, perhaps even one of the most costly substances, on the planet. You pay much more per ounce of printer ink than you do for, say, gasoline, most exclusive wines, the majority of fancy perfumes, and even, in some cases, gold.
Traditionally we quantify the cost of ink by its per-page cost, or the “cost per page” (CPP). For the many years that I’ve been writing about information technology, one of my biggest complaints (and that of many of my colleagues) has been the printer industry’s exorbitant CPPs—especially home-based and small-business office appliance CPPs, a.k.a. “running costs.”
Several factors, including the price of a printer, its
volume rating, and so on, influence a machine’s overall running costs, and the
difference between one machine’s running costs over another’s can be as much as
2-to-5 or even 6 cents per monochrome page and even greater than that—often
much greater—for color pages.
Doesn’t sound like much, you say? It’s just pennies! Look at
it from this perspective: for every 100,000 pages you print, a 1-cent
difference from one printer to another will cost you an additional $100.
Yeah, I know, you probably don’t print thousands of pages each month, or tens of thousands each year, for that matter. Okay then. Try this scenario: If you print and copy, say, 2,000 color pages per month, a 5-cent difference will cost you $100, or $1,200 per year.
Just think of how many consumer- or small-office-grade printers you could buy with those savings… As I’ve pointed out incessantly in hundreds of printer reviews, often, how much a printer costs to use is far more important than how much the machine itself costs to buy.
The good news is that all of today’s inkjet printers print
relatively well, thereby allowing you to worry more about features and running
costs. If you use your printer often, one or more of the following bulk-ink
products can save you money—sometimes big money. Which bulk-ink product is
right for you depends on how much and what you print.
Brother’s INKvestment
Tank
The newest of the bulk-ink technologies, Brother’s INKvestment Tank evolved from a previous product the company called simply INKvestment, which merely entailed traditional high-yield ink cartridges sold at prices low enough to deliver lower running costs.
In other words, the INKvestment AIO came with big ink takes, and when it came time to buy new ones, the cost per page was low—very low, for that matter, less than 1 cent for monochrome pages and about 4.75 cents per color pages.
The second iteration of INKvestment, INKvestment Tank, consists of a tank within a tank. The technical name for this latest version Brother dubbed INKvestment Tank Extended Print or, again, INKvestment Tank for short.
INKvestment Tank is a blend between standard ink cartridges and a set of onboard reservoirs, as shown in the image above. When you’re low on ink, you still buy and install cartridges as you normally would, but the cartridges offload into internal secondary tanks.
Between the external cartridges and internal reservoirs, the printer holds thousands of pages worth of ink. And, rather than displaying those annoyingly inaccurate ink volume indicators on the control panel or the printer’s built-in webpages, INKvestment Tank sensors keep track of how many pages you have printed and then estimate how many prints are remaining, as shown in the image below.
In addition, similar to HP’s Instant Ink program, INKvestment Tank watches ink levels, warns you when they’re low, and offers to order replacement cartridges directly from the machine’s onboard website or its control panel.
You can buy Brother’s Business Smart and Business Smart Plus
AIOs in either standard INKvestment Tank or INKvestment Tank XL iterations,
with the difference being that the latter comes with twice as much ink, or two
sets of ink cartridges.
According to Brother, each set of ink tanks hold up to—based on a formula of 300 prints per month, 60 percent black pages and 40 percent color pages—a year’s worth of ink. That’s well below both the maximum monthly duty cycle and/or the recommended monthly print volume for most of Brother’s printers.
If you use the machine as it’s designed for, chances are you’ll be buying ink long before the one- or two-year period the cartridges are rated for. The good news is, that the per page cost of monochrome pages is still (like the original INKvestment offering) under 1 cent and color pages still go for less than 5 cents each, making Brother’s INKvestment Tank printers an exceptional value.
Canon MegaTank
Of the big four inkjet printer makers, Canon’s commitment to bulk-ink printers and AIOs has been the most tepid. Like Epson’s original EcoTank products, where onboard reservoirs are filled from bottles, Canon’s MegaTank products are sensible, easy-to-use, and highly cost-effective.
Unfortunately, since its release a few years ago, though, we’ve seen only five MegaTank machines, and one of them, the Canon Pixma G4210 MegaTank Wireless All-in-One Printer, is an update to one of the original four models.
Each of the company’s MegaTank, or G-series, Pixmas, while
they all come with slightly different feature sets, runs at the same speed,
capacity, and volume ratings, and all four are intended for home and family
use, though the Pixma G4210 supports Ethernet and comes with an automatic
document feeder for sending multipage documents to the scanner. But it, like
the others, is too slow for anything but low-volume printing and copying,
making it less than ideal for the majority of business settings.
Though they typically sell for two to three times more than their non-MegaTank equivalents, MegaTank Pixmas come with thousands of pages worth of ink in the box. With the G4210, for example, Canon includes enough ink to equal what the company says will print up to 18,000 black pages and 7,000 color pages.
That’s enough black ink to print 500 monochrome pages per month for three years. In any case, whether you use all the ink that comes with the printer and must buy more, or not, your cost per page for both black pages and color pages is less than 1 cent each.
Not only is this a terrific value, but it just doesn’t get
much better than this. However, printing 500 pages a month on a MegaTank
machine, while it is most likely capable, would be pushing one of these little
Pixmas to its limit.
Epson’s EcoTank
Epson is, of course, the first company to come up with the onboard reservoirs refilled from bottles, and the company has made a major commitment to its EcoTank product line.
EcoTank all-in-one’s and standalone printers come in all shapes and sizes, from the company’s lower-end home and family Expression and Expression Premium Small-in-Ones to some rather robust office-oriented WorkForce Pro office appliances.
The company has also engineered a stable of higher-end hybrid EcoTank WorkForce Pro iterations that get their ink from large aluminum bags, instead of bottles. These are laser alternative machines designed to, well, replace laser printers in the workplace. Two of the company’s monochrome laser alternatives, the WorkForce Pro WF-M5799 and WF-M5299, support XXL bags that hold up to 40,000 pages.
Like MegaTank machines, EcoTank models typically cost two to
five times more than their non-EcoTank equivalents. Depending on capacity and
features, consumer- and small-business-grade desktops run from about $300 to $1,000,
and, also like their MegaTank counterparts, they come with thousands of pages
worth of ink in the box.
Based on formulas specific to the product in question, Epson claims that each EcoTank model comes with the equivalent of two years’ worth of ink. Typically, though, these formulas are based on relatively small per-month quotas.
However, as with MegaTank machines, whether you use all the ink that comes with the printer and must buy more, or not, the per-page running costs are under 1 cent for both monochrome and color pages. (The aluminum-bag hybrids’ CPPs run somewhat higher than that, though.)
Granted, it may be difficult to justify spending $400 or $500 for a printer that, without the EcoTank upgrade, would normally cost two to three times less—you certainly don’t get $400- or $500-equivalent features, volume, or capacity; you just get very (relatively, of course) inexpensive ink.
It’s important to note that EcoTank printers aren’t for everybody, but if you plan to print hundreds (or thousands) of pages each month, they will save you hundreds of (sometimes even thousands of) dollars over the life of their non-EcoTank siblings and competitors. The more you print, the more you’ll save. Period.
HP’s Instant Ink
HP started the bulk-ink trend several years ago, now. Its
Instant Ink subscription program offers ink at a by-the-page flat rate, with
the cost per page dependent on the monthly subscription level you commit to.
The various programs have changed over the years, but as I write this the
company offers, depending on the printer you own, six subscription levels.
- Free
Printing Plan: 15 pages per month for, well, free
- Occasional
Printing Plan: 50 pages per month for $2.99, with each additional 10 pages
for $1
- Moderate
Printing Plan: 100 pages per month for $4.99, with each additional 15 pages
for $1
- Frequent
Printing Plan: 300 pages per month for $9.99, with each additional 20 pages
for $1
- Business
Plan 1: 500 pages per month for $14.99, with each additional 20 pages for
$1
- Business
Plan 2: 700 pages per month for $19.99, with each additional 20 pages for
$1
The smallest plan here runs about 6 cents per page, and the largest plan will run you about 2.9 cents per page, with each additional print beyond the initial 700 at 5 cents each.
Compared to some of these other plans that may not seem like that good a bargain, but the thing to keep in mind with Instant Ink is that that flat rate is for any page, black or color, 5% coverage or 100% coverage.
An advantage of Instant Ink is that, unlike the others listed here, this is not a one-product-fits-all solution; it can grow or scale back based on how your print and copy needs evolve.
Where this product becomes a terrific bargain is, though, if you print a lot of photos, especially letter-size (8.5 by 11 inches) photos, and/or full-page graphics that could easily cost 10 or 20 times 2.9 cents. Like INKvestment Tank, with Instant Ink, the printer monitors your ink cartridges and orders new ones from HP when they start to run low.
A Penny Here, A Penny
There
As I said at the onslaught, which of these bulk-ink products will work for you depends mostly on what and how much you print. Then, too, there is the suitability of the specific printers and AIOs themselves.
Canon’s MegaTank products, for example, while good printers and great values within their somewhat narrow target market, aren’t suitable for any business application with any volume of printing and copying to speak of.
The bottom line is, if you don’t print but a few pages every
month, most of these products, except perhaps the smallest Instant Ink
subscriptions, are irrelevant, and in some cases, a waste of money. You
wouldn’t want to, for instance, shell out $500 for an EcoTank AIO with
thousands of pages worth of ink in the box, if all you print is 10 pages a
month.
At least now you have the various products laid out before you—the shroud of mystery, if you will—allowing you to apply the economics appropriate to your specific application.