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Home Printing vs Using A Print Shop

Should you print things yourself or consider other options? We discuss the importance of printing in house and recognising the values outsourcing offers.

Introduction

Having your own printer is very affordable nowadays. With machines like the HP Envy 4527 you can have a compact printer that is capable of printing, scanning and copying documents in high quality. If so much is possible from a machine that's under fifty pounds it might seem that doing your own printing is the answer, but it's not that simple.

Being able to print things for yourself has many advantages to it. If you need a copy of a document it would take less time than it takes to get into your car, let alone drive to a print shop. Having a machine in your house/office means it's available whenever you need it.

The Economy of Scale

It's important to include all costs into your calculations. The cost of supplies for a home printer will typically be higher than a commercial machine per print.

Commercial consumables will often do 10-20 times the number of prints of consumables for home printers while cost to design, manufacture, package and deliver will be very similar. Typically, print shops can purchase consumables (ink, toner and paper) at a discounted rate by placing larger orders.

Everything Must Die

While it is possible to purchase a home printer at a minimal expense it's important to remember that the expected lifespan will often be shorter. Printers designed for small businesses will often be more expensive to purchase but the consumables will often be cheaper per print and the machine will normally live longer. A commercial machine could cost in the tens-of-thousands but will likely produce millions of prints in it's lifecycle.

The Print Shop Effect

Using a print shop should give you access to machinery offering a fast turnaround and improved quality, all operated by staff that know how to get the best results out of those machines. While the print shop does have to endure the overheads of paying rent and staff they offset this by utilising the economy of scale.

In Summary

We are a print shop, so you might expect me to tell you that using a print shop is the answer. But I'm here to tell you there are times for both producing your own prints and outsourcing. A lot of people purchase a home printer for the obvious advantage of convenience that it offers, however just because you have the machine and the supplies already doesn't mean that using it is always the best option.

When we own a product it's often too easy to overlook the true cost of using it. It should be obvious to everyone that huge print jobs are best done by professionals, who should be able to produce a quality product at a much cheaper price in a quicker time than you can at home, where as printing a ticket for that music concert you want to go to might be much quicker and easier to do at home. Whether you should print something yourself or not will vary on what you are printing, location, urgency, quality required, quantity, how good your local print shop is and many more factors.

We encourage you all to spend a bit of time to consider what option is best for you when you invest in your own equipment or decide which jobs to outsource.

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