Printing Cost & My Love Affair with Printing My Own Work

October 26, 2016 Blog

I love to print my own work. Now that I am doing reveals, it is not only cost effective, it is time effective. And turn around is everything.

This is more for a great reference link more than anything. I know I will refer to this blog weekly as it is a question I get asked every day.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? I finally have a great answer to this most asked question. CHECK IT OUT. Thank you, RedRiver BTW.

http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cost-of-inkjet-prin…

I have been trying to calculate this myself, and everything you need to know is here on RedRiver. Great list of different printers also.

I am currently Printing on the Canon Pro1. I have had this for about 3.5 Years, and this year, I will upgrade to the Pro1000. I trialed a whole lot of papers, and I put them out in front of friends and family and photographers and non photographers and everyone kept picking up the same set of prints and saying THESE ONES. What they didn’t know was they were picking the Luster every time. Luster is Canon’s cheapest paper, and I have maintained a full year of only printing on Luster, and I love it. So there you go. The proof is in the pudding.

Pros: it’s cost effective and you can print whenever you want. Okay, once you go through the RedRiver costs and realize a 13×19 is $2.60, and that is for two 8×12’s, now lets look at the cons. You have to stay on top of ordering your own ink because if you run out, you have to wait. IT IS another job you have to do, and in the spirit of outsourcing to have a life, this might just be the one thing you don’t need to be doing when playing with your kids or loving your spouse might be better alternatives. I will close saying this, I cry when I see my images printing. I DO NOT KNOW WHY! I feel a value and a pride that I cannot fully explain. THAT is everything to me. ~Sue Bryce

6 Comments

  1. I would love to hear recommendations on software used to interface with the printer that others are using. Are you printing from Lightroom? Are there other options? thank you.

  2. Hi Sue (or anyone that can help), I just bought the Pro 1000 and I was wondering if there is a noticeable difference between the standard and fine print modes? I know the fine mode takes a lot longer. I also assume it uses more ink. The ink is my concern of course due to cost. I know I can print some samples but I would prefer not wasting to much ink at $60 per tank 🙂 Thanks in advance.

    1. Never mind 🙂 I just reread the RedRiver article and it answered my question. They calculated cost using the high quality print setting. Good to know. That’s exactly what I hoped.

  3. It’s like the old timely magic of watching your prints develop in a try in a wet lab darkroom! Always emotional to me as an artist to see what was in my minds eye come to life on a sheet of photographic paper.