Choosing a good paper for a printer and fair priced color printing?

W

W. eWatson

Each time I go into our local Staples store to look for printer paper
(Brother HL-1440 or HP Photosmart 6100), I have to shake my head at the
variety of choices, and wide difference in costs. Perhaps I should
consult my users manuals.

A search on Google produces no real discussion on how to do this. Should
I care about whether it's recycle (forgetting for a moment it saves
trees), paper, % recycled, or just "fresh" paper. Interestingly, 50%
recycled seems more costly than 30%. BTW, whatever happened to acid free
paper?

Most of my paper demands are for print outs of web pages, pdfs, or from
e-mails. Most is b/w. Sometimes I want to use color on quality paper.

Is there any hope that some day when I want a pdf manual printed with
maybe 5 to 10% of color images in it that they may actually have a
copier that calculates the color vs black ink used, and produces an
equitable price rather than calling every page color?

Comments?
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I have a monochrome laser printer and an inkjet color printer. For both, I
use store-brand (Office Depot or Staples) "multi-purpose" paper for general
everyday printing. For "camera-ready copy" from the laser, I use Hammermill
Laser Print or Xerox Premium Laser paper (24# as opposed to 20# and a harder
surface). On the inkjet, for "good" printout, I have a quality (again 24#)
inkjet paper.

As for the PDF printing, I've found my local PostNet quite reasonable. They
actually do have a computer controller that calculates black vs. color and
charges accordingly. Before Christmas I had seven copies of a 200-page book
(my mother's autobiography) printed. The charge was $0.06 a page for B&W,
$0.29 for color, and the proportion ended up being 938 B&W ($56.28) and 448
color ($129.92). With $4.50 apiece for binding, plus tax, the total was
$237.29, or less than $34 a copy, which was more than acceptable, IMO, for a
Christmas gift for my brothers and children.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
W

W. eWatson

I have a monochrome laser printer and an inkjet color printer. For both,
I use store-brand (Office Depot or Staples) "multi-purpose" paper for
general everyday printing. For "camera-ready copy" from the laser, I use
Hammermill Laser Print or Xerox Premium Laser paper (24# as opposed to
20# and a harder surface). On the inkjet, for "good" printout, I have a
quality (again 24#) inkjet paper.

As for the PDF printing, I've found my local PostNet quite reasonable.
They actually do have a computer controller that calculates black vs.
color and charges accordingly. Before Christmas I had seven copies of a
200-page book (my mother's autobiography) printed. The charge was $0.06
a page for B&W, $0.29 for color, and the proportion ended up being 938
B&W ($56.28) and 448 color ($129.92). With $4.50 apiece for binding,
plus tax, the total was $237.29, or less than $34 a copy, which was more
than acceptable, IMO, for a Christmas gift for my brothers and children.
Click to expand...
Thanks.
 
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