Kyocera 2160 More About Features

The Color Laser Printer Guide: Industry Briefing

cent and that black is much more prevalent than the other

three colors. It is important to keep in mind that estimat-

ing color operating costs is not an exact science. Other

experts in the business differ from Xerox, and we tend to

think that the real-life coverage may average more like 6

or 7 percent per color. Be aware that all vendor cost esti-

mates are probably on the low side.

The method we prefer

In order to compare operating costs, Better Buys for

Business has adopted a standard page definition that —

while it does not set out to be more or less representative

than the others — does provide a simple standard on

which it is easy to make transparent comparisons. The

assumption is simply that there is 5 percent coverage of

each of the four colors in the CMYK palette. We take

into account all consumable items that need regular

replacement, not just the obvious ones such as toner and

the imaging cartridge (drum or belt). This method —

which is also used by most vendors — is really an exten-

sion of the standard we use for comparing black-and-

white costs.

Whatto expect

Using this method, the per-page color costs of most

recently introduced color printers fall in the 9–15¢ range,

though a couple of vendors have managed to bring costs

down to 4–5¢. Black-and-white page costs on some color

models typically cluster around 2 or 2.5¢, with a growing

number under 1.5¢.

Keepin mind that the machines come with a full set of

starter supplies included in the purchase price (though

sometimes with reduced-capacity toner cartridges). Since

some of the supply items (such as drums and belts) can

last for tens of thousands of pages,this means that it will

be quite awhile before you actually have to pay the full

cost per page in terms of separately purchased supply

items.

Supplyitems are discountable, but some brands are

more widely discounted than others.

More About Features

Next, a few words on features to look for — but because

none of these are color-specific, we won’t go into a lot of

detail.

PostScript tips

PostScript is what’s known as a “page description lan-

guage” —it is softwarethat resides within the printer and

governs the way in which the machine handles instruc-

tions from the computer. If you want to read more about

it, there’s a discussion in the Better Buys Office Laser

Printer Guide (see backcover for details).

For now, we’ll just remind you about when you do and

don’t need it. Note that while almost all the printers in

this guide come with PostScript standard, some discus-

sion is still required on the subject. This is because some

of the least expensive printers we cover — from Konica

Minolta, for example — come without PostScript. So if

you’re trying to save a buck by buying an inexpensive

printer, you need to be sure you can live without

PostScript.

So when do you need PostScript? If you use serious

desktop publishing programs (Adobe PageMaker, Quark

XPress, etc.), you definitely need it. The same applies if

you use upscale graphics programs such as Adobe

Illustrator.

If, however,you use only word processing and business

productivity programs, such as Microsoft Word, Excel,

and PowerPoint, you probably don’t need a PostScript

printer. A PostScript printer will be able to work with

these programs, but it isn’t necessary or even particularly

advantageous.In this case, you might want to purchase

either a model without PostScript or one that offers it as

an option that you can add later if you need it.

While some printers recently offered Adobe PostScript

Level 2 compatibility, all of the PostScript-capable

machines in this guide support PostScript 3, which offers

a variety of small enhancements — some of which are

particularly relevant to color. If you want to match pre-

cise colors on your output, PostScript 3 can be a plus.

The Dell 3110cn includes PostScript, a rare feature among

sub-$500 color laser printers.