Costing out a job? Opening a new gallery/shop.

[steveclv]

I am new to the business and yet have been a photographer for many years - due to a change in circumstances and location (we now live on a small island) I have the opportunity of opening a small gallery/shop and selling prints directly to visitors and passing traffic.

I'm ok with the business side but I am have questions about costing up a gallery print. So I can work out the cost of the canvas, framing, wastage, etc but I don't know how many prints that I can get from the ink cartridges (ml per sq inch) to calculate the ink costs and don't seem to be able to find this out anywhere.

As the inks are probably the most expensive part of the equation, how can I calculate this?

The printer I am likely to be getting is the Canon iPF8400 with 330ml tanks to start with.

Also, what is the expected life of the heads so that I can cost these into the spreadsheet too?

Thanks, and any advice or pointers to starting such a venture would be welcomed

[steveclv]

Thanks Paul - that's an excellent article that I can easily convert to my machine parameters and Euros albeit over time.

[smjphoto]

Not sure if you still need this, but here's a link to a really detailed chart of ink usage for ipf 8300 on different papers and different type subjects.
http://www.proimagingsupplies.com/docs/cost/canon-iPF8300-cost-analysis.pdf

I've found it very useful. I don't think the 8400 is much different.
Stuart

[bill t.]

Save yourself some micromanaging and figure at least $5.00+ per square foot overall total cost to knock out prints if you're printing several every day.  That will give you a simplified spreadsheet that will speak the truth.

But if you're doing just a few prints once in a while, it will actually cost you a whole lot more when you factor in amortization on equipment, maintenance, space used, time spent, wastage, and on and on and on.  The simple sum of consumables in no way represents the actual cost of producing prints.

Would suggest testing the water with a high end consumer printer before making any big outlays.  An Epson 3880 would be a good choice since it survives low duty cycle use without too many problems.  Those bigger printers can get really aggravating unless you use them a lot.