Adam Maas wrote: >Not by much if you print Black Only on an Epson, and possibly cheaper if >you use 3rd party ink. > >I pay $40CDN for 100 sheets of Ilford Pearl 8x10 RC paper. I usually >need 2-3 sheets to get an acceptable print (not a good one, I'm barely >competent in the darkroom). Total cost is around $0.80-$1.20 a print. > >I pay about $44 for 100 sheets of Epson Enhanced Matte, plus $50 for a >full cart of Black Ink that's good for 100+ prints (I use the larger >black carts). I rarely print more than one print, as I do all my >corrections in PS and have a profiled system. That's around $0.95 a >print if my ink only lasts for 100 prints. If I used Eboni from MIS I'd >be paying about $15 a cart ($10.95 US) which would drop my costs to >$0.60 a print or lower. > >This doesn't count chemical costs. And multi-ink printing is a fair bit >more expensive than BO.
Hmm. This raises a few points I hadn't thought of. Even when I was doing a lot of darkroom work I never got a final print without going through a lot of test strips and a couple of work prints. When you're making 11 x 14 or larger prints this adds up fast! With digital I can get to the final print with very few if any test prints (and no test strips!) And even when I do make test prints, I can do them at 4 x 6 and not change anything (like exposure) when making the 12 x 18 final print. For my use, inkjet printing saves money over wet darkroom printing. But... I can *charge* more for a wet darkroom print because it's real silver-based paper, etc, etc.
