Determining ink usage?

[Bogie]

I'm wondering if there is a way to find out how much ink was used for a job? My Epson's stuff will tell me down to 0.01ml how much gets used...

And since you know you've got 220ml in a cart, and that they cost you $60 a pop, if you can figure out how much you're spraying, you could figure a print cost...

Ink cost works out to about a quarter per ml.

 

[The Sign Dude]

I have been trying to find out the same thing about my falcon outdoor jr.

 

[PMG]

On my Mutoh VJ 1204 in the menu i check it by looking at the ink level %s after each print then divide 220ml by what ever percent the printer says.

 

[schurms]

I wish there was a way, but it really is a very small part of the cost so why worry about it.

 

[Gino]

I always thought if you got close by calculating about 110% coverage per square would just about get you on target. When you're printing heavy is when it really counts the most. Anything under that will just be less. Some profiles put down more ink than others while double passes and light copy on a white background will change it drastically.

I would think if you just made a box as wide as you can print and make it 100' long and see if you use up a cartridge laying down pure 100% black, so no other colors are used, you could then do the required math until you run out of ink. Multiply that by four and your have a four color number .

:Oopsid that make any sense ??​

 

[bob]

I wish there was a way, but it really is a very small part of the cost so why worry about it.

Costing ink for most jobs is silly, it should be an expensed item. Unless you're printing a tarp to cover the local football field. It's not the cost, it's the ability to know if you have sufficient ink to print some particular job or another.

Getting a good estimate of ink remaining in a cartridge is fairly easy, weigh it on a postal scale. The same scale on which you weighed and recorded the weights of an empty and a full cartridge. Then do the simple arithmetic.

Knowing if you have sufficient ink to complete a print is just experience. Even if you're wrong, you won't seriously effect the course of history.

 

[jiarby]

My Onyx RIP has an ink calculation function... you can enter $/ml and it is supposed to tell you how much $$ the job cost to print.

When ever I use it on my system the RIP crashes, so I have not turned it on. I am on 7.0, maybe it is fixed on 7.1?? Where's Scotty?>

 

[ChiknNutz]

Although [probably] not 100% accurate, I've seen numbers that say it is about 1 mL PSF (.001 L PSF) for CMYK. So, take your cost per liter and multiply by this to obtain your cost PSF. Example, I pay $145 per liter for bulk ink. So $145 X .001 L PSF = $0.145 PSF. I honestly cannot say if this is accurate or not, but that is what I use. Yes, this assumes equal cost for each color (though I've never seen it any different). If you paid vastly different amounts for each color, then I suppose you really should use (Cost per Liter each color) x (.001 / number of colors) = (Cost PSF per color)...then add up each color for the total ink cost.

 

[Simon Belmont]

I use the ONYX calculations

 

[Jackpine]

I was told by the techs where I bought my printer to figure $.40 sq ft. But that was for eco solvent Plus and they cost more. I still figure $.30 to $.40 + material.

 

[randya]

http://www.mutoh.com/pdf/VJ12041604InkCostStudy.pdf

Here is the take on Eco Ink on glossy vinyl

 

[SwiSh]

This is interesting! I was just getting ready to post this question on the RIP software forum. I've been told that Onyx can calculate this, but I couldn't find out where. Thanks for the pic jiarby!! That was a big help! I'm using Onyx 6.5, but where do you see the exact calculation for the print? I assume after the the print finishes, but wehre do you look for the exact calculation?? Thanks for the Help!!!
SwiSh

 

[Sign-Man Signs]

When you figure that out, please also do the math on a roll of media. This is what happens at 2:00 am this morning. No it's not art, it's a sheet getting stopped on a run. Ya know, the whole tape to the roll hitting the backside of the printer. After two hours cleaning, we're back in business. Our Mutoh is tough! Wish it had some kind of alarm bell or buzzer that would tell you when you're getting low on ink or paper.

 

[jiarby]

It shows up in the job list where it is "Ready To Print". Waay off to the right are some columns for Ink Use.

 

[SwiSh]

Gotchya!! Thanks man!

 

[jiarby]

heres a screens shot