Issue #0308/1 - In paper intensive environments, duplex printing of multi-page documents can significantly reduce the total cost of printing. Duplexing is simply the process of printing on both sides of the paper within one print job, like a book or magazine. Many users are unaware that this is a possibility and view printers and copiers as merely a means of producing their desired page on paper. They do not understand that even letters, memos, reports and emails can be printed on both sides. Network or IT managers are very likely to need to educate their users into using this approach as a means of saving money.
‘Duplex’, as a word, can cause confusion to the average user because it has different meanings in different locations on the globe.
It’s simple meaning is ‘Twofold’ or ‘Double’. In the US and Australia its common usage relates to a single building structure that has a common wall or floor separating two dwellings, each with its own entrance. In England (the origin of the English Language!!) however, this type of residential arrangement, where the accommodation is on one level, is called ‘Semi-detached’ and the word ‘Duplex’ is totally meaningless. For techies amongst our UK population, ‘Duplex’ is just as likely to be an electronic term for a mode of telephonic communications that allows simultaneous transmission in both directions – i.e. telephone (except on international calls on Christmas day!!) or modem. ‘Duplex’ can also refer to a single assembly of machinery that is made up of two identical units that are capable of operating simultaneously or even to a ‘duplex’ module of DNA or RNA and DNA. To discover the proportion of the average working population who would associate ‘Duplex’ with a printer capable of automatically printing on both sides of the paper might make an interesting study!! Note: my dictionaries do not make any mention of printing under ‘Duplex’ and even the Encyclopaedia Britannica does not appear to have heard of it!!
Whether duplex printing will actually save you money depends very much on your particular environment. Put very simply, printing in duplex will save up to half your paper consumption and therefore up to half of your paper costs. However, this will not represent an immediate financial saving and there are a number of factors that should be taken into account to determine whether duplexing will be an overall money-saver or not. Precise perception of the saving will depend on the financial structure of the company – in those companies where hardware is on a capital budget and paper is on an operational budget, then the savings could be considered to be immediate.
What the user has to ask is ‘will this option be financially beneficial to me in my environment’?. More specifically:
- How many pages do the bulk of my documents comprise?
- What is my total page count?
- How much extra will the duplex configuration cost?
- How much do I pay for paper?
If we use the newly launched Kyocera Mita FS-1900D (see article - "Kyocera adds duplex configurations to workgroup printer ranges") over a total page life of 250,000 pages to create a very simplistic example, the mathematics will work out as follows (UK pounds used throughout):
- Purchase price = £604.00
- Premium for duplex configuration = £100.00
- Cost per page over 250,000 pages = 0.0004 pence
- Cost of paper (per ream, 500 sheets) ~ £3.50
- Cost of paper (250,000 sheets) = £1,750.00
- Cost per page printed = 0.007 pence
- Cost per duplex page printed = 0.0035 pence
- Saving per duplex page = 0.0035 pence
Therefore, IF every sheet could be printed both sides so that exactly half the quantity of paper were used, the extra capital cost of the duplex unit would have been covered after just 28,571 pages – or 11% of the total planned printer usage. This means that over the remaining 89% of the planned printer usage, there would be a saving of £775, or 44% of the original paper cost.
Realistically, print jobs tend to be weighted towards 3-5 pages in length on average and, depending on the environment, but many will be single page. Therefore, because any print jobs with an odd number of pages will use only one side of the sheet, the saving cannot be as high as this theoretical maximum but it certainly can be significant.
Other benefits to be gained from purchasing a duplex-ready printer and setting the default print settings to duplex:
- Less paper storage volume
- Lower mailing costs
- Lower probability of single sided copying of that document (leading to additional savings)
- Less paper to be handled (volume and weight)
- Less waste paper to dispose of at end of life
- Better environmental management
Duplex printing can be accomplished manually on lower spec machines by turning the paper by hand between printing the two sides. Unless the device offers ‘manual duplexing’ through its printer driver, through which the machine will handle the page sorting implications, this is not recommended for print jobs longer than two pages.
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