How “Two Clicks” Is Doubling Your Tabloid Print Costs

Do you use tabloid paper in your business regularly? If so, you’ll need to understand what “two clicks versus one click” is and how not knowing this can punch a hole in your monthly copier budget.

Why Knowing About 2 Clicks Is Important to Your Bottom Line

A tabloid page is exactly twice the size of a typical letter copier. Because of this, many copier companies set their copiers to register tabloid copies as two “clicks,” meaning they count that one tabloid sheet as two prints. Some copier manufacturers will count all prints, regardless of size, as one “click” or print.

If you regularly produce tabloid prints, not knowing about this distinction could double your monthly print costs. If your copier manufacturer sets your copier to count all of your tabloid pages as two clicks, and each color print you produce usually is $0.075, each tabloid print would instead cost you $0.15.

If you print 1,000 tabloid prints a month, you will spend an extra $75 a month on your prints, which adds up to $4,500 over five years.

How Do You Keep From Paying Double For Your Tabloid Prints?

The only real way to keep yourself from paying double for your prints is to do your due diligence and ask whether your tabloid prints get counted as one click or two clicks. If you find a copier from a manufacturer that subscribes to the “one click for all” philosophy, take that copier.

You might also accidentally pay double for your tabloid prints by using too much color toner for each print.

Another Sneaky Way You Might Pay Double for Tabloid Prints

Using a copier that counts tabloid prints as two prints each isn’t the only way you could be paying double (or more) is through your color coverage.

Look at your contract and see what percentage of color coverage you are allowed (the standard allowance is 20%.) If you use tabloid prints, the amount of toner you use doubles. To stay under the allowed color coverage, you will need to use no more than 10% color coverage.

To stop from paying double for your prints from the start, find a copier where tabloid sheets get counted as one print. To keep from paying double for your color prints, use only 10% of your color coverage. Follow these two tips to keep your tabloid print costs from skyrocketing out of control.