Color Printing at Home or Online?

I'd heard before that some teachers go to Staples to buy color copies for their classrooms.  I used to think, "How sad.  I'm lucky to have a color copier at school."

Well guess what?  At the start of last year it ran out of ink and there are no plans to buy more.  Ouch.

Now, I used to do my fair share of color copying at home (or on the color printer I bought for my own classroom that I resupply myself).  But faced with the task of copying EVERYTHING in color (for a new classroom) I thought that maybe, just maybe I needed to examine my options.  Here's what I experienced.  (If you're looking for decision making tips and not a story, skip to "What I Learned" at the bottom). 

First, my goal was of course to save money.  Saving time would be an added bonus.

In order to save money, I needed to spend less on the printing than on the ink (and paper).  If you've noticed on my blog, blue and yellow (and combinations thereof) are my go-to colors for my teaching spaces.  This means I run out of those two colors first, and I end up throwing away (/recycling) a cartridge full of red ink.  So to get the biggest bang for my buck, I would print only pages that were predominantly those two colors.  For example, I got a great freebie from Amber Thomas for dismissal posters.  The few printables I needed that use mostly red ink will be printed at home.

The other money saving tip when choosing pages to have printed is to choose those printables that have very little white space.  I purchased a darling clip chart from the Pink Cat Studio, and the color background goes pretty much to the edge of each page.  If I printed that at home it would drain my resources REAL fast.  Those pages that have only a little bit of color, on the other hand, would cost me the same amount as the saturated ones if I printed them at Staples.  So I saved those files to print at home.

With those goals in mind, I braved the website.  I had the forethought to name each file with "portrait" or "landscape" in the title, as well as "card-stock."  I knew that they wouldn't make me pay for any page I wasn't happy with, so it would behoove them to get it right the first time.  As long as a person looked at it, I had a backup in case I selected the wrong option.  That became important later!

Another thing to note is that you have the option to pay online or at the store when you pick it up.  As much as I love the convenience of online shopping, I wanted to have a person to talk to when I looked at my final, printed product.  I wanted to be able to explain if something needed to be fixed.  And I wanted to make sure my teacher discount went through. 

Once I completed my order late Thursday night, my receipt noted my order would be ready at 8pm the next day.  That was fine with me; I could cut all weekend and laminate at school on Monday.

Friday morning I got a call.  "Mary" wanted to clarify before she printed; she noticed that my file name said "card stock" yet I selected regular paper. 

Hah!

I was relieved that my idea worked.  I was not thrilled that it doubled the price.  I thought my 41 pages were going to be $22, but instead it became $42.  Ouch.

The next issue was down to human error ("Mary's," not mine).  I went to work on my classroom and my husband called back to say there was another problem, and I needed to resubmit the files.  She left an Email address for the store, but I didn't have them at work so I had to wait until I got home.  A shame, since it would have been on the way, but since I was not owed them until 8pm I can't hold it against them.  Even when I learned that she accidentally deleted the files, that's why I had to resubmit, haha.

Then "Mary" called a third time with another issue.  She said something about the file name of "the fish" said 8, but there were only 4 pages.  It said I wanted 1 copy, so she wanted to make sure I didn't actually want 8 copies.

This confused me.  I told her to disregard the 8, and should have known this was not really resolved (I checked; my file name did not have an 8 in it). She also told me my order would be ready in 10 minutes.

When I arrived, she showed me my pages, and they were beautiful, except she then started explaining that she printed 27 copies of the bathroom passes because it said 27.

I feigned horror so she would have to reassure me that I would not have to pay for those copies that I didn't want/was her mistake, but on the inside I just wanted to laugh. It's the little things that separate us teachers from "civilians," eh?  27 bathroom passes!  Aww.  :) 

I started flicking through my suspiciously light stack of pages as she threw out the extras and knew at once, "There seems to be some files missing..."  That's when I realized where 8 came from with the fish.

As I explained to her: when I uploaded my files onto the Staples copy website, I created 3 "jobs."  One was for 2 projects in portrait, of 4 pages each, that of course totals 8.  Another was for several projects in landscape view, which totaled 27.  The final was a single page, but I wanted 6 copies.  I actually put "6 copies" in the title of that file to clarify.

She told me that you can't do that.  You have to submit each file as a separate job.

Now, I don't know if this was a fault of hers or the website.  The website has a button that specifically says, "upload another file."  Why would that be there if you couldn't?!

In any case, she was very nice about the whole thing, and printed those files that I needed.  So as she did I joked, "What, you mean you didn't design the website too," to let her save face.  But lesson learned; it seems there is less chance for human error if you upload each file separately.  Since I have the pro version of Adobe Acrobat I might even combine them all into one file next year.

WHAT I LEARNED

1. If your pages are mostly combinations of two colors (such as mostly blue and yellow and almost no red) you should print them at a copy center, not at home.  This way you don't throw out 1/3 of your ink.
2. If your pages have very little white space and lots of vibrant or dark colors, you should print them at a copy center.  You pay per page, not for the ink itself this way.  If you have just a little bit of color on the page, print at home.
3. If you're using Staples, you might want to take advantage of their "pick up and pay at the store" service.  This way you have the convenience of uploading in the comfort of your home with no lines or need to change out of your P.J.s, but you can still talk to a person face to face if you need something in your order fixed.
4. Be very specific in your file names.  I added the orientation and paper weight onto my file names before uploading.  For example, "Frog Alphabet Landscape Cardstock" or "Bus 6 Copies Portrait Cardstock" makes it very clear to the person manning the machine what you want, even if the website interface was confusing/glitchy for you. 
5. Use your teacher discount.  Obviously.  ;)  On Staples' website, there is a spot to enter in your rewards number.
6. Upload each file separately, even though you have the option to add files onto each "job."  You want to have multiple "jobs" all in one order.  You don't want to have multiple "files" in one "job."
7. If the last 3 sentences was confusing, don't be scared off.  The nice people at Staples will fix your order and not make you pay for copies that you don't want, haha.  
8. And finally, really consider point #8.  I don't know about you, but printers and I don't always get along.  If my paper misfeeds, or I run out of ink halfway through a page, or I print too many copies, or whatever, I eat the cost.  If that happens at Staples, they eat the cost.  

In conclusion, I paid $42 for 41 pages of card stock.  A color cartridge is about that much money.  So is it a big savings?  Not exactly sure, but I don't think so.  Was in convenient?  Well, it depends on your point of view.  One might say that many phone calls is a pain in the neck.  On the other hand, I actually felt impressed that "Mary" worked so hard to make sure I got exactly what I wanted.  But "Mary" might not be the one who does your copies.  So the bottom line is, my advice is you should try out the service of a copy center for Back to School.  It really is worth trying.  I will probably use them again next year because I don't think I lost money on the deal, and as an added bonus, I didn't have to fight with my printer. 

Credits:
(Hand Sanitizer labels from Amber Thomas.  Beavers images are from In the Pond.  Fish adapted from Jena Hudson.  Frog Alphabet adapted from Schoolgirl Style using a font from Kimberly Geswein and frogs from the Digital Bake Shop).  The book labels and lunch menu page are my own design!  :)