CAD tip # 4073:

Question CAD
% platform category

How much more expensive is color plotting compared to black-and-white?

Let us compare e.g. printing costs on the HP DesignJet 500 or 800 plotters:

In BW plots, DesignJet consumes 4 drops of the "K" (black) ink on one print dot; every printed black drop has volume of 18pl (picoliters).

For color plots, DesignJet mixes the required color hue by mixing (using the CMYK method) several (up to 21) drops of color inks C-M-Y (cyan, magenta, yellow). But the color drops are much smaller, every drop has volume of 4pl.

So we can compare:

BW: 4x 18pl = 72pl
Color: 21x 4pl = 84pl

Comparing 72pl to 84pl we can decide that color plots consume only 16% more ink than black and white plots. So you cannot save much money limiting your plotouts to B/W only.

* CAD,PLT

14.10.2004 15549×

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See also:
Tip 10556:	AutoCAD 2015 and 2016 do not allow to select paper size for Designjet T120/T520.
Tip 9998:	Automatically rotate drawings plotted from Revit or other software.
Tip 9348:	How to add custom paper format to AutoCAD? (grayed)
Tip 9004:	Compatibility of HP Designjets with Microsoft Windows 8.
Tip 9001:	Missing images when plotting from Revit to HP Designjet T620.

Selected tip: The Scale lineweights box is grayed. How to scale plotted linewidths?

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