Are you considering getting a tabloid copier for your office? Consider these facts when you decide to use tabloid sheets for your print jobs:

• Less than 3% of pages used for prints are A3 tabloid sheets, but 24% of copiers in use are tabloid print capable.
• The Industry average costs of using an A3 tabloid copier are 40% more over three years than you would pay for an A4 letter copier; this number can be up to $7,000.
• An A3 tabloid copier takes up more space, uses more power, and typically prints slower than a regular A4 letter copier.

When Would You Want an A3 Tabloid Copier?

Copier companies push A3 copiers on new customers when an A4 copier works perfectly for what they need. But you may have a specific circumstance where you need an A3 tabloid copier. What are those circumstances?

The biggest reason, outside of needing larger tabloid prints, is if you produce an excess of 10,000 or more copies each month, and you need a copier that can keep up with that workload. Tabloid copiers come with much more robust engines than their smaller A4 counterparts. However, most companies don’t produce enough prints to justify the higher costs of an A3 tabloid copier.

The Hidden Costs of Using an A3 Tabloid Copier

A tabloid copier costs more money to lease than its A4 counterpart, but there are some other costs you need to make yourself aware of. Here are some of those costs:

A3 Tabloid Copier with Print/Scan/Fax and Finisher

Average monochrome costs (40 prints per minute) – $7,500

Average maintenance costs – $0.006 per print

Average toner and misc. Costs – $0.006 per print

A typical two-year contract would look like this:

$180 per month for equipment

$120 per month for supplies and maintenance

TOTAL of $300 per month all included ($0.03 per print)

A4 Letter Copier with Print/Scan/Fax and Finisher

Average monochrome costs (50 prints per minute) – $4,500

Average maintenance costs – $0.006 per print

Average toner and misc. Costs – $0.007 per print

A typical two-year contract would look like this:

$108 per month for equipment

$132 per month for supplies and maintenance

TOTAL of $240 per month all included ($0.24 per print)

Over two years, if you picked the A3 copier, you would spend an extra $2,880, when an A4 copier could’ve done the same work (at a faster print per minute rate, to add insult to injury.)

Unless You Need an A3 Tabloid Copier For Specific Work, Purchase an A4 Copier.

Companies will sometimes buy a more expensive A3 copier for aesthetic reasons (meaning that it “looks like a real copier.”) However, these cosmetic differences mean nothing in real-life applications. A smaller A4 copier will be a better fit at least 97% of the time.

Don’t waste money on a pricier copier full of features you’ll never use. If you don’t need an A3 copier for anything specific, save yourself thousands of dollars by purchasing an A4 copier instead.