Coverage – the Hidden Copier Cost

Why Your Business Needs to Understand Coverage Before You Contract a Madison Copier Company

Today’s lesson concerns ‘coverage’ and what it is in relation to your copier. It’s one of the most important terms to know, especially when you’re under contract to have a Madison copier company supplying you with your toner.

Coverage defines how much of a page that toner actually covers. The seemingly strange thing about it is that there’s a maximum possible coverage of 400%, although realistically it’s more like 380%.

In a color copier, you have four toner types: black, cyan, magenta and yellow. The coverage of each one can be a maximum of 100%. When combined, they make up that total possible 400%.

The reason only about 380% is realistically attainable concerns the fact that your printed pages will always have a small margin that toner cannot cover.

The problem comes in when you have someone who wants to provide you with 20% coverage. That amount of coverage may be enough for black-and-white documents, but it’s rarely enough for color reprints.

The best way to avoid this is to ensure that your Madison copier supplier doesn’t charge you an additional fee for going over a certain coverage. If they do, then consider using inexpensive copiers covered by them for low coverage documents and more expensive copiers for the documents that you need reproduced with crystal clarity.