Why NOT Color?
Color helps you communicate more effectively with your customers, and it also helps you communicate more effectively internally.
Color Improves Customer Communication
Did you know that color invoices get paid faster, reducing collection time? Color marketing materials and proposals command attention. Color newsletters and publications keep your clients informed of your new offerings.
Color Improves Internal Communication
Did you know that training materials are more effective in color? Spreadsheets and financial reports are more understandable in color – and color even helps to reduce errors when working with reports. Key memos and internal flyers capture attention in color.
Head to Head Comparison: Color Versus Black-and-White Printing
Apples and oranges? Not necessarily. As you will see in the comparison of HP technology below, color and black-and-white printing build on similar printing technologies, deliver comparable performance and are equally manageable as networked devices. See page3 for a surprising look at the ever-narrowing gap in the cost and value of color and black-and-white printing—especially when you bring color printing in-house.
Communicating Better with Color
In living color
When was the last time you watched television on a black-and-white set? Or perused a black-and-white Website? There’s no getting around it: We live in a color world, and color has a tremendous impact on the way we think and feel about almost every aspect of our lives. This paper will explore what makes color such an important component of communication, why more and more organizations are increasingly incorporating color output into their everyday operations, and how color can dramatically improve the effectiveness of communications—from seemingly minor memos to major sales presentations—in virtually any organization.
The power of color
Consider just a few examples of the powerful impact of color in everyday life.
> When you’re driving on a highway and you see a large orange sign with black lettering on the roadside ahead, what does that tell you? Even if you’re too far away to read the text, you know to be on the alert for construction and related road hazards. That’s just one example of the ways in which color can be used to communicate important practical information to entire societies.
Color Printing: Just What You Need
Color printing has been around for years, but until recently, it was not that widely used in everyday office environments.
According to industry observers at CAP Ventures, this may be because color printers have traditionally been perceived as too
expensive and complex to be of much value for everyday usage.1 However, now that color devices are becoming more affordable and functional, that’s changing. Even so, it’s still entirely possible to spend too much on color—by failing to carefully match needs to capabilities. As Don Jones points out in The Definitive Guide to Office Color Printing, many organizations don’t understand the range of options available to them for using color; as a result, they “often implement overly expensive solutions for everyday use.”2 This planner is designed to help you align printing requirements with devices in order to get just what you need in color printing—no more, and no less.
Think about it: Consider the ways in which you want to use color printing for everyday office document.
Act on it: Determine the criteria to apply to be sure that the devices you buy are appropriate for your needs.
Work with it: Evaluate how well the devices you are considering match your selection criteria.
Color Printing at Work
The right color printing solution can reduce
costs and improve efficiency in a variety of
printing and imaging environments. The
following scenario describes how one
organization is using HP color printers to
bring a key printing function in-house—and
dramatically cut costs and increase efficiency.
Scenario for Improvement
The organization: Professional sports team
The situation: Need for an alternative to outsourcing of
season-ticket printing
The problems: High printing costs, slow turnarounds,
limited ability to accommodate change
The solution: HP Color LaserJet 9500 printers
The results: 54 percent reduction in ticket printing costs,
as well as faster delivery and increased flexibility
Using Color Access Controls to Maximize Value
Organizations that are incorporating color into their printing and imaging environments would like to be able to control access to color printing in order to maximize the return on their investments in color. This doesn’t simply mean limiting access to color, or placing controls on who uses color and who does not, although there is certainly value for some organizations in being able to do just that. But controlling access to color also means being able to monitor how color is used and to track usage by a variety of criteria, in order to make informed decisions that affect operational efficiency. And for some organizations, controlling access to color may also mean accurately determining color usage in order to bill clients or internal users for their usage. Applying color access controls in any or all of these ways enables organizations to use color as effectively and cost-efficiently as possible.
HP Color Planning Guide: Evaluating Color Printers Is Easier Than You Think.
Color printing in the office is no longer limited to a specialized department or niche marketing firms or large-scale enterprises with considerable financial resources. Today, color printing is an essential tool in everyday business, a necessity for competing in a fast-paced and dynamic marketplace. In fact, the question in most offices — large and small — is not “whether” to incorporate color printers into their operations, but rather “when and how.”
As you consider expanding the color printing capabilities in your own office, important questions will arise that affect not only your purchasing decision, but also your strategies for effective use of color printing throughout the organization. This guide provides answers to common questions about color printing that will make you a better and more-informed user of color printing. Each section of this guide provides a different perspective for evaluating printers. You may not need to read the entire document before choosing a printer. Any one of the sections may provide the answers you need. If you find you need more information, simply move to another perspective (section). Each section begins by posing a question:
HP Color Planning Guide
Color in the workplace—it’s here to stay.
Color printing is a powerful tool that is now considered a mainstay in most organizations—from everyday printing to high-end production. In fact, the question in most organizations of all sizes is not whether to incorporate color into their printing and imaging activities, but what choices to make to best fit their needs.
The good news is that determining the right color printing and imaging choices doesn’t have to be a daunting task. This guide will help you determine the HP products you need to create a productive, efficient color printing and imaging environment.
Get Dirty with Color
Studies have shown that as much as 60% of consumers decide to purchase a new product based on its color rather than quality, workmanship or price guarantee.
It makes sense then that color should be included within proposals and marketing statements.
Here are some practical ideas to include color in your proposals and improve your sales effectiveness.
Put the client’s logo on your proposal. Make sure the client’s logo is larger than your own.
Incorporate the client’s colors throughout the proposal. This keeps the document familiar.
Color in the Office - It makes business sense
Xerox Color
Color. Nothing is more effective when your business-critical documents absolutely must make a compelling first impression — and in today’s ultra-competitive business climate, first impressions mean everything. Now, thanks to Xerox, there’s never been a better time to seize the competitive advantage of color with the cost controls you need, without sacrificing the black-and-white capabilities you rely on.
Outstanding Xerox Image Quality
Xerox leads the color printing industry, delivering unrivaled print quality, reliability, speed and productivity through more than 20 years of technology innovations. Xerox color printers and MFPs provide all the benefits of black-and-white performance, plus the competitive advantage of color when your work demands it.
Smart Technology
• Total ease-of-use. Simple and consistently engineered device user interfaces and print drivers deliver the most frequently used features and functions on the first screen, making both basic and complex jobs easy to complete.
• Xerox Extensible Interface Platform (EIP) allows for the customization of Xerox MFP touchscreens, making the devices easier to use. Users can log on to the system and access third-party software applications that are tailored to meet their business needs.
• Superior real-world printing. Xerox color printers and MFPs deliver superior productivity when printing real-world office applications3. Plus, true MFP multitasking avoids device bottlenecks.
