9201 / 9202 / Multifunction System Hybrid Colour Plan Frequently Asked Questions. Xerox ColorQube 9201 / 9202 / 9203

Transcription

1 Xerox ColorQube 9201 / 9202 / 9203 Multifunction System White Paper Xerox ColorQube 9201 / 9202 / 9203 Multifunction System Hybrid Plan Frequently Asked Questions Contents What is the Hybrid Plan?... 2 Three levels of colour... 2 How does it work?... 3 What if I print on different page sizes?... 3 What if I print in different print quality modes?... 4 What if I use different colour correction modes?... 4 What if I print 2-sided (duplex)?... 4 Will I be charged for calibration sheets, jammed pages, etc Differences between printing and copying... 4 Adobe Reader settings... 4 How are documents containing grey scale handled?... 5 How do I access the billing meters on my machine?... 6 Where do I find support?... 6

2 Lowering the cost of colour Hybrid billing plans are designed to lower the cost of printing and copying colour pages. It allows the customer to choose a unique metered bill plan which is based on the amount of colour actually printed on a page. What is the Hybrid Plan? A choice of plans puts you in charge and lets you choose the plan that makes the most sense for your business. The Xerox Hybrid Plans are a great solution for printing and copying quality colour documents, while keeping costs under control. These metered plans are alternative to the previously offered plans where the machine billing meters recorded all pages as either Black-only or -only. Hybrid Plan 3 tier Impressions All black and white documents and documents with a small amount of Useful are billed at a black and white competitive rate. Level 2 Impressions Documents with Everyday amounts of colour are billed at a lower than market colour impressions rate. Level 3 Impressions Documents with Expressive amounts of colour are billed at a competitive market colour impressions rate. Hybrid Plan 2-tier Impressions All black and white documents and documents with a small amount of Useful are billed at a black and white competitive rate. Level 2 Impressions Documents with Everyday and Expressive (medium and large) amounts of colour are billed at a lower than market colour impressions rate. This plan combines the Level 2 and Level 3 meters as described previously. Three Levels of Useful. This is billed at the meter rate and includes up to 286,000 colour. Everyday. This is billed at the Level 2 meter rate and includes pages with 286,001 1,900,000 colour. Expressive. This is billed at the Level 3 meter and includes prints with over 1,900,000 colour. Useful Everyday Expressive 2

3 How does it work? The ColorQube 9200 Series creates images by printing tiny spots (called ) of black and colour on a page. The printer automatically counts how many colour are used to produce each printed page and each page is tallied on the appropriate meter, as described below: Useful Pages with up to 286,000 colour (approximately 1.2% colour coverage of an A4 page) are tallied on the meter. Everyday Pages with more than 286,000 and up to 1,900,000 colour are tallied on the Level 2 meter (>1.2 and up to 8% colour coverage of an A4 page). Expressive Pages with more than 1,900,000 colour (approximately 8% colour coverage of an A4 page) are tallied on the Level 3 meter. The only factor that determines which meter is incremented is the number of colour printed on a given page. Customers therefore only pay for the amount of colour they use on each page, independent of both paper size and print quality mode. The faster (lower resolution) print quality modes generally use fewer colour to print a given page and therefore the same page may occasionally be tallied on a lower (less expensive) meter when printed in a faster mode. What if I print on different page sizes? The same number of colour applies to each meter regardless of page size. Example #1: A document containing a company logo is printed on a letterhead and envelope. The logo is exactly the same size and colour on both documents. Both documents will fall into the same billing meter regardless of page size. This means 1 meter click per page, falling into the same tier, even though the envelope has a smaller area than the A4 page. Example #2: When scaling an image to print on a larger paper size or placing multiple pages onto a larger paper size (such as a booklet), more colour are used. This could occasionally register the page on a higher (more expensive) colour level meter. Example #3: A 2 page A4 document is printed 2-up on an A3 sheet. Assuming the pages are Useful when printed separately on A4 (2 prints), the resulting meter click will likely be Everyday when printed 2-up on A3. Had the 2 original pages been Everyday, then the resulting meter click would likely be Expressive when printed 2-up on A3. Images are made up of. Each pixel can contain a combination of overlapping C,M,Y,K dots. Marked colour are only counted once, regardless of how many colour dots occupy each pixel. 3

4 What if I print in different print quality modes? The ColorQube 9200 Series supports 4 print quality modes in decreasing order of resolution: High-Resolution/Photo Enhanced (default setting) Standard Fast These different print quality modes change the effective resolution that the document is printed at. Lowering resolution decreases the number of colour used to create an image, while increasing resolution increases the number of colour used to create an image. Therefore, a document may trigger a less expensive meter if printed in a lower quality setting (Standard, Fast ), or a more expensive meter if printed in a higher quality setting such as High-Resolution/Photo mode. What if I use different colour correction modes? The ColorQube 9200 Series offers various colour correction modes that allow users to calibrate the colour output to specific requirements. correction mode will impact the number of colour used to render an image and can therefore, cause it to trigger different meters. What if I print 2-sided (duplex)? The hybrid colour plan works based on individual image impressions submitted. This is defined as one side of a sheet of paper/ media successfully delivered to the selected output tray (jammed sheets do not count). A duplex print counts as 2 pages/clicks. Will I be charged for calibration sheets, jammed pages, etc. No. In order to maintain optimum print quality, the ColorQube 9200 Series will periodically calibrate resulting in a few prints in the output tray. Customers are not charged for these printed sheets or sheets that may result from a paper jam. Differences between printing and copying The ColorQube 9200 Series supports 2 copy quality modes, equivalent to the Enhanced and High Resolution/Photo print modes. The behaviour for the copy mode resolutions is the same as the print modes described earlier. Copying involves scanning a page, processing the image and printing the best possible duplication of the original. The amount and proportion of colour ink used in this process are not the same as those used when printing an original file. If the scanner detects any amount of colour on a page, grey will be considered colour (versus black) and count on the printed copy. A copy of a print may trigger a more expensive meter than directly printing the original file. Adobe Reader settings Adobe made changes between Reader v8 and v9 that changed the default assumptions controlling the way documents are rendered. For best results when using Adobe Reader v9 and higher, it is recommended that the user click on the Advanced button on the bottom of the print driver window and select Let printer determine colours. This is a one time setting change. If an update to the programme is installed, the setting change should be made again. This setting change is not necessary for v8 and lower. 4

5 How are documents containing grey scale handled? For best possible print quality on the ColorQube 9200 Series, grey scale input is rendered as composite grey (combination of cyan, magenta, yellow inks) by default. Any time a user selects Black and White from the Options tab of a 9200 series print driver, the document will always be billed as no matter the content on the original page. is the default selection for all ColorQube 9200 Series drivers. When a document, containing grey scale, is submitted as a job (the default setting) the HCP billing meter response may depend on which driver language used, PostScript or PCL. If the job is submitted using PCL (as a colour job), TIFF or JPG, grey and black will count in the marked pixel calculation. If the job is submitted by PostScript (as a colour job) the grey and black will count as black. Therefore, a print made with the PCL driver may not necessarily actuate to the same meter as it would with the PostScript driver. There may be a possibility that a print made with the PCL driver will trigger a higher price meter. In environments with no driver language preference, the PostScript driver is recommended to achieve the best accuracy in colour output management and billing management. Copy/Print Copy Job Document? No Input Mode Document Containing Grey scale Print: PCL driver, TIFF, JPG Yes as Level 2 Level 3 (Based ) Print: PS driver Option Setting Black Only Grey Copy Default Auto Detect Copy Option Black and White as black as Black Level 2 Level 3 (Based ) All: Grey + Print PCL, TIFF, JPG (default) Print PCL, TIFF, JPG Black and White Print PS/PDF (default) as black Print PS/PDF Black and White 5

6 Billing Information tab front panel user interface screen. Billing Information tab CentreWare Internet Services (CWIS). How do I access the billing meters on my machine? There are 2 ways to access the billing meters on the ColorQube 9200 Series: 1. From the front panel user interface screen, select the Machine Status button, and then select the Billing Information Tab. 2. From CentreWare Internet Services (CWIS), select Billing Information from the menu on the left hand side. Where do I find support? Customer Support Automatic Meter Read Network connected equipment comes ready to enable meters to be sent over the network to a Xerox Communication Server in order to provide accurate and timely meter reads for billing purposes. Additional detail specific to the Configuration and Use of the MeterAssistant Option is available at Version or higher is required. eservice Web-based support is available for the ColorQube 9200 Series via the Online Support Assistant at The Online Support Assistant represents a true step forward in Web-based service support. It s a new, integrated application that leverages the power and flexibility of the web to help users obtain instant service help, instructions and information on Xerox products. Customers are encouraged to use the Online Support Assistant, whenever possible, as their first option for support. Customer Support Center Customers must call the Xerox Call Centre for support. In addition to telephone support and on-site service, technical support is also available at Product information and/or specifications are subject to change without notice. For more information on the Xerox ColorQube 9201 / 9202 / 9203 Multifunction System please contact your Xerox sales representative, call or visit us on the web at Xerox Corporation. All rights reserved. XEROX, XEROX and Design, CentreWare and ColorQube are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Adobe Reader and PostScript are registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. 11/10 Q92WP-02EB