HP Latex: track ink consumption and print costs

The HP Latex knows its HP Latex ink consumption in detail, because it logs every job with the latex ink it used. For costing, that is the right data to start from. The values stay on the device, though, and slip out of view over time. Printometer is built to save this data for good and turn it into real cost per print job. The connection is in preparation, live support is on the way.

What the HP Latex knows about its costs - and what disappears

The HP Latex prints with water-based latex ink and keeps its own accounting. Through the built-in web server or the Internal Print Server, each job carries the ink consumption, the media and the printed area. These are exactly the values a solid calculation needs.

The catch is durability. The numbers sit on the device and are meant for day-to-day operation only. If you do not save and consolidate them regularly, you have no continuous history later. Many single values on the printer add up to nothing without a place to store them for weeks and months.

Track HP Latex ink consumption automatically (planned)

For the HP Latex, the connection is not live yet, it is in preparation. Here is how it will work: a small program in your shop, the collector, fetches the accounting data of the HP Latex on a fixed schedule through the device interface. This runs without manual work, the same way it already does for Canon Colorado and Epson SureColor.

The values then flow into a cloud hosted in the EU and stay there for good, with no expiry date. If you want to be ready as soon as the HP Latex is available, join the waiting list. You will hear from us when the connection goes live.

From consumption to costing

Measured consumption is one half, the prices are the other. In Printometer you enter the ink price per litre and the material price per square metre, each with a valid-from date. From that, the analysis works out the cost per job.

In the end you see reliable figures instead of a gut feeling. The real ink cost per square metre, the cost per job and the totals per material and period. A design with heavy coverage becomes visibly more expensive than a simple job, and your quote can reflect that cleanly. This same logic applies to the HP Latex as soon as its consumption data starts flowing.

Other machines

Live today are the Canon Colorado and the Epson SureColor. The HP Latex follows step by step. For the full picture, see the guide Print costs in large format.