In a prior blog about the “Cost of Color Printing", I talked about how MFPs with Edgeline technology were delivering lower cost of color printing through reliability, color printing modes and the ability to control access to color. While lowering the cost to create color documents is a huge request, I was (somewhat impolitely, yet appropriately) reminded by a colleague and an analyst that our job is also to talk about the value of printing in color.

At the most basic level:

• Color documents are easier to read - people understand your point better and more quickly
• Color documents make it easier to sell – people respond to a request or take action more often
• Color documents make it easier to compete – people give their attention to color documents first

Easier to read
Did you know that readership of a document goes up 40% when a document uses color ?¹

Color highlights a point visually – “Who said that?” “What is the important point?” “What number do I call?” “What part of the company is in the red?” “Green is good, Red is bad.”

Easier to sell
Take a look at what you respond to in your daily life, whether it be email, office documents, mail or signs. Color increases learning by 55-78% ² and increases brand recognition by up to 80%.³

Ever been at a presentation where no color was used? Remember the days when graphs had to have different crosshatch lines to differentiate one piece of data from another? You had to pause for a moment to understand what the graph was trying to convey. A color graph or chart tells a story quickly. 

Easier to compete
Try this one – next time you pick up your mail, including email, see which one you read first or give your attention to.  Customers are 42% more likely to pick up color mail first.⁴

Why is this important? Because I think it highlights the role color plays in how IT managers make decisions about deploying color devices to make their workforce more productive.

Using color helps an organization communicate clearly. If you believe that printing in color is one tool to enable more effective and efficient communication, then look at what we’re offering with HP’s lineup of Color LaserJet MFPs and MFPs with Edgeline technology. These devices have the ability to deliver printing of your mono and color documents in a cost effective way. They give you the value of color printing so your organization can communicate more effectively, and at a price you can afford.

So what about you? Can you share some examples of how you see color printing becoming more important? I’d like to hear from you when you think the use of color is beneficial, and when it’s not.

1 "Business Papers in Color. Just a Shade Better", Modern Office Technology, July 1989, Vol. 34, No. 7, pp. 98-102.

2Embry, David, "The Persuasive Properties of Color", Marketing Communications, October 1984.

3University of Loyola, Maryland study.

4White, Jan V., Color for Impact, Strathmoor Press, April, 1997