Charles Christian’s Orange Rag has a helpful article called Think before you Print which sets out the costs of printing documents for review – which involve more than the bare printing costs.
It is by no means a finger-wagging, tut-tutting article. It accepts that many people like to work from paper, and includes some suggestions from Pinpoint Global as to some sensible culling which might be done before the whole lot is sent to the print-room.
It is worth bearing these costs in mind at the outset. A decision not to review documents electronically is often made on the strength of an up-front quotation which is the more difficult to accept precisely because it is seen up-front. Printing costs, by contrast, are seen only in retrospect, usually spread between several quarterly bills. If these prospective expenses were factored into the costs estimates given to the clients, the apparent expense of electronic review would diminish.