Print Sales, Costs, And Profit: 2026

It’s four years since I bought a printer. I thought I would provide an update on running costs, print sales, and profit. I’m happy to be completely transparent about all this as I know it can be difficult to figure this out if you are thinking of creating your own printing business.

January 11th 2026, 11:30am

All the photos here are work shot in the last twelve months.

Year Four Investment?

Nothing other than consumables this year. I did purchase a high-spec film scanner last year, detailed here, but don’t consider that as part of this. The scanner has paid for itself several times over, and it may become a factor in future years (see below).

Income

Income is made up of sales through a local gallery that I am part of, along with web sales:

• 5,940.- CHF - sales through the gallery
• 80.- CHF - sales through web shop
• = 6,020.- CHF total income

Total income is down about 50% compared to 2025.

Costs

I had to purchase consumables (paper and ink), at a total of 957.- CHF. That cost is included in the total here under the “print consumables” category.

January 11th 2026, 3:30pm

Rental cost of space in the gallery was reduced due to having overpayments of rent and my loan to the gallery, from the previous year(s), paid back to me.

• -1,500.- CHF - rental cost of space in the gallery
• -957.- CHF - print consumables (paper, ink)
• -1,138.- CHF - framing/mounting/postage
• -1,135.- CHF - commission to the gallery
• -300.- CHF - web shop subscription
• 0.- CHF - stripe / paypal fees
• 0.- CHF - advertising (none this year)
• = -5,030.- CHF total costs

Total costs are down by about 60% compared to 2025.

Total Profit

• 6,020.- CHF total income
• -5,030.- CHF total costs
• = 990.- CHF total profit

A Quiet Year?

Actually an average year. The previous couple of years were outliers, due to large orders, so really I’m back to normal in terms of sales. The key factors in managing to generate a [small] profit this year were: 1) no longer having to pay back the loan used to finance the printer, and 2) reduced rental cost of space in the gallery due to a previous loan to it being repaid.

Also having to spend almost 1,000.- CHF on ink this year ate into profit. This is probably a “once every three years” cost given the rate I print at.

The principal cost is rental of space in the gallery - in a normal year this would be 3,000.- CHF. Essentially this means, given the material cost of printing and framing/mounting and commission to the gallery, I need to make about 5,500.- CHF of sales to break even.

Solar Eclipse, August 12th 2026

That’s a grind. However I did receive two substantial orders at the end of October, which haven’t made it in to this year’s figures and should boost next year’s. Maybe even a good sign for the year to come?

At least now the original investment loan is repaid, the printing costs cover themselves in most years. I may look at offering scanning services now that I have a high-spec film scanner, which could become a scan + print service. More thoughts about that next time.