What Photocopying Has To Do With Dalmatians

A look at the output capacity of mid-range and high-end photocopiers, and how one man made his photocopier work for him in a surprising new way.

101 White Dogs With 6,469,952 Black Spots

After making the famous and very expensive Sleeping Beauty feature film, an animator called Ub Iwerks (who co-created Mickey Mouse while working with Walt Disney) pioneered a more cost-efficient animating technique using xerography – photocopiers.

In 1961 One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released. Of all the things to draw many many times over, dalmatians would be among the more tiresome. There are 6,469,952 spots in the film, with 72 on Pongo, 68 on Perdita and 32 on each of the 99 puppies.

More Bang For Your Buck - The Midrange Photocopiers

So what model of photocopier would Ub Iwerks choose today?
As any small business will tell you, choosing office equipment is a question of value for money.
Given the low budget available to him following Sleeping Beauty he may have opted for:
a Ricoh Aficio C2551
A mid-range printer with a capacity of 20/25 pages per minute, able to print on A6-A3 sized paper. This machine is able to print colour as well as black and white.

Or:
a Xerox Workcentre
Also with a 25 page per minute output, this time in black and white only. For printing dalmatians this is fine. The monthly maximum recommended load on the Workcentre is 150,000 images, which on full blast equates to 60 continuous hours of use.

A Bigger Budget = A Better Beast

The film has taken a worldwide gross of nearly $216m, leaving Ub with a healthy photocopier budget. So without money being an object what would he plump for?

The flexible Ricoh MPC 65015P
Up to 70 colour / 75 black and white pages per minute
One-pass duplex scanning capacity for 115 colour / 125 black and white images per minute. (One-pass duplex scanning means you can scan both sides of a sheet of paper in one pass)
And a maximum paper capacity of 7400 sheets.

Or:
The mighty Xerox 4595
Up to 95 black and white pages per minute
With stapling, folding, hole punching and booklet making functions.
With a whopping 8225 sheet paper capacity.