The Costs Of Commercial Printing

By Author: Colleen Davis
Total Articles: 100
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You can have a very wide range of prices from various commercial printers with basically the same packages but there are several factors you can consider aside from picking out the cheapest printer for your commercial printing.

Colors - The more colors the more money you need. If you want to keep your prices to a minimum, use only black for your entire design but since most prints these days are all very colorful and you can’t help making the design fun and enticing, make sure to use simpler colors in almost the same hue. RGB colors from your design that has not been converted should be changed or color matched. Making your designs to CMYK yourself keeps your prices to a minimum but having it color matched by your printers will increase your costs on the other hand.

Paper Choice - High grade paper is more expensive then the regular ones, although the prices are not at all that different when put together the cost will be obvious. If you will just be needing it for simple handouts that will no longer be needed in a few days should use thinner sheets that are very cheap and easy on the pocket.

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... dimensions - Prints that are bigger than the usual A4, A5 or A6 are priced higher partly because they require more paper and also more inks which obviously entails increased in price packages. If you require an even more unique shape or size then expect your price to shoot up as well depending on its difficulty to achieve.

Print volume - While most people will think that more prints means more costs, you should know that more prints more discounts which means fewer dollars out of your pockets. So prints as much as you can and have all your print needs put together in to a package. Haggle all you can once you have the right estimate of your print volume requirements.

Pre-flight/submission/uploading Check - Checking your files before you submit them to your printer save you more time to work on other things. Most printers return the files to their clients for file conversion because they did not follow the standards or other requirements. So if you do not want your file sent back to you several times, follow your printer’s printing regulations and double check everything. Common errors are misspelled words, lost words, grammatical errors, wrong fonts type, fonts spilling over trim line etc.

Finishing - Some prints require additional coatings called paper stock (matte / glossy) this will add to your costs so if you do not really need them don’t request for it. Best prints to have paper stock are magazines and folders. Prints that are changed in a few weeks do not need to have paper stock. Balance your needs over your wants.

Turnaround time - Rush print services will add more to your price quote so if you need to save, do your prints early at the very least 2 weeks before the expected date so you do not have to request for rush services. Prints normally finish in a week and adding your designing days to that give you enough time to finish with no rush.

Careful consideration on want and needs can totally alter the price your commercial printer can give you. Carefully pick out everything and consider whether it is really important for you commercial printing.

For more information, you can visit this page on commercial printing