Expensive printing
I recently designed a business card for my brother because he's starting out on his own as a general contractor. He came up and did a lot of plumbing in my house, and I figured I'd design and have his cards printed as a show of appreciation. So I started designing and he chose this card as the one he wanted. It's pretty upscale for a contractor, but he's after high-end work, so it ought to work well.
I know that printing can be expensive because I work in print, and I realize that anyone with a print background is going to instantly notice that it's three ink colors. That's not the end of the world. I know the yellow is a tiny detail, and it'd be cheaper without that one yellow line, but it really helps the look so I figured I'd leave it. Extra colors like that add to the cost, but it's seldom prohibitive enough to modify a design that the client loves.
The real kicker is the bottom section on the front. The black ink prints on top of the green, and the two ink colors have to be lined up close to perfect or the type will be illegible. And what's more is that the first ink to be printed will have to dry completely before the second ink can be printed on top of it. That means that the cards will need to printed once, set aside to dry, then printed all over again. That's a hassle for print shops because it's more difficult than just printing once
The best quote I got for this job, and it's from an excellent quality printer, is $298.00. Yikes! And add to that another $75+ for the film needed to print it, and it's close to $400.00 for one thousand business cards! Eeek! To put that into perspective, I can have one thousand plain-jane cards printed with black ink on white stock for under $20.
Bear in mind, it's not that I'm cheaping out on my brother. If it came down to it, I'd pay the bill and suck it up. I'm truly that appreciative of the time and expertise that he brought to my bathroom (plumbing it, not using it, you sick-o). But on the other hand, I don't think it's fair to give business cards to his fledgeling company that will cost $300 to reprint. That's not my intention, and I don't think that's what he wants either.
So today, I'm off to visit my favorite digital printer to see what they can do. That's the same printer that did our holiday postcards last year, and while the print quality isn't quite as nice as traditional off-set printing, it's still very good. And given the price difference, it's more than acceptable. I'm expecting he'll print them for $100 or so. I can deal with $100 or so. In my current state of sticker-shock, I can probably handle $200, but $100 seems about right to me. Even if I have to cut them by hand, and I don't think I'll have to, the savings will be well worth it.
If it's still prohibitively expensive, it's back to the drawing board. I'm sure my brother and I can find a better compromise between design and cost of production.
- under:
- Art and Design
- Posted on
- 2005-03-01
Comments:
InDesign is your friend
ID will spread trap that automatically. Yep - problem solved.
In case anyone else reading this wonders, when that gets spread trapped, the green will be made larger than the opening for the black so that any misregistration will leave a hard line on the black and no visible bleed. Also called a hold-back trap.
Ditch Quark my good man.
trapping aside
Quark could spread that too, I'll have you know! But it's done in Illustrator anyway. Although I haven't trapped it, That's a good call, and I will be sure to add such a trap.
But it's not so much the trapping that drives up the cost as it is the overprinting. sigh. And even still, the print shops around here will still tack on a charge for 'close registration' which, IMVHO, is a crock. Or course it's got close registration, That's what the printing press is supposed to do!
And
The 2 run method isn't good because you're asking for misregistration - that paper isn't gonna go through the same way a 2nd time.
Digital can be good though. We do a great deal of our printing on digital - I don't know what kind of press it is but it prints a true line screen - not the digital lines like some do. The quality is very nice. So if you're able to find the right printer with the right press you can get near-press quality.
Another option!
You've got the black fading in to reveal the green - why not have the green fade back behind the black - if your brother can deal with his name being 10% green then you could print shells with the green and come back and do imprints with the black and not have to worry much about registration issues.
Quark does spread traps?
That new in 6?
traps
It has done trapping since I've used it. (Version 3). It used to crash version 4 for me when I'd open up the trapping info, but it works fine in 6. It's actually slightly more robust now, but only the interface.
The digital guy did that post card we sent you. It does a proper screen, and it looks like conventional printing until you really look closely at it. I think it'll do.
Oh, shame on me
I forgot to mention - That's a nice design.
Thanky!
Thanks! I put no shame on you for not mentioning anything.
And digital printing is $115 for 500, $150 for 1,000. Thank goodness for technology!
CLOSURE!
Well?
Closure
I had them printed digitally for $115 for 500, it would have been $150 for 1000.
They printed them on 100# cover stock. I have no idea why.
I'll have to call them tomorrow and ask why they didn't print them on, oh, say, card stock?
This article is closed to further commentary. But you can always contact me directly.