Estimating Printing Cost

 Here’s the formula to determine your paper cost per sheet.

Cost per ream (500 sheets) / number of sheets = cost per sheet

A ream (500 sheets) of 20lb-stock printer paper costs an average of $5. This factors out to a cost of 1-cent per sheet.

You can bring the cost down by buying in bulk, but don’t try to save a buck by purchasing a lower grade of paper. Paper with a low printing papers price can deliver cheap results. Remember the puddle and the big truck!

In order to accurately calculate print costs, you must factor in printing paper cost as well as the cost of the toner or ink you consume.

Minimum print run:

As this technique involves setting up of plates for each print jobs and the whole machine needs to be set up again for the next job which can take anywhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour of machine operator time.

PS plate cost will be a fixed cost also the set up cost of the machine, therefore regardless of the quantity you have to pay for the fixed cost which will not distribute for lesser quantity say less than 500 numbers, but definetly with higher quantity price per unit of printed item will go down and therefore making it more and more economical.

As offset machines are faster print upto 3600 impressions per hour, print quality is excellent with facility of pantone color matching for your design, irrespective of the product for more than 500 quantity, world over offset printing technique is used which make the whole exercise of printing economical.

Plate and Printing Cost:

There are varieties of machines - some well known machines like Hielderberg Speed master, CP Tonic Multi color machine which commands premium printing cost and other machines printing cost may be lesser. Plate cost for which CTP (computer to plate) methodolgy is used is same irrespective of the machine on which printing will take place. Price of plate can be in range of Rs 1600/- to Rs 2400/- for a plate of size 25x36 inches and printing cost will be on total number of impressions with minimum chargeable impressions being 1000, which can be again in range of Rs 1800/- to Rs 3000/- per 1000 impressions for multi color. Before finalization on the lowest quote it is important to know on which machine your job will be printed as else the print quality will suffer. Even for same make machine like Hielderberg, price can vary with models.

Paper Cost:

Paper cost is one major chunk in the total price of the product and this is one component which is same in both offset and digital printing.

Price of paper will only go marginally down with the higher order quantity and as of February 2015 in Mumbai, you can get paper of size 25x36 inches at more than Rs 20/- for good quality 300 gsm BILT art paper.

Post press Cost:

We have mentioned below the post press cost which needs to be paid in addition to the plate and printing cost for offset printing.

• Cutting charges - minimum Rs 500/-
• Creasing (folding) charges - Rs 300/- per 1000 nos.
• Lamination depend upon size
• Packaging/Franking as per size and quantity

In this tutorial we will see how to easily calculate the cost of offset printing.

Many of us can design well, but we can’t figure out how much it will cost to print this design in the press. salution360services will show you how to get the cost of print accurately in less time.

We will figure out how much it will cost to print a greetings card.

Offset Print Costing:
Greetings Card
Size   : 5″ x 7″ (single card)
Qty    : 5000 pcs
Paper: 300 gsm art card
Color : 4 colors (single side)

 

Step 01
First we figure out how much paper it takes to print 5,000 cards –
Card Size                                     : 5″ x 7″
Full Sheet Art Card Paper Size : 22″ x 28″

Now we will find out how many cards come out in a full sheet of paper-

 

 

Per sheet paper quantity: 16

Per packet art card                                                  : 100 sheets
The card comes out in one packet (100×16)       : 1600 sheets
It takes paper to print 5,000 cards (5000/1600) : 3.13 packets
The estimated price of one packet of paper       : 950.00
Total paper price (950.00 x 3.13)                           : 2968.75

 

Step 02
Plate (CTP) calculation-
Total Plate (4 color x 1 side)  : 4
Estimated cost per plate        : 200.00
Total plate price (4 x 200.00) : 800.00

 

Step 03
The process of finding out the cost of printing-
Total printing impressions (5,000 x 4 color)                                       : 20,000
If printed on a full sheet, the print quantity will be (20000/16)       : 1250
If printed on a half sheet, the print quantity will be (20000/8)        : 2500
If printed on a quarter sheet, the print quantity will be (20000/4) : 5000
Here we show the cost of the quarter sheet output setting-
5000 card printing cost ((5000/1000) x 150 =  750.00)                  : 1000.00
(per 1000 print single color impressions cost 150 taka, minimum chage 1000.00))

 

Step 04
Laminations
Matt/Gloss Lamination                   : 0.003/sqr. inches
Total Sqr. inches (5*7)=(35″x5000)=1,75,000
Total Lamination (175000.00+0.003) : 525.00

 

Step 05
Cutting       : 100.00
Packaging  : 500.00
Carrying     : 500.00

 

Step 06
Total Taka  : 2968.75+800.00+1000.00+525.00+100.00+500.00+500.00=6393.75
10% Profit                                                   : 639.38
15% VAT (6393.75+639.38)*15%            : 1054.97
Total Taka (6393.75+639.38+1054.97)  : 8088.09

 

Step 07
Per Card Printing Cost (8088.09/5000): @ Tk. 1.62