You’ve got an event coming up and it’s come time to put together the invitations, or programs, or menus, or signage, or any of the other things that turn a small-e event into a big-E Event. But you need to make sure this all fits your budget, so you shoot an email off to your friendly neighborhood printer-person saying something like “We have our Best Mustache of the Year event coming up and need programs made – how much? ”But instead of the info you need you get…crickets. Or your phone starts to ring. Or, my personal favorite, you get a long email with a list of bullet-point questions. What gives? You need pricing, not the print-centric version of The Inquisition.
Here’s what’s up. Printing is incredibly detail oriented. Every single thing we make is different from what came before, and what will come after. And to get the pricing right, we need toknow all those details. But fear not! Here are the few details we need to get you a price:
- The quantity. You have to give us a starting point. If you’re not entirely sure you can ask for a range, but try to keep it simple. Asking for a price for 500, 750, and 1000 pieces is great. Asking for pricing from 500 to 1000 counting by 50s is not.
- Sizes and pages. We need to know how big (or small) it is. If it’s a multi-page item like a book we need to know how many pages it is. Note that if something folds there will be two sizes: the flat size we use for printing, and the folded size of the final product.
- Ink colors and sides. Printing something in color is a lot more expensive than printing it in just black ink. And because every piece of paper I’ve ever run across has two sides, we need to know what we’ll be doing with both sides of that sheet. It’s ok to print color on one side, and black ink on the second side. In fact that can be a great way to save some money on many projects.
- Paper type. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it another few million times before I retire, paper is complicated. Very complicated. If you’re a seasoned vet and you know how to spec paper, that is glorious and you can tell me exactly what you want. If not (and most aren’t) you have no idea where to start. But I’m going to give you one of those Gen Z tiktok life hacks. There’s only two simple things I need to know: Do you want the paper to be thick or thin? And do you want the paper to be glossy or not-glossy? If you can give me that then I can get you a good paper.
- Any bindery work. (You’re doing great, by the way!) How do you want those books bound? Are the programs just big cards or are they folded? You want round corners on that? We need to know what we’re doing with all those sheets after we print them!
- Lastly, any special or unusual need. Need them tomorrow? Shrink wrapped in packs of 25? Flown via private jet to Moscow? Yep – we need to know that.
That’s it! You are on your way to savvy print buyer! In fact, you’re already my favorite client for taking the time to read this. Let’s try that program request again. “We have our Best Mustache of the Year event coming up and need programs made. We’ll need 250, but also give me pricing for 300. They’ll be printed at 8x10, but then folded to 4x10, and printed in color on both sides. And I’d love for them to be on a really thick, glossy paper. How much?” Nothing to it. This whole printing thing is easy!
