Offset and Digital Printing: Understanding Costs and Print Runs
Print on paper includes printing books, magazines, visiting cards, brochures and so on. This is performed in two ways: offset print and digital print.
In offset print, first there must be a printing plate. Each color requires a printing plate. In case of a full color print, four printing plates are used for the four primary colors. This method is cost-efficient when the print run is high. Offset printing has two types: roll print, used for projects with large print runs such as newspapers and magazines, and sheet print.
In offset print, you have to pay the cost for printing 5000 copies even if you only need 100 copies, because there are fixed costs such as printing plates and launching a printing machine. Each printing plate costs 100 dollars. If this plate is used for one single product, all costs must be paid, and if it is used for 20 products, the cost will be divided into 20, which makes the product cost-effective.
That is why projects must be put into a print sheet so offset print will be economically justifiable. It used to be hard for print brokers to do so, but nowadays the sheet gets filled in much quicker time using online marketing methods.
Digital print is cost-effective in short print runs. In this type of printing there is no need for a printing plate, but the materials are more expensive.
Print run is an essential element in offset print. When the print run for a visiting card rises from 1000 to 10000, the price won't get 100 times higher; it may get 10 times higher. This is cost-effective and reasonable.