These days there are many printers offering
crazy knock down prices for printed brochures
on the internet. Going for the cheapest may
cost you dearly in quality. Use the following
guidelines as to what you should be looking
for with any printed promotional material.
Cheap and cheerful
Whichever way you look at it, printing brochures
or booklets isn't going to be cheap but you
would be amazed at the savings that can be
made by altering job specs and opting for
different print finishes. The first thing
to consider when putting together a multi
page booklet or magazine is to try and make
the page size the most economic. Brochures
are printed on flat sheets 8, 16 or 32 pages
at a time depending on finished page size.
Making your brochure conform to one of these
standard page quantities means that assembly
once printed is going to be straightforward
with no wasted blank pages.
Pick a number
Another major contributing cost factor with
brochures is the print run - as a rule the
higher the print run the more you are going
to save per unit cost. The differences between
2000 brochures and 5000 maybe minimal, so
it's always worth asking for a run on cost
per thousand when ordering print as you may
find the costs a massive saving. If you only
require a few hundred copies of a booklet
or leaflet then digital printing is the most
cost effective solution. These days the quality
of digital printing has vastly improved from
some years ago. You are not paying for any
print set up charges as you would with lithographic
printing so for small runs this is the way
to go.
Thick or thin
Depending on use, the paper stock used on
any brochure is going to effect costs sometimes
considerably. If the brochure is going to
be mailed out to people in bulk it makes sense
to keep the weight down. 130gsm should be
ample for leaflets and 300gsm for smaller
cards that require some body to them. If the
brochures need to be of a particularly high
quality to make a good impression it is worth
splashing out on some nice finish effects
for the front cover which can be printed seperately
from the main inside of the brochure. Matt
laminating the cover gives a very nice waxy
feel to any brochure cover and when combined
with a spot varnish really gives off a high
grade effect.
Going shopping
As with most things it's always a good idea
to have some price comparisons when selecting
a printer to print your brochure or magazine.
Some printers will be using large presses
and will be able to offer substantial savings
on large volume brochures, whereby they may
not be as competitive on smaller runs, which
a smaller printer would be more capable of
producing. If you do manage to get a considerably
lower price on any brochure printing job,
it's always worth asking the printers to send
out some print samples that they've produced
for other clients. If the quality of print
is good and the price is low - then go for
it!
Use the experts
Brochure designers have over 15 years experience
working in all areas of commercial design
for print. Our design work is always produced
to the highest exacting standards and is supplied
ready for print. There are many factors to
be aware of when producing design for print
such as trapping, overprinting, bleed, embedding
fonts and colour correction of any images
to name but a few. We have excellent trade
contacts and suppliers who we have built up
over the years and are in a good position
to use our experience and knowledge to make
good savings on print for any of our design
clients. When ordering any design work from
us that requires printing just let us know
at the time of placing the order the rough
quantities you require and we will be able
to provide you with a low cost print and design
quote.
