The next time you get something printed, it might pay to get more than one quote. Many things go into the price of a quote. Much of which is unknown to the customer.

The quality and price can vary greatly from printer to printer based on the equipment used, experience of the printer, and whether or not they outsource the work. You probably won't see any of this when you call or even walk into the print shop.

If you are in need of small volume printing, choosing a printer with digital equipment is probably best. Ask a lot of questions and get suggestions from the printer on how you can increase the quality of your job without increasing the price much. The experienced printer may actually find a way for you to save money at the same time.

Happy hunting!

Many online printers offer a cheap price for common print jobs. Many times you get what you pay for. I've heard many stories of how customers choose their printer based on the quoted price and received something that was unusable.

The pages are stuck together due to the ink drying on itself, pages were missing, color was off, margins were misaligned, and other issues that made the material unusable.

To make matters worse, you are only days before your deadline.

How do you ensure you get what want? First, allow enough time for errors. Second, interview your printer, see samples, ask questions, get questions answered to your satisfaction. Third, review the proofs. Your printer is not an editor.

Whether it is a book, brochure, manual, or postcard, you still have a responsibility to look for printing errors. Interview your printer and get a few quotes to choose from.

Paper makes all the difference: While the weight or brightness of a paper may not seem important, it can make a huge difference in how your marketing materials turn out. You have to know throughout the planning, designing and printing portions of the process just what paper you are going to use — a change in materials at any point can change both your budget and just what your designer and printer need to do to guarantee a quality product. Printers are very aware of this fact, and a good printer will walk you through your paper options if you ask.

Now that I have your attention, this is about the size of your...book. Based on an actual case study, one of our customers sent us the specs of his new book and asked us for a quote.

He gave us the size, number of pages, type of paper, finish, binding type and the file.

We sent him a quote based on two book sizes. He called back and was impressed with the quoted price of his 6" x 9" book. That was great. I then asked if he noticed the quote right next to it for a 5 3/8" x 8 3/8" book. He said that he did not pay attention to it and asked if that was an option for him. I told him, only if you want to save $800.

Most self-publishers are familiar with the 6"x9" book size. What they don't realize is that a fraction of an inch smaller and they can save a lot of money. The great thing is because the size difference is so small, there rarely is a need for the book to be re-formatted.

So, size does matter if you want to save some money without giving up quality!

How can the local printer compete with the giant chain copy stores? (i.e. rhymes with Blinko's)

In this age of digital technology, it has become the great equalizer for the local print shops that have been able to take full advantage of this. Your local print shop with the right equipment can produce high quality print material such as brochures, books, manuals, postcards, etc. that rivals most traditional off-set presses.

You thought you needed to go to your chain copy store because you only needed 100 brochures made and the print shop would require at least 1,0000? Not necessarily. If they have the right equipment, they can print up those 100 brochures for you no problem.

Cost. How can the local print shop compete against the big boys? Just because they're big doesn't mean they have the lowest prices.

Obtain some bids and you will be surprised.

How does color on your book cover influence price? Well, once you have 2 colors on your book cover, it doesn't matter. The price will be the same whether you have 2 colors or 4.

What about the spine on a perfect bind book. Does it cost more to add color to the spine? No, if you were to literally rip the cover off the book and stretch it out, you would see that it is a single sheet of paper. So you can have color on the front, back and spine and it will not effect the price as it's the same piece of paper we're printing on.

With traditional printing methods, one would need to print a lot of volume to start seeing any cost benefit to having your book or brochure printed. That means, your local church, insurance/real estate agent, self-publisher, etc. would have a hard time justifying printing a limited number of copies of their material.

Now, with the age of the digital press, you can print as little as 100 brochures or 100 perfect bind books and be more cost efficient than if you tried to do it yourself on your home printer. (definitely can't bind a book on your own)Also, a printer that has been in business as long as we have, can definitely give you the professional quality that you deserve.

If your local printer is inexpensive, would going to the chain office store be even more cost efficient? Probably not. Get a quote from both and see.

In short, (no pun intended) short run means, even the little guy (again, no pun intended) can get a break on their printing or copying material.

Deciding on which format to print your brochure? The amount of folds do not effect the price. Two, three, four folds are all the same cost to you. Have at it!

Many times, customers try to save time by designing their document and putting it into a PDF or some other graphic design format before consulting their printer. You might think, a PDF is a PDF, right? Wrong, like anything else on a computer PDF production is based on certain parameters that you may not even know exist. Variances in those settings can throw your margins off a fraction of an inch, turn your images into mush or leave your fonts behind.

The bleed on your file may look good on your computer but may be off just enough to render your project unusable.

Lesson, save yourself some frustration by first consulting with the printer you are going to use on how they need your images or file. This will save you time of having to re-adjust the work you already did or having to pay to have someone fix it.

Many businesses and non-profits make the investment of purchasing state of the art copiers/printers in order to save money by printing their material in-house. While this makes great sense from a convenience standpoint, it may not make economical sense in many cases.

When you factor in maintenance, toner, paper, time, cost of printer and other print/copy related cost, do you know your cost per sheet?

Now, compare your cost to a bid from your local printer and see how it relates. You may be surprised at what you learn.

Even with small volume printing/copying, your local printer saves you money because they print multiple pages on large sheets and then cut. The cost to the printer is not much more than printing one 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper as you would in-house. End result, lower price to the customer!

So, before you make copies for your next meeting, get a quote from an experienced printing company.

Don't forget, we can do 24 hour turnaround and deliver locally for free!

So you want to print a booklet but you don't want to spend the money on a perfect bind. (Binding that is used on soft cover books. See last week's blog entry) Saddle stitch is one way to save money and still give a professional look.

To saddle stitch, the material is printed in a book format and then folded over in half and stapled twice on the spine. This is a cost-effective way of printing a booklet but it does have limitations that you should consider.

• The maximum number of pages you want to use saddle stitch on before moving to a perfect bind is 80. To get an idea of the things you need to consider when saddle stitching a booklet, take 20 sheets of 8 1/2"x 11" paper and fold it in half. Now, you have to trim that excess paper to give your booklet a squared off shape. Keep in mind the text margins you need to account for when trimming the excess.
• Once you near 80 pages using saddle stitch, you may want to consider using a lower weight of paper to keep the bulk down.
• If your booklet is over 80 pages, you may want to consider moving to a perfect bind. (see picture) It will not add much to the cost and give your material a more professional look.
• If you're going to print a 6" x 9" booklet, same rules apply to my blog entry last week; consider printing 5 3/8" x 8 3/8". Saves lots of money.

These are issues you won't get addressed by trying to order your work online. It's always better to talk to your printer and discuss your needs first.

When printing a book, these are some helpful tips for the self publisher.

1. Instead of a 6" x 9" book, print 5 3/8" x 8 3/8". This fraction of an inch can save you thousands of dollars and not have any real effect in the quality or look of your book.

2. If you are need of 2 colors on your book cover, you should feel free to have up to 4 colors as the cost is virtually the same. 1 color would be the least expensive.

3. When asking for or receiving a printing quote, it's important to note the difference between a page vs. a sheet. The lay person wants to know how much it will cost to print 46 pages. The printer is going to give you a quote based on 23 sheets (of paper).

These are just some of the issues around getting a quality book printed at the right price. It is always better to call an experienced printer who can help you customize a job that fits your needs.