Cost Savings Tricks: Four Ways to Lower Your Printing Price

Size Matters

Sure it’s a cliche, but in the world of printing and shipping, the size of your project will make a significant impact on your pricing.

Keep in mind that the final trim size of your book or your game is crucial because of the amount of paper it’s using. The more paper you use, the more expensive it will be to produce your project. Check out the examples below:

On the left, we have a standard size modern comic book. Note the price. In the middle we have taken that size down to a digest, or 5.5″ x 8.5″. At the same size and page count, you’ve just saved $200. Sometimes a smaller book is even better for sales.

But let’s go a little further. On the right we have a custom size, 4″ x 5″. That is another $140 cheaper than the digest size, or $338.25 cheaper than the standard comic size. That’s nearly 30%.

But what’s the secret? Why does the size make such a difference? Well it all comes down to the efficiencies of offset printing. Because offset printing, or more specifically sheet fed offset printing in our case, prints onto large sheets of paper and then folds down to the smaller trim size, the more pages of your project you can fit onto the larger sheet, the fewer total sheets your project will need. Thus reducing your total paper cost. The diagram below illustrates this in action. This press sheet (or parent sheet to use printing jargon) will print 16 total pages. 8 pages on each side of the sheet. The orientation of the pages on the sheet is dictated by how it will be folded down into its final form.

In addition to using less paper, you are also going through the press quicker. Because you’ve maximized the amount of space on the press sheet, there will be fewer sheets of paper going through the press. While it’s still true that running a press longer reduces your costs (because the press is maintaining the same image over and over and doesn’t need as much manpower to change over plates and cleaning etc) the labor your project will take to produce will also be calculated by how long it will be on the press. Or to put it simply:

But let’s get back to examples of price for the size of your project. Let’s say you wanted to go very large with your final size.

So here we are again with the same page count and the same quantity but we’ve gone to an extreme size of 9″ x 17″. Now we’re over $1,800. That’s over 55% more expensive than the standard size!

Again, this is because now we’re utilizing much more paper. Fewer pages can be fit onto the sheet and they’ll have to use much more paper to produce the same number of pages for the same quantity. Further, it will take more time on press as a result.

More time on press because of size = Bad value

So how critical is that size? Maybe it IS critical. Maybe this is when the art side of the argument needs to win over the business side, and the investment here will produce a greater artistic vision of your project. Or maybe you are tied to a size because of your format. After all, if you want your comic to look like the professional mass produced ones by the big two (Marvel and DC) then you’ll want to stick to that size format. But only you can ultimately decide what’s best.

Quick aside on more nerdy printing minutia

We deal with imperial measurements in the US but for an excellent example of how efficiency is built into paper sizes let’s look at the ISO standards that most of the rest of the world uses.

Here the A0 size is the measure of the whole press sheet. Note how each subsequent size is half of the previous larger size. A simple elegant solution that maximizes the efficiency of paper usage. Developed by scientist, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, this system is a wonderful example of the famous German efficiency.

Card games and size

For you card game creators we have another similar secret for you! Based on the same concept, the final trim size of your cards will make an impact on how many sheets of paper will be necessary and thus determine your final cost.

The sheet sizes for cardstock vary based on the style that you are using so keeping track of the most efficient use of size across cardstock press sheet size gets rather complex. For that reason we’ve devised a chart to help determine the most efficient use of card sizes across those different paper choices.

Let’s take a look at a couple of extremes. Let’s evaluate the difference between a Tarot size deck and a mini size deck.

A Tarot deck is typically 78 cards. From the chart above you can see that a press sheet of Tarot cards fits 29 cards for most paper weights. That means for every deck you’ll need to use 3 sheets of paper. However if you wanted 78 cards and were using the same sheet, but at the Mini size, you would only need 1. That’s essentially reducing your costs by a third.

For a glimpse at the real thing, check out a video of a card game press sheet being trimmed down to the final size!

But here are some examples of that to further prove the point.

500 units of a Tarot deck here at 78 cards will run $2,974.94, or $5.95 a piece.

But here’s the Mini Price.

This is still 78 cards with all the other specs matching, just a smaller size card that uses less sheets of paper. Now we’re at $1,342.95 or $2.69 a piece. So you’ve reduced both your production cost and your per unit cost by half!

But I’m not done! Because the size is smaller, we can also fit many more individual decks into each box for shipping. So you’ll have fewer boxes and a lighter total weight with less volume.

The Tarot is on the left with a shipping cost of $555.93, and the mini is down to $197.84. So your shipping is also less than half the cost.

One of the great advantages that card game producers have is that the product they design can potentially use very little paper and printing and still command a similar price to a book, and take advantage of much cheaper shipping to boot!

Reduce Pages or Cards and Save BIG

There will be similar logic here as in our conversation about size, and they are entangled simply because when you go into a larger size you will need to use more paper. However for our purposes here and to keep everything nice and clean let’s just focus on how many pages your project will utilize and how that affects price.

To the real examples!

Here we have the same project specs across three different page counts. Between 24 and 48 pages here we’ve doubled the page count. The page count has increased by 100%, but the price has only increased by 52%. This is due to some of the start-up costs associated with offset printing. While you aren’t paying twice as much for twice as many pages, it’s still a considerable increase for a book of the same dimensions. Especially as high page counts go into the hundreds, you’ll be essentially quoting out the costs of multiple books worth of paper and printing.

Monthly comics keep to a standard low page count. This allows them to be able to keep the cost low in comparison to something like a graphic novel. By maintaining a low page count and a lower cover price, the comic industry maintains a steady flow of income for ongoing titles. This serialization of a story not only controls costs, but allows the author and artists to publish in smaller chunks to get the work out before it’s complete. It’s not unique to the comics industry though as serialized works of fiction go back to Dickens.

In the Folded Parent Sheet diagram we showed a simple booklet of 16 pages. This was produced with 1 parent sheet. That means that a second parent sheet will produce a 32 page booklet. On projects with high page counts you’ll see dozens of parent sheets required. Each time an additional parent sheet is added you’ll see an increase in cost. And just like card game creators can save money on shipping because their decks are small and take fewer boxes, the opposite is true for high page count books.

When a high page count book is boxed up for final shipping, the weight of the book is taken into account. But not for the reason you may think!

Ocean freight isn’t valued based on weight, but on volume. So how heavy your book is doesn’t matter nearly as much as how much space it takes up. So just like reducing your trim size saves you money, how thick your book is makes an impact.

When we pack up our books, we use smallish boxes on purpose. Because books are dense, even a small group of them will be very heavy to move. So by keeping the boxes relatively small, they are easier to carry and transport from place to place. This reduces the chance of boxes being dropped and the books receiving damage.

A book that is 8″ x 10″ but 300 pages will take up twice as much space as a book that is 8″ x 10″ but 150 pages. We’ll be able to fit fewer copies of the high page count book per box.

But, maybe there is no getting around your page count. Maybe it is what it is, but if you have the ability to make adjustments you can still save money. Try these minor adjustments.

• Adjust your margins. It’s bad design to go too tight on your margins, but if adjusting your margins slightly allows for more words or images to fit onto your sheet you can reduce the total page count.
• Keep it small. If you have a high page count, try printing at a smaller size at the same proportional scale. This will help control your costs without changing your page count.
• Publish in parts. Consider breaking your large project into smaller volumes. You may be paying for more in the long run because you’ve produced 2 books instead of 1, but this allows you to defray the cost over time. You could charge $20 for 2 books, rather than $30 for one and make up the extra expense.

Card count

Card Game creators can think of card count just like Book creators think of pages.

Let’s take a look at a couple of card games. Now because the card count being different will produce rather different games, let’s look at 2 different games and their relative costs.

Game A is 55 cards and comes in a tuck box. Game B is 350 cards and comes in a 2-piece box.

As you can see Game A is at a huge advantage to keep their costs low. It requires less paper, less labor, less packaging, and fewer boxes.

Now let’s look at these same examples at volume.

At volume all these cost advantages become larger and larger! Game B’s costs at volume are getting way up there. That being said, the per unit cost of 500 vs 5,000 has reduced from $13.93 down to $6.04! While that’s great value, you have a significant investment on your hands to achieve that kind of savings. Game A on the other hand can go up to 5,000 units and still be under $4,200. Their per unit cost comes down from $2.69 to $0.83!

But what about those shipping costs at volume? Glad you asked.

Above is Game A, again 55 cards in a tuckbox 500 vs 5,000 units.

Here is Game B 350 cards in a 2-piece box 500 vs 5,000 units.

By limiting the number of cards Game A can keep their shipping cost on even 5,000 units below $2,000. However Game B for 5,000 units will cost over $10,000 in shipping costs alone.

But here are a few further tips on keeping your card game costs down.

• Tuck Boxes Win! Did you know that a tuckbox added into your card game quote doesn’t increase your costs? Go ahead and check! It’s true. So while you can select just shrink wrapping on your order, you will not save money on that INSTEAD of a tuckbox.
• No extra inserts. If you can fit your instructions on the box, you’ll save the costs of including more paper and more printing. Better yet, if you know your optimal card count as noted earlier, then using an extra card for your instructions will also save you from having to spend extra on instructions.
• Keep Backs Identical. This is more of a modest savings, but having the same common back on all your cards will save you money. This is really only significant on high card count projects. Essentially if you need more than 1 sheet of paper for your cards, then you can reduce costs by having the same back on multiple sheets.

Color vs Black & White

Even at a modest quantity, using just black ink instead of the full 4 color spectrum can save significant money.

Per the example above even at 250 units (don’t do it) you can save about 30% by printing in black and white. Some of my favorite comics of all time are in black and white. An engrossing story beautifully rendered doesn’t lose anything in the simple beauty of black and white artwork.

Don’t get me wrong, a full color treatment can capture some truly amazing things that line art alone can’t achieve, but I’m always amazed at some of the detail and depth that is revealed in a piece of art when I see the original inks compared to the colored final output. While color can add a great deal, it can also rob the original line work of its graceful simplicity.

But why is black and white cheaper?

It’s often even going through the same press, so what gives? Well, you are reducing complexity by printing one color. Less time on press, less setup, less registration between colors, less material costs. It’s just a simpler process to execute.

If you are in a medium that demands color to be relevant to your market, like children’s books and graphic novels, this might be a method that isn’t worth the cost savings. So just make sure that the style of print matches the standards for your industry. You might be making yourself look like a relic to save some cash.

Did you know that even when you select black and white printing on the inside pages of your project we are still presuming a full color cover?

Color covers have become so ubiquitous of a selling point that it’s really rarified air to see a black and white cover. It can still be done and it will save some money, but because it’s so rare an ask we would need to custom quote that request.

Split Binding Secret

Okay, so this is only a secret because most people don’t know it’s an option and it’s difficult to communicate, but it’s one of my favorite tips because it presents great value while providing a luxurious option.

Let’s start with a simple explanation. What the heck is Split Binding? Is it right for you?

A split binding is pretty simple really, it’s when you have the same interiors, but 2 different cover treatments. Both a hardcover and a softcover edition of the same book.

Does that sound MORE expensive rather than a cost savings? Well that’s a logical reaction, but the beauty of the split binding comes back to setup costs.

Need some visuals? Check out our page for some images and video.

Let’s compare 2 different projects again and you’ll see the benefits immediately.

On our calculator you can price out a split binding project as easily as any of our other binding types. We’re going to look at a 500 unit softcover run and a 250 unit hardcover run, versus a 750 unit split binding run.

The specs will all be the same here. An 8″ x 10″ book of 200 pages.

For 500 units of a softcover the total is $7,137.02. 250 units of a hardcover with the same specs is $8,178.19 (Sheesh. 500 units is only $8,855.92. Reduces the per unit cost in half, just do it.) That’s a total of $15,315.21.

Now we’re going to reproduce the same book order but utilizing split binding. 750 total units with 500 softcovers and 250 hardcovers, with all the same specs. Total for that? $9,758.53.

But how can this be Jeff? That’s a difference of $5,556.68!

It’s the setup costs. If the interior pages are identical, then by choosing a split binding option, you can pay for just the one setup cost on 750 units versus the two setup costs for 500 and 250 units respectively.

Plus there are so many options! This is the perfect solution for people that are running a crowd funding project and need to have a premium edition of the book that you can sell at a higher price.

My example above presumes a standard printed cover on a hardcover book, but this can also be a cloth bound cover, or a faux leather cover. Those covers can in turn be foil stamped, not to mention many other additional specialty print features that you can apply to the smaller quantity.

Adding these features to an entire print run would often become cost prohibitive, so selecting them for a limited edition is the perfect way to have your cake and eat it too.

Because a great deal of the costs go into printing the interior pages, saving that setup cost is greater than the costs you absorb by adding in another feature like a hardcover.