Why Cant I Order 10 Copies?

As an oset printer, one of the most common questions PrintNinja gets is why cant you print less than 500 copies? The answer is simple its all about saving you money and getting you the best value for your buck. You see, every time a project is printed on an oset press, there are two main costs:

Creating Printing Plates

For every printing job, a series of printing plates needs to be created. Depending on the size and page count, this can be any where from a few plates to many. For full color jobs, the number of plates required increases since we need one plate for each of the four color inks used. Even for a relatively small project, the total number of plates created is, at a minimum, eight. The more pages a project is, the more plates are needed. Creating plates is, despite signicant advances in printing technology, still a rather time consuming and labor intensive part of a press run. Since plates reect exactly what is printed, they cant be reused from project to project (although they are recycled to cut down on waste).

Starting thePress
Starting an oset printing press isnt as simple as icking the switch on your desktop printer in fact its far from it. Presses need warm up time just like any other type of sophisticated machinery. In addition, time is needed to calibrate the press to ensure optimum printing clarity, color quality and clear text. This involves adjusting how plates are positioned, ink ow and speed, all of which is done by hand. While the press is being calibrated, our press operators are actually printing copies of your project that they carefully examine and then make adjustments to the press based on what they see. These are known as makeready copies and, because they are produced before the press is fully calibrated, cant be used in the copies we send you (they are recycled). All of this startup time requires trained technicians to be actively involved. Once the press is running and fully calibrated, large quantities of printed pieces can be produced in a short time and with less human intervention.

The key point to remember is that these costs are the same whether you are printing one copy or 25,000 copies and these costs are always required no matter how many copies youre printing. The dierence is that, for a single copy, those startup costs become part of that one copy, whereas in a larger run, the costs are divided among each copy. The more copies that are ordered, the more that startup cost is spread out. You can see a hypothetical example of how startup costs get spread out among copies on the next page. For lower quantities and smaller projects, digital printing is the best option because digital printers have little to no startup costs, so you simply end up paying the cost per copy (for more details visit printninja.com/digitalversusoset/). Keep in mind, however, that at a certain point, typically around 500 copies of multipage projects, oset printing is a better option unless you are extremely rushed. PrintNinja oers oset printing on multipage products, typically with a minimum of 500 or 1,000 at extremely low prices with 6 to 8 week turnaround time. For digital printing or faster turnaround on oset printing, visit PrintNinjas partner site, Chicago Pressmen at www.chicagopressmen.com.

PrintNinja | 877-396-4652 | www.printninja.com

Copyright 2013 PrintNinja LLC. All rights reserved. PrintNinja is a registered trademark of PrintNinja LLC. The PrintNinja logo and related marks are marks of PrintNinja LLC. This guide is provided as a convenience to PrintNinja customers and while every eort has been made to ensure its accuracy, PrintNinja cannot be responsible for any errors or omissions. This guide may contain references and examples that feature products,services or brands that are the intellectual property of others. These are included for illustrative purposes only and those products, services and brands do not endorse this guide or have any association with PrintNinja LLC.

Why Cant I Order 10 Copies?

Cost of Starting a Print Job Although the actual cost is higher, a dollar bill is a good, easy way to illustrate how printing costs scale. In this example, this dollar bill covers the cost of making printing plates, starting the press, callibrating it, makeready copies and all other costs associated with starting a printing run.

Materials Cost Per Copy Here again, were using a simplied example of a penny, when the actual costs are higher. For this example, a penny represents the cost of the paper, ink and press operator time needed to produce a single copy of a particular printing project.

Startup Cost One Copy

Materials Cost

Total Cost

Cost Per Copy

+ + ( + ( +(
Always the same!

=
$1.01

=
$1.01

10 Copies

10

) =
$1.10

10

=
$0.11

500 Copies

500

) =
$6.00

500

= =

$0.012

1,000 Copies

1,000

)=
$11.00

1,000

$0.011

Remember, were just using a dollar bill and penny for illustrative purposes, but which would you rather pay per copy? $1.01 or just a penny?

PrintNinja | 877-396-4652 | www.printninja.com

Copyright 2013 PrintNinja LLC. All rights reserved. PrintNinja is a registered trademark of PrintNinja LLC. The PrintNinja logo and related marks are marks of PrintNinja LLC. This guide is provided as a convenience to PrintNinja customers and while every eort has been made to ensure its accuracy, PrintNinja cannot be responsible for any errors or omissions. This guide may contain references and examples that feature products,services or brands that are the intellectual property of others. These are included for illustrative purposes only and those products, services and brands do not endorse this guide or have any association with PrintNinja LLC.