Offset printing cost and price

What is offset printing:

Offset printing has simple basic principle which goes way back to centuries, the most typical way of printing the message on any medium paper, cloth, bark, sheet etc.

It transfer the print ink from a plate also referred as PS plate to a offset machine rubber sheet and then at a blink of an eye it rolls the ink back to the paper, cardboard sheet, board or any medium on which you want your design to be printed. Offset printing machine are capable of printing on medium as thick as 800 gsm - 1000 gsm, where as digital machines world over can at best print upto 350-400 gsm paper.

Products printed:

From more than last 100 years, offset machines are employed for printing below mentioned products:

• Product brochures and catalogs
• Company newsletter and presentation
• Magazines and souveniers
• Folded brochures
• Files and folders
• Hotel menus
• Posters and banners
• Table top and tent cards
• Post cards
• Product booklets

Minimum print run:

As this technique involves setting up of plates for each print jobs and the whole machine needs to be set up again for the next job which can take anywhere between 30 minutes to 1 hour of machine operator time.

PS plate cost will be a fixed cost also the set up cost of the machine, therefore regardless of the quantity you have to pay for the fixed cost which will not distribute for lesser quantity say less than 500 numbers, but definetly with higher quantity price per unit of printed item will go down and therefore making it more and more economical.

As offset machines are faster print upto 3600 impressions per hour, print quality is excellent with facility of pantone color matching for your design, irrespective of the product for more than 500 quantity, world over offset printing technique is used which make the whole exercise of printing economical.

Plate and Printing Cost:

There are varieties of machines - some well known machines like Hielderberg Speed master, CP Tonic Multi color machine which commands premium printing cost and other machines printing cost may be lesser. Plate cost for which CTP (computer to plate) methodolgy is used is same irrespective of the machine on which printing will take place. Price of plate can be in range of Rs 1600/- to Rs 2400/- for a plate of size 25x36 inches and printing cost will be on total number of impressions with minimum chargeable impressions being 1000, which can be again in range of Rs 1800/- to Rs 3000/- per 1000 impressions for multi color. Before finalization on the lowest quote it is important to know on which machine your job will be printed as else the print quality will suffer. Even for same make machine like Hielderberg, price can vary with models.

Paper Cost:

Paper cost is one major chunk in the total price of the product and this is one component which is same in both offset and digital printing.

Price of paper will only go marginally down with the higher order quantity and as of February 2015 in Mumbai, you can get paper of size 25x36 inches at more than Rs 20/- for good quality 300 gsm BILT art paper.

Post press Cost:

We have mentioned below the post press cost which needs to be paid in addition to the plate and printing cost for offset printing.

• Cutting charges - minimum Rs 500/-
• Creasing (folding) charges - Rs 300/- per 1000 nos.
• Lamination depend upon size
• Packaging/Franking as per size and quantity

Total Price:

Total price of product will be simple addition of plate cost, printing cost, paper and post press cost.