Pricing Printing

[Kirstie]

Do any of you who print have price lists online for printing of various sizes on different papers and canvas? This part of the print business is hard to figure out. (Mine is based upon outsourcing, which we will soon no longer need for most of our print work.) How do you calculate ink/paper costs on roll printing?

 

[stcstc]

there are some prices on my website

but

the simplest way to do it, is create an excel spreadsheet

work out the cost per square inch of paper
then add a wastage factor

so for any size you can then work out the area of the print and therefore the cost of the paper

then ink, it depends on the paper, the resolution you print at etc, a good ballpark is 2ml per square foot

from this per print you can work out cost and then markup

 

[MaJa]

I have a "Estimated Cost per Square Foot" chart that gives you the cost of material and ink, but it's from May of 2005. I got it from a WCAF class. PM me you're email address if you want it.

I attached my sample prices I give customers. I used what I could find online for prices and the chart to come up with the prices. Are they "right"?? But it's what I use. I may revist them since we have been open a few months.

Basically it's:
Canvas (Laminated) - $15 sqft
Fine Art Paper (Watercolor) - $12 sqft
Gloss Photo - $10 sqft
Luster Photo - $8 sqft
Enhanced Matt (not acid free) - $5 sqft

Jeff also has some pricing on his website: Art & Frame Outlet

Hope that helps! Interested to see what everyone else has to say!

 

[framah]

The way to find out how to price is to go to alot of other websites and look at their pricing. As you are in SF, your prices can be higher than someone in nowhere.
Check out Nash Editions and see what they charge. They are out in Ca.

 

[framah]

When you price out the scanning part, don't forget to factor in the time spent on the computer getting a color match to the original.

Personally, $8 to scan is way too low even if you don't do anything else.

 

[stcstc]

noooooo never price using anyone elses prices

you have to work out what your costs are and price from that

you dont know what other people are paying for materials or labour etc

Nash editions will be one of the most expensive, they were one of the first and one of the most respected in the us, if not the world

 

[framah]

I didn't say to USE their prices by picking one... I said to look at what others are charging and that will help you to figure out your range of prices. If you are only charging $5/ft for printing and everyone else in your area is charging $10 why would you want to leave that much money on the table?
I'm sure Kirstie knew what i was saying.

Sheeesh! Over react much?

 

[framah]

Also, don't forget the cost of the equipment to do that printing or the overhead to run that equipment, etc.

 

[framah]

there are some prices on my website

So... Helps for people to go to said website if you actually tell them what the site is. A link, maybe??

 

[Jeff Rodier]

U.S. prices will vary greatly from sites on the other side of the world as well. STCSTC is referring to a website in the U.K. I believe. Prices in the Carolinas will be much lower than prices in California.

 

[stcstc]

ooops sorry forgot to put a link

www.360-dpi.com

sorry i misunderstood about looking at other peoples prices. its just soooo easy to just grab other peoples prices and assume those people are making a proper margin etc

I am based in dublin ireland, so yes things will be different

primarilly my business is the photo printing, the framing kinda grew onto that

 

[wpfay]

Kirstie,
I asked the folks I bought my printer and media from and they supplied me with $/square foot costs for the kind of printing I am doing. I also looked at prices from others doing the same kind of printing in my area to get a feel for what I should charge.
Here is a link to one of the larger giclee printers in the area. There are PDFs that you can download with all their services and pricing (retail).
I really am no competition to them because they have much greater capability, but I still have to be competitive in my pricing since they are who I will be compared to on what services I do offer.

 

[framah]

ooops sorry forgot to put a link

www.360-dpi.com

sorry i misunderstood about looking at other peoples prices. its just soooo easy to just grab other peoples prices and assume those people are making a proper margin etc

I am based in dublin ireland, so yes things will be different

primarilly my business is the photo printing, the framing kinda grew onto that

Thanks!! Appreciate throwing the link up. I agree with you about assuming that someone else is making it with their prices.

 

[Kirstie]

Also, don't forget the cost of the equipment to do that printing or the overhead to run that equipment, etc.

Exactly. This is just like framing. But the cost of ink and various types of paper when you consder considerable wastage is what is hard to figure out.

 

[stcstc]

your main wastage is going to be paper rather than ink

because you nearly always going to be using a bit of paper bigger than the print needs

your wastage will actually come down the more prints you do at once, as they can be nested making more use of the paper

i print between 20 and 150 prints a day, so my wastage factor can be lower than if i was only doing say one or two a day

if you want real control on prices, ie down to every say 10cent, buy a rip, a lot of them will have a costing module, giving you exact costs for each and every print

 

[Rhonda in MT]

The printer manufacturer will have info on ink usage and cost if you use their inks.
Same with paper. So let them know when you're shopping. Then look at the prices in your market. We've been printing large format for 20 years so I would suggest you look at pricing of photo labs in the area. As a photo lab this is one of our most profitable products. You don't need to be the lowest price to get a decent amount of work unless you are trying for the starving artist customer. Talk to the Premier Paper people also. They have some good papers for less $