Tactics > print production
Choosing the right printer for the job
By John Petty
Ten steps to getting the best value for money
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electing a printer isn’t as easy as shopping around for the lowest price and placing your catalogue work with the cheapest provider. There are so many choices—not least paper grade, size, weight,
and type of press—that a cataloguer can easily become flummoxed by jargon or intimidated by a lack of technical knowledge. To help simplify that process, here are ten tips on how to select the best printer for your job.
Ensure the specification you choose can be manufactured economically both in terms of
press fit and with minimum paper waste. Before you fall in love with a format that your brilliant creative team has suggested, check that it can be produced by a range of competitive print suppliers. We were recently asked for costs on a catalogue size of 215mm x 165mm at up to 200,000 copies. This is horrifically wasteful on most presses but can be produced relatively economically in Poland at RRD, though it entails substantially more management and press-passing time than choosing a more readily printable size. The main driver for formats is postal costs and it is well worth talking to all the downstream access (DSA) suppliers to investigate what special deals may be available, relative to format and postal weight. The Royal Mail price increases this past May have obviously hit all cataloguers hard, so ensuring that you are able to use lower cost Sustainable
or Advertising Mail rates is vital. Do check the rules of the game thoroughly as even those intimately involved can make errors. I recently came across an example where a DSA supplier mixed directs and residues in a single cell for unwrapped Sustainable Mail—something that is unacceptable as the residues must go out wrapped. Fortunately, the mailing house spotted the problem in time so no serious damage was done.
on and run-back costs. Most formats can be economically produced in increments of 8 pages so if your ideal text page content is 96pp, also ask for 80, 88, 104, and 112pp as well. I know most of you are aware of the way to calculate the weight of your catalogue, but it is such a simple and useful calculation that I think it is worth highlighting here:
2 Page height x page width x gsm x leaves
For example, calculating optimum paper weight for a sub-100 gram mid-market A5 catalogue is as follows: Text
0.210mm x 0.148mm x 0.080gsm x 32 = 80 grams Cover
0.210mm x 0.148mm x 0.150gsm x 2 = 8 grams Total = 88 grams
This facilitates an 11 gram allowance for laser carrier, business reply envelope (BRE) and polywrap, if desired, while remaining under 100 grams. As a general rule, cover paper weights should be around twice the weight of the text paper.
worth buying directly from the paper mill or through one of the larger national merchants. Always ask for quotes from relevant printers to be split between manufacturing and paper, specifying whether the printers’ requirement is sheet size and sheet count or reel width and tonnage. Most paper suppliers are happy to offer a free paper- management service. All printers manage paper tonnage into the factory and through their
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If you are using more than a trailer load of paper—around 24 tonnes—it is probably
If you are unsure of the precise quantity and pagination, ask for a range of page contents, run-
presses for their own management needs. On any decent run, paper will represent between 50 and 65 percent of your catalogue production cost, so it is clear that choosing a size that does not make the most of your primary raw material is commercial suicide.
Paper is the fifth largest consumer of energy per tonne produced after cement, aluminium, steel and glass. And as energy and, by association, transport costs are only set to rise, tight control of this element is fundamental to your success.
Dependent on quantity and page content choose the right press size for catalogue production. For A4/A5 work, quantities for following press sizes make sense: • Up to 10,000 copies B2—520mm x 720mm, 8pp, A/B4 per section
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• Up to 20,000 copies B1—720mm x 1020mm, 16pp, A/B4 per section
• Up to 100,000 copies—16pp, A4 web-fed, 625mm x 965mm, maximum text paper weight of 130gsm
• Up to 750,000 copies—up to 72pp, A4 web- fed, 1240mm x 1980mm, maximum text paper weight of 80gsm
• More than 750,000 copies—Roto gravure, from 800mm to 1530mm, variable circumference 1960mm to 4320mm width, max text paper weight of 90gsm. Letter size of 240mm x 165mm has a much higher breakeven quantity for sheet-fed against 16pp web offset due to the higher paper waste of web offset. Equally, the run length at which Roto gravure becomes economical is at much lower quantities when compared to web offset due to the lack of paper waste.
If you are printing sheet-fed on silk or matt coated paper, ensure that the printer has at least five units so you can seal the ink to prevent rubbing. If you have a special colour then a six-unit is required, there are many multiunit perfectors in the market now with 10 or 12 units, often equipped with Cut Stars, which allow you to use web-fed paper at around £100 per tonne less than cut sheets. For lower run multisection catalogues, the press-passing time saved by perfecting is significant as well as a more economical method of production than conventional sheet work.
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