Book Printing Costs: How Order Quantity Affects the Price

estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Understanding Book Printing Costs

Book printing costs are significantly impacted by the production method used to create the books. This is because the two most predominant production methods - Offset printing and Digital printing - have very distinct cost structures.

In general, the Offset printing process is more cost-effective for higher order quantities and the Digital printing process is more cost-effective for lower order quantities. That said, below is a brief overview of these two printing processes so you can see the effect each has on the unit cost of a print project.

The Offset Printing Process

Offset printing has existed for well over a century and is still the most widely used commercial printing method in the world today. Offset printing is considered to be the traditional form of printing, where the ink is actually pressed onto the paper.

Offset printing requires the creation of printing plates, which are sheets of metal or polyester that have been etched with the images to be printed. Every ink color used for the project receives its own unique printing plate(s).

Modern Offset systems use Computer-to-Plate (CTP) technology, which transfers the Digital artwork files directly to the printing plates. However, applying the ink to the paper is not a Digital process; it is a mechanical process that involves a series of rotating cylinders.

After a printing plate is created, it is formed around a large cylinder. During the printing process, the plate cylinder rotates and receives a fresh application of ink with each rotation. The plate cylinder contacts another cylinder called the blanket cylinder. The blanket cylinder is wrapped in a rubber blanket. As these cylinders make contact, the inked image on the plate cylinder is offset onto the blanket cylinder. The paper substrate then passes between the blanket cylinder and an impression cylinder. The image on the blanket cylinder is then offset onto the paper.

In addition to the creation of printing plates, an Offset press also requires an extensive set-up process before the actual print run can begin. This process, known as "Make Ready" helps to verify all the ink colors are in register with each other and are producing vivid images on the paper.

Though the Make Ready process is necessary to ensure the press is operating at peak efficiency, it adds time and labor to the front end of an Offset print run. Make Ready also consumes a fair amount of test sheets, a sampling of which are closely inspected before being delegated to the recycling bin. However, once the Make Ready tasks are complete and the press begins the actual production phase, it operates with tremendous speed and efficiency, thus bringing down the unit cost of each book as the production run breezes along.

The cost of creating printing plates, as well as the set-up costs associated with the Make Ready process, prevents Offset printing from being an economical choice for smaller books orders. This is because the upfront costs cannot be distributed over enough units to make a smaller book project cost-effective.

On the other hand, a larger order can absorb these upfront costs because the costs are distributed across more units. This means once an Offset press is up and running, the unit cost goes down with each impression. The initial set-up costs may be high, but the cost of applying ink to paper is minimal once the press is in operation.

To summarize, Offset printing is extremely cost-effective when printing books in bulk. As far as an actual order volume, the generally accepted recommendation is that an Offset press will provide the best value for projects of 1,000 books or more.

The Digital Printing Process

The term "Digital" refers to the numerical digits of 0 and 1, which form the binary logic used by computers and other electronic devices to store and process information.

Unlike Offset presses, Digital printing presses do not use printing plates. The artwork files, which have been created on a computer and exist in Digital form, are transferred directly to the printing press for output.

It is interesting to note that Digital printing presses evolved from photocopiers, with the first commercial Digital printing press being introduced in 1993. Though Offset printing still has a slight quality edge and offers more ink color and paper options, Digital printing continues to expand in popularity. Similar to the desktop printers used in many homes and office, most commercial Digital printing presses operate with either laser or inkjet technology.

Laser presses use toner, which is a superfine powder made from granulated plastic particles, pigments, and various other additives. An electrostatic charge is used to attract the toner to the paper substrate. The paper then passes through a fuser unit. The fuser uses intense heat and pressure to melt the plastic components of the toner powder, thus bonding it to the paper fibers as a permanent image.

Instead of using powdered toner, Inkjet presses apply tiny droplets of liquid ink to the paper substrate. The ink is then dried quickly through the use of a heating element or ultraviolet light.

Because Digital presses can output directly to the substrate, this method does not incur the upfront costs associated with plate creation or an extensive make-ready process. This means there is no upfront cost burden to overcome. As such, large quantities do not need to be produced in order to absorb these upfront costs. The unit cost of the first print made on a Digital press run is pretty much the same as the cost of the 50th or 500th print.

That said, there may be a slight price incentive offered by the printing company as the order quantity goes up, but the per unit material costs of toner/ink and paper remain largely the same throughout the run. Hence, any savings from the economies of scale are limited when printing on a Digital press.

The bottom line is that Digital printing is more cost-effective than Offset printing when printing books in smaller quantities. The generally accepted recommendation is that a Digital press provides the best value for book projects that have an order quantity less than 1,000 units. For many years, the recommended quantity for Digital printing was 500 units or less, but lately the price of Digital printing has become more affordable for quantities approaching 1,000.

There is a subset of Digital printing known as Print On Demand. Most printing companies that offer Print On Demand are specifically set up to offer books in quantities as low as a single book. These companies use Digital presses to process a lot of small orders in a streamlined fashion. This often requires some standardization, so there are usually limitations in regard to the paper selection and book sizes offered.

Print On Demand is a niche in the book printing industry that caters to very low order quantities. Books are ordered and printed on an as-needed basis to help customers eliminate the costs associated with holding books in inventory. The drop-shipping of individual books is also a popular component of On Demand book services.

Many printing companies - even those that offer Digital printing services - are not competitive at very low order quantities and may therefore require a minimum order quantity, such as 100 or 200 books.

This is largely because every order incurs certain transaction costs. This means the unit cost of a book ordered in a quantity of 100 or 200 and printed all at once will be far less than the unit cost of a single book ordered 100 or 200 times on separate orders. In other words, a single order for 100 or 200 books will yield a lower unit cost than 100 or 200 on demand orders consisting of one book each.

The Two Main Components of a Book's Printing Cost

To shed a little more light on how quantity impacts costs, it helps to break down the two primary components of book printing expenses:

1) Costs that will VARY depending on the Order Quantity:

Naturally, some expenses will vary depending on how many books are ordered. Materials such as ink and toner, paper, protective coatings like UV or laminate film, binding supplies, production labor, packaging, and shipping will all vary based on the book's order quantity.

2) Costs that remain the SAME regardless of the Order Quantity:

In addition to variable costs, a printing company also incurs certain expenses that remain constant regardless of the number of books printed for an order. Communicating with the customer, entering the order, pre-flighting the artwork file, creating the printing plates (in Offset printing), preparing the printing press, and generating an invoice are all examples of costs that will be incurred regardless if the order quantity is 1 book or 10,000 books.

Again, these expenses will be the same regardless of the order quantity. So the more books that are printed in a production run, the more books will be available for distributing these expenses. In other words, the portion of these expenses each book has to bear gets further minimized as the order quantity goes up.

Of course, these savings provide an incentive to order more books at one time. However, it is only wise to do so if ordering additional books makes sense from a practical standpoint. A lower initial price point can be a great thing, but not if it results in an inventory volume that will far exceed the demand.

One popular strategy is to start with Digitally printed books until the demand reaches a level that makes Offset production the more economical choice.

Contact Color Vision for Affordable Book Printing Services!

Color Vision has been a printer of affordable books and booklets for decades. As a full-service printing company, we have both Digital and Offset presses. This allows us to produce a broader range of book projects at affordable rates.

Though we don't specialize in one-offs or offer print on demand services, we have excellent pricing for books printed in volume. Our sweet spot is within the quantity range of 100 to 5000.

We also offer a wide array of binding and finishing options to help make your book unique. Plus, as a totally-custom printer, Color Vision can produce books in just about any size you might need.

If you have any questions or want to discuss your book project, just give us a call at 800-543-6299. Or, use our easy Quote Request form to send us the specifications of your project and we will be happy to email a quote to you.

As always, we hope to hear from you soon and look forward to assisting with your book project!