Last updated on May 23rd, 2023 at 03:01 pm
How much does it cost to print a booklet? This is a question that most new authors and marketing professionals printing brochures and other materials ask.
There are many factors to consider when calculating the cost of printing a booklet, including: quantity, sizes, page count, binding, gloss vs matte, turnaround time, and color/bw printing. These are the primary deciding factors for the price of printing booklets.
All of the factors listed above are the primary factors affecting custom booklet printing prices. Paper type also affects pricing, but typically it doesn’t affect the price as significantly as the other factors above.
To get an instant booklet printing cost quote at Printivity, go to our Booklet Printing products page.
1. Quantity and page count affects the booklet printing cost
Quantity and page count affects the booklet pricing because they affect the:
- Number of sheets needing to be printed
- Number of binds that need to be done
This is pretty straightforward—both of these numbers affect the amount of raw materials, equipment time, and man-hours needed to produce the project.
A printing business like Printivity has jobs that vary significantly. As a printing company that does a lot of digital printing, Printivity produces quantities of booklets ranging from 2 to 10,000+ sheets of paper. That’s a big difference!
Some printing companies have minimum order values because their personnel and their printing processes are not equipped to handle many projects at low quantities—they would lose money because it takes them too much time to process each order. So, they either establish minimum order values or turn down the orders.
Printivity does not have minimum quantities or order values—for any kind of printing. Customers frequently print and ship quantities as low as one single copy of a booklet. We have our systems set up to efficiently process our booklet projects and can guarantee the best printing services online.
Both quantity and page count factor into the cost to print booklets.
2. Binding type also affects the cost of printing booklets
Whether you choose saddle stitch booklet printing, perfect bound booklet printing, Spiral Binding booklet printing, or Wire Bound Book Printing—the type of binding will affect the booklet printing cost. Each kind of booklet binding has its own kind of consumable binding material, whether it’s a spool of wire, glue, plastic coils, or metal coils.
Binding type is important for more reasons that just cost. Different binding processes go through totally different processes, starting from file processing to printing, cutting, binding, finishing, and packaging.
Different processes mean differences in machine time, man-hours, setup time, and finishing time.
For example, if one type of binding takes 4 times longer to bind than other types of books, it costs much more for labor! A longer bind time might suggest that we need more machinery in the print shop to handle the same number of books.
(If one binding process is four times faster than the other, then one machine can produce four times the number of books in any 24 hour period. Or, you would need four times the number of machines and operators to produce the same number of books in the 24 hour period.)
These factors are figured into the booklet printing cost of various binding types.
3. Color vs. black/white printing affects the cost of printing booklets
Makes sense, right? Printing a booklet in four colors is more expensive than printing it in black and white.
At Printivity, we offer the standard printing options of “color” and “black and white” for booklet printing. However, we offer a third option as well: customers can print “color covers” on top of “black and white guts”. This allows them to save money on the guts by printing it black and white, while still being able to have the cover of the books printed in a color design.
4. Production & shipping turnaround affects the cost of printing booklets
Printing services offer a variety of turnaround options depending on the quality of your print job. As you might expect, print jobs that need to be printed, bound, and shipped very quickly will be more expensive than jobs without a rush order.
Jobs that must be expedited through the system will be fast-tracked through the customer service departments, printing, and bindery departments. That type of fast-track service will add additional cost to the order.
5. Paper Type
Out of the many types of factors, paper type usually doesn’t change the cost to print booklets as dramatically as the other options. The other factors tend to change the nature of print jobs more dramatically (e.g. printing 100 books is very different in cost to printing 500 books, or doing something perfect bound versus spiral bound). On the other hand, changing the paper type doesn’t dramatically alter the process. It merely adjusts the price up or down.
Are you ready to place your order?
Now that you know which aspects of your booklet order will save you money, it’s time to place your order! Printivity offers an instant price quote tool, where the prices will automatically update when you change any specifications, for every product, including various book designs. Once your products are in the cart, enter the shipping zip code and choose your desired delivery date to see the shipping cost.
If you need free expert advice from our customer service representatives, please email us or contact us at 1-877-649-5463!
