A glance at the processes behind letterpress - Quoting for letterpress - Episode 3

QUOTING at Fluid Ink is still done on an individual basis. As each job is completely different, The old pen, paper and calculator is the method I use. Although I am getting a lot faster now that I have a good idea of supplies and costs and can use past quotes as a start its not quite as laborious as it was when I first began!

I have found that many times, clients do not know or have any idea of the costs involved in letterpress. Ball park figures are still difficult to offer especially considering the may variants of a quote. And thats fine! Letterpress is something you fall in love with and I am always happy to work with clients and find solutions so that they can have their letterpress dreams within their budget!

Hopefully the following  bits of information will go some way to explain the process of what needs to be considered when quoting for letterpress.

So, in order to start a quote, I require the following information:

1. Quantity
2. Paper size
3. Paper stock
4. Number of colours
5. Envelope requirement
6. Location for postage
7. Deadline
8. Artwork - supplied or commissioned?

Quantity:

On average, around 70% of what we charge to create a letterpress piece is made up of the cost of the polymer plate and the ‘making ready’ setting up the press so that it imprints correctly and in the correct place (registration) the time it takes to hand feed each piece in and the cost of the paper, mixing ink, cutting paper etc, makes up the rest, so as you can imaging, the more prints that are made, the cheaper the cost per print will be.

In a  comparison of 2 jobs A & B where:

Job A= 3 colours, 35 prints

job B = 1 colour, 100 prints.

job B may work out to be cheaper over all even though you are getting more prints. The cost of the 3 individual plates (one per colour) and the time it takes to set up each plate into the chase and have it registered correctly far outweighs the cost of the paper and the time it takes to actually hand feed 100 pieces into the press.

Paper size.

Obviously the larger the paper, the more expensive the product right?... Most often yes but if you can be economical with paper sizes so that perhaps making the final paper size 1cm smaller allows 14 cuts per sheet where 1cm bigger may only allow 12 cuts per parent sheet, then savings may be made here.

Number of colours:

Each colour requires a separate plate and as discussed plates are one of the biggest expenses for a job.

Envelopes.

You can choose from standard plain white budget envelopes, Cotton envelopes that match the paper, coloured envelopes that match text and then there is the endless selection of ‘pocket’ card envelopes that can hold all of your stationery together!

Deadline.

Deadlines need to be realistic. the design proof , correct process can take up to 10 working days, and then there is the print making process (another week) paper cutting, ink mixing printing and posting. Ideally, we would require a moth from start to finish for all bespoke invitation requests - that's not to say we can't rush a job and work under pressure!! Our presses work well under pressure! (get it?...;-)

Artwork.

If artwork is supplied, then artwork will need to be sighted before I can quote, just to ensure it is ‘doable’ see previous blog post on ‘Designing for letterpress’ found HERE. 

Designing for letterpress

Thinks to keep in mind when designing for letterpress
Taken from Boxcar Press

WIDTH OF LINES: Lines should be .25 point (or .003”) or thicker please! No hairlines!

FONTS: Letterpress excels at printing type and handles most fonts very well. We recommend using type no smaller than 6 point.

NUMBER OF INKS: letterpress printing traditionally uses 1 or 2 spot colors; 3 or 4 spot colors make for an extravagant and lavish production.

SCREENS: Letterpress excels at printing colors at 100%. If you’d like to incorporate a lighter color, we recommend using a second lighter ink color instead of a screen. Screens are more suited for offset printing, not letterpress.

REVERSE TYPE: Depending on the size of the reverse type, your reverses can clog up on the press. Because of this, we recommend a type size of 12 point or larger for reverse type, though this does vary depending on the typeface that you use. You may have to add a small stroke to the reverse type to compensate for letterpress ink gain. Also, if we're printing text and the solid area around your reverse type in the same color, we may need to print the solid area in a separate print run. Extra press runs do increase the cost of printing.

LIGHT INK ON DARK PAPER: With letterpress, we tend to print dark ink on light paper, because that is letterpress printing’s strength! Light ink on dark paper is really best suited for engraving. When a client wants to incorporate a darker color, we might suggest printing an offset flood on the back side of a light colored paper, or duplexing a dark colored paper to a light colored paper. That said, if you really want light ink on dark paper, just be prepared for paper show through. With letterpress, we use translucent inks. Printing light ink on dark paper will be like using a thin coat of white paint on a brown wall: you’ll see the brown color through the paint. If using a pure white ink or metallic ink, we can run a piece through the press twice, at an additional cost, to create a more dense color.

LARGE SOLIDS (large solids are areas larger than 0.7cm thick):Letterpress printed solids look different from offset printed solids. The paper tends to show through large solids, creating a slightly textured look that’s almost suede-like (we think this is a beautiful look by the way!). If you have a large solid and thin text in the same color, we’ll need to print the solid in a separate press run, to give the text a good deep impression and proper inking. Extra press runs do increase the cost of printing. Large solid areas can cause buckling of the paper, especially if using a thinner machine-made paper stock. You’ll also notice the depth of impression may appear less noticeable on really large letterpress solids—it doesn't have the contrast that line-art or type would have.