Paper and price comparison
Paper, it might not seem that important but when it comes to printing 5,000 or 10,000 32pp or 64pp + 4pp cover A4 brochures there are some things really worth considering.
Over the last couple of months I made it a point to check what responses we were receiving on questions such as Stock, Stock Weight and Must be FSC on our online estimate request form and I must admit the results have been interesting.
Many people are leaving it to the estimators to chose the stock weight for them, which when you are getting estimates for comparison PrintHouse Corporation will go with a good inside text weight of 130gsm for quality and to reduce show through especially when the brochure is image heavy. Keep in mind on a quantity, of say, 10,000 A4 brochures this will definitely be more expensive than the printer that goes for any end of the line stock with an inside text with a weight of 100gsm just to keep the price down! So it’s a great idea to select the same weight stock for each estimate you will be receiving to get a like for like comparison.
The reason I was looking at the answers to questions for the Must be FSC stock is to see if it is still a misconception that people think that these stocks are more expensive, and as the response was more often than not ‘no’ I imagine that this is the reason why. For the record, using a FSC stock when printing with PrintHouse Corporation does not make any difference to your overall cost!
This is for the reason that a majority of the papers we use are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes), and as we are a FSC/PEFC certified printer it is also possible to use either logo at no additional cost. The positive PR gained from being able to print the FSC/PEFC logo on work produced through us is significant and something definitely worth considering.
Another thing about paper is that there are so many different brands which will and do vary in quality, you don’t get the same price for when comparing car makes and quality which is the same when it comes to paper so keep this in mind when going through your estimate…has the brand name been listed? Here at PrintHouse we have nothing to hide and always list the name of stock we use so you can check the quality of stock your brochure gets printed on.
Before printing a book or brochure I encourage paper samples or even getting dummies made up in the stocks outlined for quality and weight comparison. Once the dummy is in your hand you get a really good idea of how your book/brochure will look and feel and therefore what your customer will receive. Does the no-named lighter weight version look too tacky and hence reflecting poorly on your business? Or is the dummy version with the paper brand listed, in slightly heavier stock and definitely a higher quality more professional and attractive for what you are after.
Also keep in mind is if the paper brand is not listed and then you come to reprint your item like for like how will you know what the stock was for an exact match?
So although it’s easy to say ‘choose for me’ and you might think its only paper, as you can see there really are quite a lot of factors to consider. So love your paper find out where it is being sourced from (FSC/PEFC,) find out the name of stock, the weights, what it will look like once it is made up if you are looking at printing a book or brochure and then extremely important is how will it look once printed.
Keep the paper information uniform within each estimate request for an accurate comparison and if you require more information on any of the points above I will be more than happy to hear from you, my details can be found here: www.printhouse.co.uk/company.
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Amber Bantatua is a Senior Sales Executive at London based printer PrintHouse Corporation. If there is a query in regards to a print estimate or receiving a quote contact us here.
