Quire Press • template proof • not for press

Commercial print and signage Sault Ste. Marie

Ask any printer which process. Then ask them where it crosses over.

Digital is cheap to set up and dear per piece. Offset is the opposite. There is a quantity where they swap places, it is different for every job, and it is the single number that decides what your print costs. So here it is, before you send us anything.

A press sheet on a light table with registration marks and a colour bar at the edge, a loupe resting on it
Press sheet • colour bar and registrationQuire Press

The advisor

Where your job crosses over

Move the quantity. Both routes are priced side by side and the cheaper one is marked. It is an estimate on standard stock, and the crossover moves with the specification, which is exactly why nobody can answer this on the phone in ten seconds.

What is it
Colours
Quantity
500
Digital

Toner, no plates

per piece

Offset

Plates and ink

per piece

How we quote

Four things that change the number more than quantity

Bleed, or the lack of it

Artwork that runs to the edge has to be printed larger and trimmed. If your file has no bleed we have to either add it badly or shrink your design, and both look like somebody made a mistake, because somebody did.

Ganging

Small jobs printed together on one sheet cost a fraction of the same jobs run separately. If you know you will want more in a month, tell us now and we will run it all at once.

Stock, not finish

People agonise over gloss against matte and then pick a paper weight at random. The weight is what somebody feels when they take the card, and it costs almost nothing to go up one.

Your deadline

A week is normal and costs the quoted price. Two days is possible and costs more, not because we are opportunists but because something else on the press has to move.

Colour bar and registration marks on the edge of a press sheet under raking light
Colour bar • density check
Ink rollers and duct on an offset press with a tacky ink film
Offset • rollers and duct
Guillotine blade and a lift of trimmed stock with crisp paper edges
Trim • guillotine and stock
Print shop floor with a press and stacked pallets of paper under high windows
The floor • Quire Press

Send artwork

PDF, with bleed, and we will check it free

Send the file before you commit to anything. We will open it, tell you what is wrong with it, and tell you honestly whether the job wants us at all: a run of fifty is often better done on a good office printer, and we would rather say that than take fifty dollars and your afternoon.

Find the crossover 705 555 0113
Artwork checkFree, before you order
Standard turnaround5 working days
Rush48 hours, plus 40%
ProofPDF free, hard copy $25
MinimumNone on digital

Quire Press

Commercial print and signage • Sault Ste. Marie