Rogue Publishing will meet or beat these prices, and our charges for color printing are substantially less.
Short-run printers print from 25 to 1000 copies. The price depends on the document size, binding, number of colors, and scales with the number of copies. For example, the following are typical prices for printing a 200 page b/w workbook with 8.5"×11" paper and perfect binding (shipping extra):
25 copies: 16.00 ea (CAD)
100 copies: 13.00 ea
500 copies: 11.00 ea
1000 copies: 10.00 ea
Short-run printing is often done with high-quality laser or inkjet printers. Printing in color costs 50 % to 200 % more.
Long-run printers print thousands of copies. Most require a minimum order of 1000 copies. The factors affecting the price are the same as for short-run printing. On the same 200 page workbook, the following are typical prices:
1000 copies: 9.00 ea (CAD)
2000 copies: 7.75 ea
5000 copies: 5.75 ea
At the extreme of hundreds of thousands of copies (newspapers, catalogues, etc.) is the concept of 'value-added paper'. Value-added paper refers to the ideal that the cost of the printed product is little more than the cost of the paper itself. You can purchase a box of paper (5000 sheets) for around 30 $. Based on the concept of value-added paper, a 500 page book with 8.5"×11" pages, would cost around 3 $ per book to print. A 500 page novel, with with 5"×8" pages, would cost 1.50 $ per book to print. The printer makes money because they purchase the paper at wholesale rates, not retail rates.
To print rapidly at this scale, these printers use offset printing, which is a lithography process. A metal plate is prepared for each page, and the image from the plate transferred to the paper via a rubber pad. Offset printing commonly uses large rolls of paper. To print in color, a plates is required for each color: black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. The additional cost for color printing is initially high because of the cost of the additional plates, but decreases with volume — the concept of value-added paper.
Print-on-demand printers print one or a few copies at a time. They have a special printer that prints, binds (commonly perfect-binding), and trims without the need for manual intervention.
There is little discount with volume.
1 copy: 14.00 ea (CAD)
100 copies: 11.50 ea
1000 copies: 10.00 ea
Binding
Perfect binding is the typical softcover binding found on many books.
Hardcover binding is more durable than perfect binding. Commonly used for theses, textbooks, and coffee-table books.
Coil binding allows for lay-flat opening of books. Convenient for cookbooks and manuals.
Saddle stitch allows for lay-flat opening of books, but is limited to books less than 40 pages.
Other forms of binding are available. Please contact us for details.