Posts: 1869
   
Location: India | I am planning to gather some costs about offset printing in Bangalore
Here is my brief estimate
WSC IB (50 pages * 200 copies) = 10000 pages
WPC IB (70 pages * 200 copies) = 14000 pages
WSC Rounds (Assuming 10 rounds, on an average 8 pages, 180 copies) = 14400 pages
WPC Rounds (Assuming 12 rounds, on an average 8 pages, 180 copies) = 17280 pages
This excludes the team round, because most likely they will need different printing.
So approximately 28K A3 printing. Am I way off in my estimate? |
Posts: 1869
Location: India | I investigated about offset printing. Here is what I found.
1. The main benefit of Offset printing is that the image will still be visible even after using eraser multiple times. It seems digital printing will not be visible well after erasing 2-3 times. (We anyway should not be making puzzles in which eraser will be needed so frequently, but players make mistakes and that can't be avoided / planned for)
2. The other benefit of Offset printing is that we can print on any kind of paper. Not sure how it will help us right now.
3. Offset printing will cost us approximately 25% more than digital printing.
Details : To print 1 A3 paper with back to back printing (i.e. 4 pages of A4)
It will cost us Rs4 in digital printing. This is flat cost, does not matter how many copies we print.
In case of Offset printing, there is setup cost (mainly for setting up the plate), which is approximately Rs550. After the setup cost, it takes Rs2 to print the above A3.
So to print 200 copies of one A3, total cost = Rs550 + 200 * 2 = Rs 950 (digital is 200*4=800, so 20% more cost in offset)
To print 150 copies, total cost = Rs550 + 150 * 2 = Rs 850 (digital is 150*4=600, so 40% more cost in offset)
All the cost mentioned here : assuming Black and White, centered pinned A3 pages. Paper quality 90 GSM.
Color printing is significantly more. Even double-color printing (like Sudoku Mix book) will be much more.
4. In offset printing, there is a lead time of approximately 2 to 3 weeks. Given that we plan to make everything ready 3-6 months in advance, this should not be a bottleneck.
5. Trial prints : In digital, we can just print one copy and see how it looks. That will be difficult in offset, because they need to setup the plate. Mistakes, if any, on the plate can be fixed. But you can't completely cancel the job after the trial print.
6. Customized prints are not possible in offset printing (e.g. printing name tags etc)
Given all this, I think it boils down to low-cost slightly-low quality digital printing vs high-cost slightly-better quality offset printing.
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