Why do 10 times the quantity of business cards cost less than three times as much?

The answer is in the process used to print your cards. We use lithographic (litho) printing which uses aluminium plates to transfer ink, via a series of rollers, to the sheets of paper or card.

These plates are expensive to produce, but once made, can produce one or one million prints — the cost of the ink and paper is relatively very small. The machines used to print are so fast that once they have started up, hundreds of cards have run through in the time it takes to stop again (this is why we don’t offer less than 250 on a run).

Since the plates are expensive, can they be kept and used for future reprints?

Unfortunately not. At one time, plates were made using a process similar to developing photographs. They were exposed to light, developed, and 'fixed' which meant they could be kept indefinitely with careful storage. This meant that future reprints were possible at a significant cost saving.

Nowadays plates are manufactured using a computer to plate system, which is much faster and more environmentally friendly. Lasers 'etch' the image into the plates, a lot like a laser printer in your home or office.

The downside of the process is that because the plates are light-sensitive, they last only a day or two before deteriorating so that they cannot be used any more. Future reprints therefore need to have new plates manufactured, which means there is no cost saving.

However, the new method is so quick and efficient that in real terms, the prices for the vast majority of printed work have fallen significantly.

Forward planning to save money

If you can predict with some accuracy what your likely use of business cards, leaflets, letterheads and so forth is likely to be, it makes sense to order as large a volume as possible (providing of course you have the storage space!)

Beware of some of the pitfalls associated with ordering and storing large volumes of print, however. It is clearly a false economy to order a large quantity of letterheads, only to end up disposing of half of them because you have moved offices.