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  • PC600 printing costs

    Posted by WP_Graphics on January 4, 2003 at 11:49 am

    Hi All,

    I’ve just been working out the total printing costs using a PC600 so I thought that I’d better share this with you.

    The PC600 prints every band about 12mm in width and when using this to the maximum size of vinyl (570mm). The cartridges I use from Thermal Products come in 90m lengths. Therefore this will give you approximately 157.8947368 bands on maximum length 😎 . Multiply this number by 12mm (band width) giving a total length coverage of 1.894736842 metres per cartridge.

    Rounding that figure to 1.89 metres per cartridge. This is a crap number so to find the cost per metre divide £5.50 by 1.89 to give the cost per metre – £2.91/metre

    Therefor the cost for a CMYK process is 4 x £2.91 = £11.64
    Cost of 3 colour process ie CMY is 3 x £2.91 = £8.73

    This is based on the area 570mm x 1000mm

    If Roland’s genuine cartridges were used at £10.95 each the cost for the above would be doubled.

    So the question I ask is, what does everyone charge for a print say 500mm x 500mm.

    Gavin

    Martin Pearson replied 20 years, 2 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Robert Lambie Robert Lambie

    Member
    January 4, 2003 at 12:34 pm

    as part of a digital image… i would charge around £15 per A4 used to make the image up.
    as a one off A4 print i would charge £20-£25

  • Phill Fenton

    Member
    January 4, 2003 at 3:26 pm

    Well done for working that out Gavin 😀

    I charge between £12 and £15 per 250mm sq for a full colour print which is between 3 and four times cartridge cost based on using Roland cartidges and not refills.

    How much are you charging by the way?

  • WP_Graphics

    Member
    January 4, 2003 at 5:27 pm

    Cheers,

    Phil pointed out to me that I could have under – estimated the price a little as he has measured the bands print at about 9mm rather than 12mm like I thougt (I just measured the band strip and then deducted 1 mm off for this but it appears to be more) so I’ll try and re-adjust this.. Thank god I’ve a maths degree 😉

    TBH, I’m not sure what I’m charging I tend to not to get a lot of work for this machine but I’d love to get it going more!! It is a fantastic machine, ahem, when it’s working 😉 I think that your prices are both very fair. I think when the artwork is supplied and all you have to do is put a cut line round it then £15-£20/ square foot is perfect.

    What do you guys do to market this machine more and what is it generally used for??

    Gavin

  • Martin Pearson

    Member
    January 4, 2003 at 6:08 pm

    Gavin you need to work out what other sign companys in your area are charging and then set your prices accordingly, although asking what others charge will give you a ballpark figure if you charge this amount and it is dearer than other local companys then you wont get any work for it.
    You could also work out a trade price for other local sign companys that dont have their own printer and approach these companys to see if they would be interested in you supplying them.