Preparing a large-format poster
Resolution, viewing distance, size: the rules are not the ones you use for A4.
How many copies should you print?
The most frequent question we get. The answer lies in how the price of a print run is built.
Fixed cost changes everything
A print job has two parts: a fixed cost — file preparation, machine set-up, colour adjustment — and a variable cost that depends on sheets and ink.
The fixed cost is the same for 50 copies or 5,000. That is why the unit price collapses as quantity grows: across 50 flyers each carries a fiftieth of the set-up; across 1,000, only a thousandth.
A concrete example
| Quantity | Unit price | Total | Unit saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | €0.40 | €20 | — |
| 250 | €0.15 | €37.50 | −63 % |
| 1,000 | €0.09 | €90 | −78 % |
Going from 250 to 1,000 multiplies the quantity by four but the price by only 2.4.
So should you always take more?
No. Two questions to ask:
- Will the information expire? A date, a price, a phone number about to change: print tightly. An out-of-date invitation is worthless, even at three cents each.
- Will you really hand them out? A thousand flyers is hours of distribution. Plenty of shopkeepers find 700 of them in a box a year later.
The rule of thumb
For timeless content — business cards, a services sheet — think big, the extra cost is small. For a dated event, work out what you can realistically distribute and add 10 %.