This little snippet is one of those things that all printers know about and some designers think about but we don’t always remember to mention to you.
Did you know that when your business cards or letterheads or flyers are printed that the size of the finished article can greatly affect the cost of your job? That sounds like common sense right – if you order something bigger it will cost more than something half the size? Yes, it will, but what I am really talking about here is “yield” and that means how many of a given size you can get out of the flat sheet of paper or board.
Here’s the maths part:
SRA3 print sheet size is 450mm x 320mm. A common letterhead size is A4 which measures 297mm x 210mm. So, with bleed and tick marks (so we can trim it out properly) you can get 2 out of a print sheet. This means if you’d ordered 250 we only need to print 125 sheets.
Quick reference for yield:
A4 – 2 out
A5 – 4 out
A6 – 8 out
DL – 6 out
Business card – usually 16 out (depends on size and finishing).
So if you are cute, you can save some costs by planning your print sheet. Our photo example is a letterhead with compliment slips with the ‘spare’ paper used to print A5 sheets that we glue into a handy note-pad. (So this could also be twice as many A6 pads – still with me?) OR a little flyer, a data-capture or other business form up to A5 size. OR you might use one DL space for your comp slip and make the other two spots into DL vouchers that you post out with your invoices.
If it is all too confusing, then just give me a call. It can actually save you money and generate new ways to promote your business if you THINK BEFORE YOU PRINT.
And don’t let anyone tell you that size doesn’t matter – when it comes to printing, it does!
Claire McFadden – 0116 255 4336
P.S. We can actually print two 6′ x 2′ banners side by side and the square meterage we use of material is the same so you could actually do 2 for the price of 1 – it’s always worth a phone call to see if we can help you get more value for money.