Think of all the tints, bay-bee!

May 1, 2007 5:48 AM

Planning a comic book : question about cost of one-color vs. two-color vs. four-color offset vs. digital.

I am starting a new comic book (I'm the sole creator) and before I begin I'm wondering about the cost of different print outputs. I've already finished the first part of one separate story (story a) that I'm doing in full-color, all vector art in Illustrator.

Because I'm doing the next story (story b) as vector art as well, I was wondering if it would be more cost effective for a printer if I set it up as one-color or two-color. Most comic printing is one-color (black-on-white) but I've occassionally seen a creator do two-color work (Heavy Liquid from Paul Pope comes to mind) and I think it works really well. I am in complete control of the work so I can use which ever color technique I want, but I'd like to see it printed and I think I'd have a better shot as an unknown creator if my work was relatively cost efficient to produce for the publisher.

So, even if you don't know the exact costs, could you (my hypothetical MeFi designer/reader) estimate the difference between one-color print versus two-color versus four-color versus digital? Say, for instance we call one-color printing a cost of 1000 wozzits, then two-color is 1500 wozzits with four-color being 4000 wozzits and digital being 2000 wozzits..?

Thanks!

posted by Slothrop to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

It's going to depend on your final page count and how many copies you want printed. For offset printing, one-color is less expensive than two-color, which is less expensive than four-color, and due to the nature of the process the per-item price decreases as the final quantity increases. Digital printing is a set price per item -- there is no quantity discount -- so this method can get quite expensive, and is therefore best suited for short runs or quick turnaround.
posted by Dean King at 8:17 AM on May 1, 2007

Response by poster: Dean,

Thanks! I am wanting to do something like an OEL manga (I'm hoping that the project gets the attention of a place like Oni Press). So, the page count would be 140 pages and I presume copies would be something like... 5000? 7500? I'm not sure what sort of circulation the medium size presses have in comics anymore... That seems like it would be a whole lot for most any printer (although I am sure Oni has one printer they use for all their projects). Can you give me a guess of order of magnitude given my new numbers - i.e. two-color is 1.3 times the cost of one-color, while four-color is 2.5 times the cost of two-color or something..?
posted by Slothrop at 9:23 AM on May 1, 2007

Your costs are going to vary depending on whom you choose to do the printing work. Most print shops will be happy to provide a free price quote based on your specs. Look up a few in your area, and tell them something like “I want a quote on printing a book with 140 pages plus cover, perfect binding, 70# text stock, 4-color 10pt C1S cover stock at 5000* units. Can you tell me what the price differences would be for text in 1-color, 2-color, and 4-color?”

* If you have a target unit cost in mind, you could also mention that: “How large a run would it take to get the unit cost to around $4?”
posted by ijoshua at 9:36 AM on May 1, 2007

One spec I forgot to mention: you’ll also need to tell them your page size. See this page for reference on submitting an RFQ.
posted by ijoshua at 9:41 AM on May 1, 2007

If I were you, I'd call a printer or two and price it out. There are so many variables that its difficult to figure out. It isn't just the colors but also the paper you use and the printer you choose. (2 color jobs can be run at more down and dirty places, but a large printer with new 4 color presses might be able to fit more pages per form and therefore less press runs / make readies etc. A lot of the cost in printing is the actual setting up of the press). You definitely want to throw out digital. Its going to be more expensive than offset at that page count / quantity.

My gut would say that you will want to go with a 1 color inside (and possibly a four color outside). With the quanity and page count you're going for I think you'll want to find a printer that specializes in Book Printing. They tend to have very large (but old) 1 color presses and therefore can give you a good price.

On PREVIEW: What iJoshua said.
posted by Wink Ricketts at 9:46 AM on May 1, 2007

Most print shops will be happy to provide a free price quote based on your specs.

Bidding on projects is pretty common in the printing biz. Don't be afraid to shop around. All the specualtion in the word won't help when the press starts rolling.

That said - given the quantities you're talking about you're likely going to want to avoid digital printing as the cost does not usually vary depending on quantity. Here in my print shop, digital prints cost $1 per print, period, no matter what size the paper is, how many colors, or how many total sheets you run. On the other hand, if you were to run the job on one of the big preses in the back room, the more sheets you feed through the press the cheaper the per-sheet price is. As a matter of fact, the second ink is practically free (cost of materials - ink and plates - only) on some of our two-color jobs, beacuse the main cost of a job is the paper and the set-up time.

I'd say that your most cost-effective course of action would be to set the art up as two-color and run it on a preoper press. That said, I Am A Printer, but I Am Not Your Printer. Your local printers will have different eqipment and different costs. Call around first.
posted by lekvar at 1:06 PM on May 1, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks everybody! I don't think I was quite exlicit enough : if this works I won't be in charge of the printer. I hope this is picked up by a bona fide comic book publisher. They'll certainly have their own printer in Canada do the work. I was asking the question because I was wanting to anticipate my pitch. In other words, I thought it would be helpful to have some of the snazzy effects I could achieve with two-colors versus the standard-manga/indie-comic-one-color (the razzle-dazzle) but still be a lot more practical than trying to pitch a four-color book (the practical). In other words I could have something that looks cool but isn't a huge financial risk for a medium-size publisher (everybody but Marvel, DC and Image).

I think given the advice I've gotten here and my general bullheadedness, I'm gonna try this as two-color. I think if it really came down to it, I could possibly flip the vector work around to one-color without a huge headache.

Thanks again - everyone's answer was helpful, so I think it would be silly to just mark everyone as 'best answer.'
posted by Slothrop at 2:45 PM on May 1, 2007