How To Get An Accurate Print Estimate

Recently, I had a customer request a ball park, I won’t hold you to it, estimate.  It was quite complicated and required die cutting.  To get an accurate estimate on die cutting, we must have the image because we have to have a die made.  For those of you who are not familiar with die cutting, it is where an image or shape is cut into the paper.  For instance, if you wanted a heart cut out in the middle of your brochure, that would be a die cut.  A die must be made in the shape of the image or shape and then used to cut the image into the paper.  I could not get an accurate estimate on the die or the die cutting without the image so I sent them a guesstimate.

To get a good estimate, the printer must have all of the facts about the job, such as size, how many colors of ink, does it print on both sides and does it fold etc.  If it is a printed piece that is going to mail, we like to have the mailing list so that we can clean it up and get an accurate count on the quantity to be mailed. If you don’t know enough about printing to know what to give the printer, call you account representative, me, and I will walk you through it and ask the questions that need be answered to get an accurate estimate. Call me at 865 584-2265 or email me at phyllis@burnsmp.com

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