How to Lower Printing Costs: Part #2 - “Gang Printing” - Combining Print Runs for Multiple Items
For some of our more complex campaigns that have multiple printed components, multiple waves of mail, or even multiple package designs, we find you can save a large amount of money by printing multiple items in a single press run. Here is how it works.
In commercial printing, printing presses print onto “press sheets” – very large sheets of paper such as 22” x 28”, 25” x 38”, or 28” x 40”. Lets say you are printing an 8.5” x 11” brochure – the printer will print 4, 6, 8 or even 9 brochures on a single press sheet. What we always strive to do if we have multiple components printing on the same stock is to have the printer put all the components a single press sheet. Whether you are printing multiple versions of the same sized piece or even completely different sized pieces, this technique can save you a lot of money in printing press set-up charges, press time, and paper. On press, the sheets can look something like this:
In terms of the planning, here is what you need to do: