How To Reduce Printing Costs by up to 45%: Guide for SMEs

Your printing quote is influenced by a number of factors that you can take control of.

These are often small changes you can make that will help you reduce your printing costs but still maintain the level of quality that you are after.

Simple adjustments to the paper stock, ink colors, or even the size of your print run can have a substantial impact on the final price.

It’s always worth discussing these options with your printing partner to find the best balance for your budget and goals.

8 Tips on How to Reduce Your Printing Quote

Here are our 8 tips to reduce your printing costs:

1. Choose a Gang-Run Printer

Gang-run printing is an economical method for large printing jobs that allows printers to take on multiple jobs from different clients.

Gang-run printing involves having several orders sharing the same paper type printed on the same, long sheet of paper.

Since these all share the same set up costs, the cost for each client can be radically reduced.

This printing method is best for bulk orders of standard-sized print products, such as business cards, postcards, flyers or brochures.

A printing company that uses gang-run printing, like ChilliPrinting, will be able to offer lower printing costs than with traditional printing methods.

2. Order in Bulk

Particularly for offset printing, which can have higher setup costs, the cost per unit drops dramatically when you order in bulk. 

For instance, an order of 500 standard flyers could cost you $150, but the price per unit is $0.30, whereas an order of 5,000 flyers could cost $0.06 each for a total of $300.

Ordering in bulk is best for printing products that will be used over a long period, where the information will remain the same.

This strategy is especially beneficial for items with a high initial setup cost, such as multi-page brochures or booklets.

To reduce overall spending, consider placing bulk orders every quarter or half-year.

3. Pick the Right Paper Stock

Paper stock is an impact factor that goes into your overall quote and it all depends on the type of product that you need. Paper stock is typical based on the type of coating (gloss, matte or uncoated) and the paper weight or thickness you need.

Here’s a handy matrix to see how changing the stock affects the price:

Paper Weight	Coated (Gloss / Matte)	Uncoated
70 lb Text	Economical & Light Simple flyers	Crisp & Professional Letterhead
80 lb Text	Standard & Versatile Brochures	Rich Texture, Writable Catalogs
100 lb Text	Durable & Substantial Magazine pages	Premium & Tactile Art books
12 pt Card	Standard Cardstock Postcards	Sturdy & Matte Appointment cards
14 pt Card	Thick & Substantial Business cards	Durable & Premium Invitations
16 pt Card	Very Durable, Premium Feel Presentation folders	Thick & Luxurious Wedding invitations
18 pt Card	Extra Thick & Rigid Luxury packaging	Ultra-Premium & Stiff Letterpress cards

• Weight: Heavier paper (whether text or card stock) requires more raw material, making it more expensive.
• Uncoated: Uncoated paper is often more expensive because it’s less common than standard coated paper. It is usually reserved for products that need to be written on.
• Text vs. Card: “Text” weight papers are thinner and more flexible (like magazine pages), while “Card” or “Cover” papers are thick and rigid stocks.

Read more about Understanding Paper Weight in our guide!

4. Time Your Printing Order

Planning and ordering your print products in advance is a significant factor in reducing your printing costs. It also ensures that you get your order on time and for when you need without having to rush it.

Printing costs can increase rapidly if you need it within a shorter timeframe. You should consider:

• Production Time: If you require a rushed job, your production time will be reduced but it will come at a cost. The size of the job, the quantity of units as well as the type of product, will also affect this inflated cost. For instance, a booklet with 80 pages needed urgently will be more expensive.
• Shipping Time: Shipping time needs to be factored into your quote. Faster shipping will mean needing to spend much more than is necessary.

If you’re running a business, one of the best ways to avoid later ordering is creating a simple marketing calendar. Mark down trade shows or other events to anticipate what printing needs you might have in the short to long term future.

This way you can order the brochures in time without the cost or stress of having to rush it.

5. Design and Proofread

The design that you send off for printing can affect your printing costs in small but often overlooked ways.

The most important factor is making your design respect the safety area, bleed, and trim format to ensure that the final result is not cut off awkwardly.

Design issues can also impact your costs after printing as well. Not thoroughly proofreading your designs and checking that everything is correct means having to order your prints again.

You should make sure that there are no typos or spelling errors before you send your designs.

6. Find the Best Coating

Coatings are applied to the paper after printing to give the final result a particular finish. Most coatings are usually either a glossy finish (shiny) or a matte finish (less glare), but there are others to consider depending on what you need.

Most expensive coatings tend to be:

• Uncoated: No coating is applied for the natural paper feel
• Spot UV coating: Glossy coating applied only to specific design areas for contrast and emphasis.
• Raised / 3D UV coating: Thick, textured UV layer that creates a tactile, embossed-like effect.
• Soft-touch (velvet / suede) coating: Matte coating with a smooth, velvety feel that adds a premium touch.
• Metallic coating: Coating with metallic pigments for a shiny, reflective finish.

These finishes are generally more rare but they can add extra costs to your order so you should really consider what you want before you order.

7. Order the Right Print Product

Getting the right print product is essential for saving on unnecessary costs.

As a business, you should weigh your marketing objectives with which print product will be most beneficial.

• Mass Distribution: For getting the word out as broadly as possible, flyers with simple coating are the best option. Since they are single page sheets of paper with small dimensions, these are cheaper to print in bulk.
• Postering: Posters can also be cheaper if printed in bulk since they don’t need the most expensive paper weight or quality. Especially for advertising events or concerts, bulk posters are the most cost-effective option.
• Trade Shows: For trade shows, brochures ensure good quality and presentation for your products or services. You’ll often want to balance out the quality with whether you want to reuse the brochures. Using more expensive paper is best for longer lasting products.

Professional & Long-Lasting: For professional booklets or catalogs, you will want a higher quality product that will endure the test of time.

Investing in the quality at this point is where you will make the real savings in your printing costs, because then you won’t need to print them again.

8. Consolidate Your Printing with One Company

To avoid fluctuating costs, building a relationship with a single printing company is an important way to reduce your printing costs.

This has a number of advantages:

• Ensure Brand Consistency: A single supplier will become familiar with your brand’s specific colors and quality requirements, leading to fewer errors and more consistent results.
• Save Administrative Time: Point out the hidden cost of constantly shopping around; sticking with a trusted partner saves hours of sourcing quotes and vetting new companies. This, in turn, can save up to 45% of overall costs.
• Possible Discounts: Sticking with one company can make you eligible for higher-tier volume discounts.

Reducing Printing Costs by Industry

Printing needs vary enormously from industry to industry. So there are different sector-specific ways for reducing costs.

Since there will always be print products that you will order more regularly, this is a sure-fire way to identify where you can cut costs.

Education

Educational institutions in the US, from elementary school to college, all manage a constant flow of printed documents.

The key to reducing printing costs for education is knowing where to invest in longer lasting course materials and where to save on temporary documents.

• Course Materials: Syllabi, handouts and internal worksheets tend to have a shorter lifespan and so being printed on lightweight paper (such as 70 lb text stock) is best for keeping costs down.
• Enrollment Materials: For prospectuses and recruitment brochures that need to impress and last, invest in a heavier, coated stock (like 100 lb text). This meant not having to reprint due to damage and presents a more professional image, saving money in the long run.
• Bulk Ordering: Instead of each department placing small, frequent orders, centralize printing requests. Combine orders for course packs and administrative forms at the beginning of each semester to take full advantage of offset printing’s lower volume costs.

Real Estate

Real estate still relies heavily on printing, especially for flyers, brochures for showcasing properties, and sell sheets.

The most important factor for real estate is with design. Making sure you have a consistent branding with templates allows you to cost on important costs:

• Template Everything: Design professional, reusable templates for property feature sheets and flyers. This drastically cuts down on recurring design costs and ensures brand consistency. You only need to swap out photos and property details for each new listing.
• Bulk Print Your Staples: Agents should order business cards, presentation folders, and generic “For Sale” or “Open House” signs in bulk. These items don’t change and are perfect for cost-effective gang-run printing.
• Balance Paper Quality: Use a premium, glossy cardstock (like 14 pt or 16 pt) for property brochures where photos need to look vibrant and luxurious. For mass-mail postcards like “Just Sold” announcements, a more standard, economical cardstock is perfectly sufficient.

Digital for Urgency: For a brand-new listing that needs flyers immediately, use a local digital printer for a small, initial batch.

Once you have more time, place a larger, more cost-effective offset order for the remainder.

Restaurants and Cafés

Hospitality usually necessitates materials that are durable as well as attractive to handle changing hands multiple times.

• Menus and wine lists need to be printed on thicker card stock to remain robust against being handled repeatedly, but specials that change more regularly can be printed on cheaper, thinner stock. 
• Invest in Durable Menus: For main menus, spending more upfront on a heavy, coated, or even laminated stock saves money. A durable menu can last for months or even a year, whereas a cheap paper menu may need reprinting every week due to spills and wear.
• Bulk Order Takeaway Items: Takeaway menus, loyalty cards, and promotional flyers are perfect for large offset print runs. The cost per unit will be extremely low, and these are items you’ll use consistently.
• Strategic Coating: Use a gloss coating on menus to make food photography pop and provide wipe-clean durability. For single-use paper placemats or takeaway flyers, an uncoated stock is the most economical choice.

Retail

Retail often requires fast-moving and promotional material with regular bulk printing to keep up with trends and seasonality.

This can be managed with creating marketing plans and ordering your print materials in time:

• Plan with a Marketing Calendar: Map out your entire year of sales events (Black Friday, Summer Sale, Christmas) in advance. This allows you to bundle printing needs (posters, flyers, coupons) into one large, early order, avoiding rush fees and securing bulk discounts.
• Create Modular Signage: Design in-store posters and displays with a consistent brand frame but a changeable central message. For example, print a large batch of high-quality branded posters with a blank central space. Then, print smaller, low-cost “20% OFF” or “NEW ARRIVALS” inserts to place in the middle as promotions change.
• Choose the Right Product for the Goal: For a massive door-crasher event, inexpensive, lightweight flyers are ideal for mass distribution. For a luxury brand lookbook or catalog, investing in a high-quality paper stock reinforces your brand’s value and is a worthwhile expense.

Should I Choose a Digital or Offset Printer?

Digital and offset printing are fundamentally different and knowing when to use which helps for thinking strategically about saving on printing costs.

While both can be cost-effective, they are only when used in particular ways.

Cost Curves Between Digital and Offset Printing

The differences between the costs with digital and offset printing are significant depending on the quantity of unit you want printed. 

In digital printing, the set up costs are generally lower than that of offset printing and so can be much cheaper when printing a smaller quantity. However, the costs tend to rise the number of units you need.

On the other hand, with offset printing, the start-up costs are much higher since the plates need to be prepared and the ink needs to be cleaned out from the previous job.

This means offset printing is much more expensive however the price rapidly reduces per unit when printing in bulk:

Which Is Best for Reducing Printing Costs?

When it comes to deciding on whether digital or offset printing is better for reducing printing costs, it’s important to consider in terms of the quantity that you need.

For much smaller quantities, you are probably better off with going for digital printing since it will cost you less to print out fewer copies at the beginning. 

However, if you are looking for larger amounts and want to print in bulk, offset printing will provide both a higher quality at a cheaper overall price.

Learn more about Offset vs Digital Printing!

Why Choose ChilliPrinting To Reduce Printing Costs?

ChilliPrinting is an online printing company, providing cost-effective offset printing services for small to medium-sized businesses, non-profits, and public sector institutions.

We offer:

• Print Product Variety: We offer a wide array of print options for all our products, including posters, brochures, flyers, business cards, stickers, and catalogs, with a variety of different paper stock and coating options so you can make the savings on the nuanced features of your order.
• Supporting SMEs: We have ample experience with working with small and medium sized businesses and are able to offer knowledgeable support in your printing endeavors so you end up with exactly what you need.
• Reliable Delivery Times: We ensure that your printed products arrive on time for when you’ve ordered them, making sure you have them ready for your event or trade show.
• Personal Support: We provide human-to-human support throughout the entire printing process with us, so you can always know the status of your products at any point, as well as provide guidance on choosing.

Find out how ChilliPrinting can get your next project printed to perfection and delivered on schedule.