How I can save money on print? - Gang Runs

The printing industry is a wacky and wonderful world filled with paper, ink, films, plates, cutting, folding, varnishes, and hundreds of other components. Just like any industry, we have our own unique knowledge-base, lingo and tools. Whether we are printing a simple one-sided flyer for your, or a complicated multi-fold, stapled (we’d say “stitched”) varnished piece, there are quite a few variables involved.

Quality with cost savings

When you’re looking for ways to save without compromising quality, we always have ideas. It’s such a frequent line of conversation with our clients, in fact, that we decided to write a multi-part blog series about it. You can always rely on us to help you make cost-savings decisions with each project you bring our way, but we also hope you find these tips and tricks helpful in the meantime.

This week: the gang run

Gang run, you say? Aside from sounding like a 5K for gang members, it is a cost-effective way to print multiple versions of a piece at one time. A little background information will help, so consider this scenario: You have four versions of 8.5x11 flyers and need 5,000 of each, but the cost to print them individually is more than you budgeted. A gang run is in order.

There are three requirements:

1. Each piece or version needs to be the same size.
2. The same quantity of each piece or version is needed.
3. Art for each piece or version needs to be delivered at the same time.

The benefit of the gang run is that you can achieve the per-piece discount that comes with printing a large quantity at once, while still getting the various versions you need. Additionally, we only need one plate because all the versions will go on one plate (rather than making a different plate for each version).

Don’t worry, you don’t have to specifically request a gang run on your next print job or try to figure out how many of your brochures will fit on a press-size sheet -- we will already be looking for the most efficient and cost-effective way to print for you as we do everyday!