Parts on the Sheets and Offset routes are priced by laying them out on the stock's sheet and pricing the paper, the press and the cutting that layout needs. The server works the layout out; the quote shows the result a moment after you type (about two seconds for the line you are editing, then the other groups one by one).
Groups#
Parts that share a route and a stock form a group and are produced together: postcards of three sizes on one stock share sheets. The Production tab has one card per group, titled "Sheets · 14pt C2S Gloss Cover 13 × 19 in" or "Offset · …", next to the roll cards.
Turn Gang parts on shared sheets off on a group to lay each part out on its own sheets (offset: each part on its own form). Ganging is usually cheaper, because several parts share the setup and the paper.
A group is priced once for its current parts and settings. Opening the estimate again, a second tab or a customer link reuses that result; editing a quantity, a size, the inks or a setting prices it again. Changing a price, a click cost or a rate re-prices every estimate that uses it at once, without laying anything out again.
Sheets#
Layout. Rectangles are laid out N-up (in rows and columns cut on a guillotine). Rounded rectangles are laid out as rectangles, because they are cut straight and then corner-rounded: add a Round corners finishing to price the rounding. Ovals and other shapes are nested true shape and cut on a cutter. The press's non-printable edges are kept clear (0.25 in all round without a press). The layout uses as few sheets as it can; each distinct arrangement of parts on a sheet is a form, printed as many times as it needs.
Boxes are laid out true shape by their flat blank, turned only as the stock's grain allows, and cut on the cutting table with every crease and inner cut timed. See Cartons and boxes.
A very large run of shaped pieces (more than 2,000 pieces) is laid out part by part: each part gets its own sheets, filled with as many copies as one sheet holds. The card says "Too many shaped pieces to gang".
Sheets. For each form, printed sheets = good sheets × (1 + spoilage) + setup sheets. Spoilage is 2 % unless the card says otherwise; setup sheets are 0.
Money:
- Paper: printed sheets × the stock's price per sheet (or per 1,000 sheets, or by area);
- Press: setup per form, run time and clicks: every printed side at the colour click, and black-only forms at the mono click. A form is two-sided when any part on it has a back;
- Flatbed printer (when the group prints on one instead of a press): the printed area of the parts, both sides counted, on the printer's own rates;
- Cutting: a guillotine's lifts and cuts for press-printed paper whose parts are all rectangles, else the cutting table's time. Rigid boards and cut-through stock always go to the cutting table.
Worked example. Three postcards, all 4/4, on a 13 × 19 in stock at $0.10 / $0.20 a sheet: 4 × 6 in × 500, 5 × 7 in × 250 and 6 × 9 in × 1,000. With no spoilage and 0.125 in bleed they fit on 3 forms (printed 250, 100 and 10 times): 360 sheets, 720 sides. With a toner press at 3,000 sheets an hour, 5 minutes setup a form, $0.045 a colour click and $45 / $90 an hour, and a guillotine at $40 / $75 an hour with a $15 minimum:
| Cost | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Paper, 360 sheets | 36.00 | 72.00 |
| Press, 720 sides (clicks $32.40) | 54.45 | 76.50 |
| Guillotine, 3 lifts, 44 cuts | 6.29 | 15.00 |
| Group | 96.74 | 163.50 |
The group's price is shared out by each line's area × quantity: 26.25, 19.14 and 118.11.
Offset#
Offset parts are ganged onto one or more forms, each printed from its own plates for a number of runs. A box on Offset isn't ganged: it is planned on its own, with its ups on the press sheet, die-cutting, folding and gluing, and its die (see Cartons and boxes). A plan is kept for each number of forms up to Max forms (3 unless changed): the cheapest one whose quantities stay within Overrun (10 %) and Underrun (0 %). Each part's inks decide its plates, passes and wash-ups (a spot colour that isn't one of the press's house inks adds a custom-ink charge).
- Printed sheets per form = (runs + makeready) × (1 + spoilage). Makeready comes from the card, else the press's makeready sheets per pass, else 250; spoilage is 3 % unless changed.
- Paper: printed sheets × the stock's price per sheet.
- Press: makeready per pass and per plate, run time, wash-ups, plates and custom inks, from the press's rates.
- Cutting: each form's guillotine program on its printed sheets.
The card shows the chosen plan ("2 forms · 10 plates · 3 passes · 2,180 printed sheets"), the worst overrun, and every plan it found with its price. Click another plan to use it: the price changes at once, nothing is planned again. Best goes back to the cheapest.
The quote shows what each part really gets: "5,000 ordered · 5,012 produced (+0.2 %)". The money covers everything printed.
Rates changed since this plan. A plan is chosen on the paper cost at the time. When the stock's cost changes, the line re-prices at the new cost but keeps its plan, and the card offers Re-plan.
When the stock costs nothing (no cost entered yet), the quote counts sheets instead of money, so a free sheet never leads to a plan that wastes paper.
Settings#
| Setting | Sheets | Offset |
|---|---|---|
| Print on / Press | the digital press or flatbed printer (default: the team's default digital press) | the offset press (default: the team's default offset press) |
| Cut with | Auto, Guillotine, Cutter or None | Auto, Guillotine, Cutter or None |
| Sheet width / height | empty: the stock's sheet size | same |
| Bleed, Gutter | 0.125 in bleed; gutter 0 (neighbours share a cut) | same |
| Spoilage | 2 % | 3 % |
| Setup sheets per form | 0 | — |
| Max forms, Overrun, Underrun, Makeready sheets | — | 3, 10 %, 0 %, the press's (else 250) |
| Ink limit | — | Fit the press, Allow extra passes, Warn only or Off |
| Gang parts | on | on |
Optimize searches longer for a layout with fewer sheets, or a cheaper plan, and keeps the current one when it finds nothing better.
Alternate quantities and compare#
A line's extra quantities ("500, 1,000, 2,500") are priced by laying its group out again with that line at the other quantity and every other line unchanged. They appear a few seconds after you stop typing, and never count in the total.
A sheet or offset line also shows what it would cost alone on the other route: "Offset alone $412 (−18 %) · Switch". The compare uses the team's default press of that route and the same paper in a sheet size that press takes (stocks made from the same preset share a "Paper (same stock in other sizes)" key). When there is no such size yet, the badge offers to add it. Switch moves the line's route and stock together.
Blocked lines and notices#
A line that can't be priced is never shown at $0. Its group card and the line say why, with a fix, and a hand price on the line prices it meanwhile:
| Reason | Fix |
|---|---|
| The stock has no sheet size | give the stock its sheet size |
| A part doesn't fit the sheet (with its bleed, either way round) | use a bigger sheet, or another route |
| No press for the route: "Add a digital press or a flatbed printer" / "Add an offset press" | add one in Equipment (a roll-to-roll printer doesn't print sheets) |
| The sheet doesn't fit the press ("at most 13 × 19.2 in"), or is smaller than it takes ("at least 20 × 26 in") | use another sheet size of the same paper, or another press |
| Too many parts in one group (200; 40 for offset ganging) | turn ganging off, or split the stock |
| No offset plan fits the overrun allowed | allow more overrun or more forms |
Notices don't stop a line from pricing, but say what is missing:
- No guillotine: cutting isn't priced.
- Some equipment has no rates: a press without click costs, or a guillotine, printer or cutter without an hourly rate, prices at $0 until you fill them in. Presses added from a preset come without rates on purpose.
- Too many shaped pieces to gang (see Sheets).
- No cutting table: cutting isn't priced. (boxes on Sheets)
- The stock has no grain: boxes may turn on the sheet. Set the stock's grain to keep every blank the same way.
The "Ready to quote" strip above the parts lists the same reasons for the whole estimate, each once.