4/4 and 4/1 which would be costly?

[bejamshi]

Hi,

I should be asking this from my printers but it is late now and i was itching to know the answer.

Would the cost for printing 4/4 be the same for 4/1

or 4/1 means cmyk on one side and 1 pantone color on the other side?

if it is pantone then I assume it will cost more right?

Thanks

[tZ]

4/1 means 4 times through the press for one side and one for the other.

The cost can vary based on the machine because some offset and web presses can print two sides at once.

4 is just just a number of individual plates. That could be a cmyk mix or 4 spot colors. printing one color is normally cheaper than printing 4. Its best to approximate cost based on the number of times through the press.

Therefore, 4/1 will be cheaper than 4/4 regardless of the spot. 4/1 means at most 5 times through the press and 4/4 is a max of 8. The less times through the press generally the cheaper the job.

[budafist]

4/1 means 4 colours on one side, 1 colour on the other. We don't charge more or less for pantones/cymk. We charge by the plate.

[bejamshi]

you guys are the best, so can a 4/1 be a gang run as well?

[tZ]

Press that runs both sides in one pass.

[Kool]

4/4 can be cheaper than 4/1 depending on how the printer wants to charge it. 4/4 can be run as a work & turn (look it up) which means 4 plates no ink changes, no plate changes, twice through the press. (assuming a standard 4 tower press) 4/1 always requires at least 5 plates and an ink change and twice through the press.

[budafist]

Good point on the work and turn Kool. We often run 4/1 jobs as work and turn if the 1 colour side is CMY or K. That would make it a 4 plate job still and only run once through the press.

We don't tell the client that we've done it work and turn. That's just our gain.

[bejamshi]

good to know

[bejamshi]

spoke to my printers they print both 4/4 or 4/1 the same price.

[MikeHun]

The printer will gang it up with other print runs He won't tell you which sheet size he uses it's his production run unless you specially have a custom sheet run.

[bejamshi]

correct my friend

[doubting_thomas]

Be sure they aren't running your PMS color as CMYK values. What
Kool stated is true, and it's not uncommon to find places running
spot simulations because their press has 4 heads. It takes a fair
amount of time to wash up and change inks, and that time isn't
worth it to some shops.

I say be careful because you could end up with built text that won't
register right (for example), even though you set the file up as 1 PMS color.

[bejamshi]

since they said it is gangrun, then for sure it will be cmyk so I will have all values cmyk and forget pantone.