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What program are you using? Color is definitely going to cost you more than black only

If the client is using the letterhead design in Word, are they printing it out on their laser printer or deskjet? Cost is a relative term.

If you are getting this letterhead printed and the client just types on it, just be sure however it's printed is compatible with the printer the client is using to type. Nothing worse than a wax laser letterhead going through a dry toner printer.

On your technical questions, is the letterhead part of a logo package you are creating?
You can supply the letterhead already set up as a Word file, using header and footer to keep stuff from being moved inadvertantly.

Thanks for the reply.

I imagine they will just print with their local printer. Are you saying because these printers are low-quality, then it really doesn't cost that much extra for color?

I'm a bit confused by the rest of your post... what do you mean if i get it printed and the client just types on it? How would they type on something that's already printed?

I'm just trying to figure out the easiest and common ways to give letterheads to clients. In this case, the client would definitely like to have it setup in Word where she can just choose her letterhead as a template or something and then type the content on it.

Ah, my mistake, I see what you meant. I didn't even think about that; we could just get them mass printed on a quality printer and then she can use them as the paper to print on, so long as there are placeholders in Word to indicate where text should be placed.

That sounds like one option.

The other option would be to make a Word template with an image file and she prints it all from Word on her printer.


What do most people do for letterheads?

Thanks again.

Hi jbardy2, I work at a printing company and we print letterheads. Most companies have their letterhead printed in full colour (CMYK) or spot colours onto paper. They then run these pre-printed letterheads one at a time through a monochrome laser printer. This is the most economical way to use letterheads.

When designing anything for print, make sure you know what bleed and trims are and supply the file correctly. Word is fine for word processing (like writing a letter) but no good for full bleed letterhead design.

I would recommend Indesign or Illustrator for letterhead design. No printer I know would accept a Word document for printing of letterheads.

Does the client have an existing logo that you must use? The logo will probably dictate whether the letterhead is printed in spot colour, black only or full CMYK.

However, if the client does not need more than 500 letterheads, they might find it more economical to print the whole letterhead including their letter as a single pass on their own printer. If you are doing this, you need to first check if their printer is a full bleed printer. If it is not, you must design a letterhead that does not bleed.

You would lay this letterhead up with a header and footer in Word and your client would use it as a template to type their letters into.

That was very informative, thank you.

Let me make sure I am understanding this correctly...

The client can have them printed as desired at a printing company and then use the printed letterheads as the paper for them to print the body text onto using their personal printer.

OR

They can set up the letterhead somehow in Word as an image, and print a single pass with letterhead material and body text. This is good if it's under 500 pages.

Those both make sense to me. My client is just starting the business, so I'm guessing they will be well under the 500.

Say I made a 8.5x11" letterhead in Illustrator. It is CMYK with gradient colors at the top. The logo is all black and white, so we don't have to print in color. My main question is how much cheaper is it to keep the letterhead design in black and white in both of the printing methods mentioned above?

I know it's cheaper to print without color, but the client would really like some color on the letterhead because it helps capture the vibe of the company. What is the average price difference between b&w and color?

Thanks again, this is tremendously helpful. It almost makes me want to find an intern position or a job at a printing company for a while to better understand the printing process to better my designs.

I have many questions about the printing process, but for the organization of this thread I will post them in a different thread.

You should definitely complete an internship before taking on freelance work. There is such a vast amount of knowledge regarding the business of design, and preparing print-ready files that can really only be gained through experience. Truthfully, until you've worked for someone else full-time for at least a couple years, you're not ready to freelance.

Back on the letterhead topic... If you pre-print these offset, you pay per plate (color). Letterhead is typically pretty simple, so 1-2 colors should suffice (remember, you can use tints of each color without adding more plates), but that's not to say there aren't plenty of 4+ color letterheads out there. If they're pre-printed digitally (not sure how likely this would be), 4-color shouldn't cost any more than 1-color. The exception being if it's printed on something like a 6-color Indigo machine which does a better job of simulating spot colors. If you provide a word file, it's only the client's toner that's being used. So of course color costs more, but it's probably negligible.

You might also want to include a second sheet in your design.

I apologize if I rambled, it's 3am and I can't sleep.

If the client is getting the letterheads printed at a pro printing company, then the price difference is simply what they charge for b&w and colour. Which could be quite a lot depending on how they print it. If it's offset, then 2 colour (black and colour) will not be as expensive as 5, 6 or more colours.

If the client is printing it with documents when needed on an office printer, it doesnt matter whether it's black only or colour.

Also remember that if the design is full bleed, you're likely going to have to get them professionally printed at a print shop. MS Word and home office printers generally don't allow full bleed prints.

There might be online printers that post letterhead printing prices up. That should give you an idea of what something like that would cost.

If the client is serious about this, get a quote from a professional printer. But please only do this if you are serious. Printers don't enjoy spending time on tyre kickers. You request too many quotes from one guy and no real jobs, they'll eventually stop returning your calls.

Oh yes, Jeff's mention about a second sheet is a good one. We call them follow on sheets here which is like the letterhead, but a simplified version, usually with just the logo or a partial logo and no contact details. This is to avoid the print taking too much space on subsequent pages. If the client often writes multi-page pieces like contracts or agreements, it is a good idea to have follow on pages.